Smithsonian articles from December 2007

Smithsonian archives from December 2007

Keeping cool: ... in Cretaceous Australia and melting-pot Marseille.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
December 1, 2007... MITCH LESLIE, who writes about cell biology and immunology for Science magazine, admits that before he got the assignment to report our dinosaur story ("The Strange Lives of Polar Dinosaurs," p. 68) he didn't know that the animals once lived in...

Gore Vidal evokes a now-lost moment when America was "aglitter in all of the arts" ("Salad Days").(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2007... READERS RESPOND TO THE OCTOBER ISSUE Gore Vidal evokes a now-lost moment when America was "aglitter in all of the arts" ("Salad Days"). But few in post-World War II America were voicing Vidal's sentiment. More apt was Cyril Connolly's 1949...

Golden days for whom?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2007... GORE VIDAL waxes nostalgic about Karl Bissinger's black-and-white photograph of himself and four friends dining at leisure in a quaint little garden outside Manhattan's Cafe Nicholson in 1949. "It perfectly evokes," he reminisces, "an...

Natural scientist.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2007... I NOTICED with great delight that Kathleen Anderson was featured in "Teaming up with Thoreau." Please note, however, that Anderson is not an "amateur" naturalist, as stated in the article. She is a naturalist of great distinction. In fact, she...

Dancing Cats.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2007... IT IS IRONIC that Michael Walsh, the author of "The Curiosity of Cats," about Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit Broadway musical, never once mentioned the name of the show's choreographer, Gillian Lynne, despite referring to it as a "dance musical"...

Kettering's logic.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2007... ADD TO Richard Conniff's laws of social behavior ("The Last Page") one attributed to the inventor C. F. Kettering, which has kept me out of trouble many times: "Logic is an organized procedure for going wrong with confidence and certainty." ...

Correction.(Correction notice)
December 1, 2007... AN ITEM IN "This Month in History" said the USS Constitution was launched 310 years ago. "Old Ironsides" is actually 210 years old. Another item misstated the date of Chief Joseph's death. The Nez Perce chief died September 21, 1904.

Telling time.(LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(full moon causes the corals of Great Barrier Reef to spawn all at once)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... Once a year, corals in the Great Barrier Reef spawn all at once, triggered by the full moon. How do they know it's time? Researchers from Australia and elsewhere now say the coral is guided by a protein that's sensitive to the moon's faint blue...

Delivery room.(LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(why pregnant moose at Grand Teton National Park stay near road)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... With 310,000 acres to roam, moose in Grand Teton National Park could easily avoid roads. But Joel Berger of the Wildlife Conservation Society found that pregnant female moose stay near roads during calving season at the end of May. At least,...

Cycad sex is hot.(LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(how Australian cycads pollinate)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... At midday, University of Utah scientists have found, male cones of Australia's Macrozamia lucida cycad heat up by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit and emit toxic chemicals. That causes cone-eating bugs called thrips, which happen to be covered...

On a roll.(LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(how does a turtle turn upside down)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... Hungarian mathematicians who study the theory of how objects balance turned their attention to a real-world question: How does an upside-down turtle right itself? They found that a turtle with a tall shell simply waggles its head and feet to...

Observed.(LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(saber-toothed cat)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... NAME: Smilodon fatalis, a saber-toothed cat that stalked North and South America until about 10,000 years ago. BIG KITTY: About 350 to 600 pounds, maybe 4 feet in height, with canine teeth 7 inches long. BAD KITTY: Bad enough to kill...

Married, with camera: portraitist Emmet Gowin's most enduring subject is his wife.(INDELIBLE IMAGES)
December 1, 2007... HE WASN'T LIKE the other Danville boys, Edith recalls. He looked sharp that night in 1961, clad entirely in black for the dance at the Y; later, she learned that he listened to jazz and classical music. Emmet Gowin wanted to be an artist but...

December anniversaries: momentous or merely memorable.(THIS MONTH IN HISTORY)
December 1, 2007... 120 YEARS AGO CASE STUDY Arthur Conan Doyle publishes his first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, in 1887's Beeton's Christmas Annual. The detective hero of 60 Doyle works, Holmes--who never uttered the phrase "Elementary, my dear...

Co-evolution.(FROM THE CASTLE)(symbiotic relationship between flowering plants and pollinating animals)
December 1, 2007... THE MADAGASCAR STAR ORCHID produces nectar at the bottom part of its slim, foot-long throat. After observing a specimen, Charles Darwin predicted the existence of a moth with a proboscis long enough to reach that nectar. Sure enough, decades...

Up in smoke? Amazon research that has withstood thieves and arsonists now faces its greatest challenge.(SCENES AND SIGHTINGS FROM THE SMITHSONIAN MUSEUMS AND BEYOND)(Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project and National Institute for Amazonian Research are in danger of closing down)
December 1, 2007... IN BRAZIL, the Amazon rain forest extends across 1.3 million square miles--and yet patches of land measuring just 386 square miles might be the best hope for ensuring the survival of the vast ecosystem, one of the world's largest and most...

