Smithsonian articles from January 2010

Smithsonian archives from January 2010

Meat and Potatoes: Of Carnivores and Herbivores
January 1, 2010... For HER FIRST encounter with lions in the wild, staff writer Abigail Tucker flew to Tanzania and hung out in the Serengeti with Craig Packer, the world's foremost expert on Panthera leo. "I really couldn't process how beautiful the animal was,"...

The great wide open.(LETTERS)
January 1, 2010... Pico Iyer's "The Great Wide Open" took me back to the time I once spent in Alaska and made me recall the quality of the air--so clean and fresh you could almost bite it. GEORGE OLSEN, FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA

Out of fashion.(LETTERS)
January 1, 2010... I WAS STARTING to enjoy "The Great Wide Open" until I turned the page and saw an image of a woman wearing a lynx fur hat. I had always believed that cherishing Nature's beauty also meant loving the wildlife that is an integral part of it. ...

Bad timing.(LETTERS)
January 1, 2010... ON VETERANS DAY I sat down to read "The Battle of Arlington." I felt it expressed more sympathy for the struggle of Gen. Robert E. Lee's family to hold onto the Arlington property than for what the property has come to symbolize. It seemed a...

Corrections.(LETTERS)(Correction notice)
January 1, 2010... Corrections: In the Alaska story, the author suggests he flew above 20,300-foot-high Denali in an open-door plane. He did not fly that high. The story also states that the Aleutian Islands cross the International Date Line; they cross the...

Nature's waterproofing.(WILD THINGS)(water repel of lotuses)(Brief article)
January 1, 2010... Water beads and rolls off lotus leaves so nicely the phenomenon is called the lotus effect. Duke University scientists failed to get a leaf to repel water condensation in the lab--until they put it on a loudspeaker. The vibrations caused...

Dinosaur species vanish!(WILD THINGS)(dinosaur life stages)(Brief article)
January 1, 2010... The dinosaurs above have been considered three species (from left: Dracorex hogwartsia, Stygimoloch spinifer and Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis). But a new analysis of fossil skulls led by the University of Montana suggests they're different...

Observed.(WILD THINGS)(Australian redback spider)(Brief article)
January 1, 2010... NAME: The Australian redback spider (Latrodectus hasselti), a cousin of the black widow. BRAVE HEART: To mate, a male spider, which is much smaller (above: atop a red-bodied female), must vibrate the strings of a female's web. If he...

Travel advisory.(WILD THINGS)(bird breeding of migratory birds)(Brief article)
January 1, 2010... At least five species of birds that breed in North America in spring or summer (a yellow-billed cuckoo) breed again, in Mexico, en route to their southern wintering grounds, say University of Washington-led researchers. Such "migratory double...

Planning for extreme weather.(WILD THINGS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2010... Sea stars stranded at low tide can be exposed to brutal sunlight for hours. How do they beat the heat? Pisaster ochraceus regulates its body temperature by sucking up water during high tide, say scientists led by the University of South...

Finding Phineas: an accident with a tamping iron made Phineas Gage one of the most famous names in neuroscience. Now there's a face to go with it.(INDELIBLE IMAGES)
January 1, 2010... JACK AND BEVERLY WILGUS, collectors of vintage photographs, no longer recall how they came by the 19th-century daguerreotype of a disfigured yet still-handsome man. It was at least 30 years ago. The photograph offered no clues as to where or...

This Month in History: January Anniversaries Momentous or Merely Memorable
January 1, 2010... 60 YEARS AGO CHOCOLATE POCKET Raytheon engineer Percy Spencer patents the microwave oven, January 24,1950. The idea came to him when working with magnetron tubes for use in radar; he discovered they melted the chocolate in his pocket, then...

Your kind of town.(Dayton, Ohio)(Brief article)
January 1, 2010... I HAVE LIVED IN SEVERAL COMMUNITIES in the United States but have never encountered the hometown feeling of Oakwood, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. The feeling of community and the beauty of the homes are unmatched. Oakwood was also the home of...

Discovering life.(Brief article)
January 1, 2010... It's encouraging to learn there are still places on this planet of ours that house such mysteries. Makes life exciting and is humbling to know we don't have all the answers. --Roger Thrush, on "Evolution in the Deepest River in the World."...