Jukebox.(SCENES AND SIGHTINGS FROM THE SMITHSONIAN MUSEUMS AND BEYOND)(marimba)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... HITTING THE RIGHT NOTES The marimba, a type of xylophone with wooden bars arranged like piano keys, is believed to have been first brought to Latin America by African slaves. Marimba Chapinlandia, a band based in Guatemala City, uses an...

Growth industry: for 26 years, marketing whiz Joe Pedott's green-pelted figures have been holiday-season hits.(THE OBJECT AT HAND)(Chia Pets)
December 1, 2007... BECAUSE MANY A potential pet owner, it seems, has no interest in early morning walks, cage cleaning, litter boxes or veterinary bills, the world's inventors and entrepreneurs constantly conjure creatures that ask next to nothing of their...

Q & A.(SCENES AND SIGHTINGS FROM THE SMITHSONIAN MUSEUMS AND BEYOND)(Interview)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... The artist JENNY HOLZER created For SAAM, a column of light and text, for the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). She spoke with Jess Blumberg. YOU'VE PROJECTED TEXT ONTO ROME'S SPANISH STEPS, THE REICHSTAG AND A BEACH IN RIO DE...

Making history.(SCENES AND SIGHTINGS FROM THE SMITHSONIAN MUSEUMS AND BEYOND)(William Taylor White)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... FAMILY REUNION Until a few months ago, he was just "the boy in the iron coffin." After construction workers unearthed his remains in Washington, D.C. while digging a gas line in 2005, the task of identifying him fell to a team led by Doug...

What's up.(SCENES AND SIGHTINGS FROM THE SMITHSONIAN MUSEUMS AND BEYOND)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... CANDID CAMELOT Richard Avedon photographed the Kennedys in Palm Beach in 1961. More than 75 unpublished images he donated to the American History Museum (Caroline, 3, and Jack) are in the new book The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family. DOUBLE...

Keepers of the lost ark? Tradition holds that the ark of the covenant--containing the Ten Commandments--vanished in the sixth century B.C. Christians in Ethiopia have long claimed to have it. Our reporter went there to investigate.(Travel narrative)
December 1, 2007... "They shall make an ark of acacia wood," God commanded Moses in the Book of Exodus, after delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. And so the Israelites built an ark, or chest, gilding it inside and out. And into this chest Moses placed...

Miami splash: each December, tens of thousands of dealers, collectors and enthusiasts gather for Art Basel Miami Beach, the giant fair that's fueling the city's explosive arts scene.
December 1, 2007... MIAMI HAS HAD ITS MOMENTS. In the 1980s it was "Miami Vice"--remember Don Johnson's five o'clock shadow and T-shirt-cum-blazer? In the 1990s it was South Beach, when seedy old Art Deco hotels blossomed into glamour destinations, luxury condos...

The strange lives of polar dinosaurs: how did they endure months of perpetual cold and dark?
December 1, 2007... ON A BALMY SUNDAY MORNING in early March, I'm on a beach in southern Australia looking for ice--or at least traces of it. It's summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and most of the beachgoers sloshing through the rising tide or walking their dogs...

Revolutionary real estate: statesmen, soldiers and spies who made America--and the way they lived.(Founding Fathers of the United States)(Excerpt)
December 1, 2007... AMERICA'S FOUNDING FATHERS shaped one of history's most dramatic stories, transforming 13 obscure colonies into an emerging nation whose political principles would change the world. But to see them in the household settings they shared with...

Marseille's ethnic bouillabaisse: Europe's most diverse city stayed calm when riots rocked France two years ago. Now, as the old port sheds its seedy image, some view it as a laboratory of the continent's future.(City overview)
December 1, 2007... ONE MORNING in early November 2005, Kader Tighilt turned on the radio as he drove to work. The news reported that 14 cars had burned overnight in Marseille's northern suburbs. "They've done it," Tighilt said out loud. "The bastards!" It seemed...

At home. For now: the acclaimed novelist probes our yearning for a fixed address.(MY KIND OF TOWN)
December 1, 2007... I DON'T THINK about home very much. I mean, the concept of home--the direction finder we're all supposedly equipped with, that leads us onward (or back) to the place we belong, where we'll be... what? Happy? At peace? At rest? Permanent? I'm...

Blame the rich: they made us who we are, some researchers now say.(PRESENCE OF MIND)
December 1, 2007... ON A BEAUTIFUL summer day in 1899, the fabulously wealthy Alva Vanderbilt Belmont sponsored a "motor carriage" parade on the lawn of her "cottage" in Newport, Rhode Island. The festivities included an obstacle course of dummy policemen,...

Domestic bliss: the Kama Sutra of housework.(THE LAST PAGE)
December 1, 2007... Men are beginning to understand that doing house work... unprompted goes a long way to creating marital happiness.... Intimacy is not just for the bedroom, in other words. Foreplay can begin with a dish towel. --The Toronto Globe and Mail...