Editors' pick.(PHOTO CONTEST)(Photograph)
January 1, 2010... "On a walk I came across some very large hosta plants and photographed them. I returned many times. When fall was approaching, I thought they would offer unique possibilities." --Russ Martin, New York State, on his 2006 photograph

Yeasty debate.(Brief article)
January 1, 2010... The thought of Vegemite is too horrible to contemplate. Vegemite is too sweet and pasty. Marmite is like drowning your taste buds in the La Brea Tar Pits, leaving them to an eternity or at least several minutes of tangy and savory dreams. ...

House calls and tree house: a community in the Allegheny foothills was "the perfect birthplace for a writer".(MY KIND OF TOWN)(Buckhannon, West Virginia)(Essay)
January 1, 2010... GREW UP IN THE DENSE, verdant Appalachia of the '50s and '60s. For me, "hometown" refers to a small town, home to generations of family, a place whose history is interspersed with family stories and myths. Buckhannon was a town of '6,500 or so...

What to collect?(FROM THE CASTLE)
January 1, 2010... AFTER THE 9/11 ATTACKS, 20 Tibetan Buddhist monks came to the Smithsonian to help America heal. By making a sand mandala. For days they created colorful lines and intricate patterns by putting down sand--a few grains at a time, in many bright...

Riding in comfort: NASA'S next generation lunar Rover is a "home on wheels".(Lunar Electric Rover )
January 1, 2010... BRENT GARRY PEERS DOWN from a National Air and Space Museum walkway at the Apollo lunar module, the astronauts' home on missions to the moon in the late '60s and early '70s. Inside, the crew would suit up--a process that took about two hours--to...

Pattern recognition: a tribal craft gains a new audience.(THE OBJECT AT HAND)(Native American quilts)
January 1, 2010... American Indians have long been recognized for their superb artistry and craftsmanship, creating woven rugs and blankets, beadwork, basketry, pottery, ceremonial clothing and headdresses prized by collectors. But the Smithsonian National Museum...

Q&A.(Martin Schoeller)(Interview)
January 1, 2010... Photograper MARTIN SCHOELLER's signature style is large, close-up portraits. He has photographed hundreds of celebrities and politicians, including Brad Pitt and Sarah Plain. Schoeller's work was recently on display at the National Portrait...

What's up.(Around the Mall)(exhibits)(Brief article)(Calendar)
January 1, 2010... A LITTLE BIT OFF THE TOP Artist Yinka Shonibare specializes in headless sculptures. His Headless Man Trying to Drink (2005) alludes to the growing shortage of potable water worldwide. Come face to face with more of Shonibare's wonders at...

The Truth about Lions: What Drives the World's Fiercest, Most Dominant Wild Animal? American Biologist Craig Packer Has Spent Three Decades in Africa Finding Out
January 1, 2010... Craig Packer was behind the Wheel when we came across the massive cat slumped in the shade beneath a spiny tree. It was a dark-maned male, elaborately sprawled, as if it had fallen from a great height. Its sides heaved with shallow pants....

Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? Research at the ancient West Bank site of Qumran may help resolve the debate about the origins of the seminal religious documents and reshape our understanding of Judaism and Christianity.
January 1, 2010... ISRAELI ARCHAEOLOGIST YUVAL PELEG HALTS HIS JEEP WHERE THE JAGGED Judean hills peter out into a jumble of boulders. Before us, across the flat-calm Dead Sea, the sun rises over the mountains of Jordan. The heat on this spring morning is already...

Myths of the American Revolution: was George Washington a brilliant strategist? Did American patriots rush to take up arms? Could Great Britain have won the war? A noted historian debunks the conventional wisdom.
January 1, 2010... WE THINK WE KNOW THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. After all, the American Revolution and the war that accompanied it not only determined the nation we would become but also continue to define who we are. The Declaration of Independence, the Midnight Ride,...

Sherlock Holmes' London: as the detective stalks movie theaters, our reporter tracks down the favorite haunts of Arthur Conan Doyle and his ingenious creation.
January 1, 2010... One summer evening in 1889, a young medical school graduate named Arthur Conan Doyle arrived by train at London's Victoria Station and took a hansom cab two and a half miles north to the famed Langham Hotel on Upper Regent Street. Then living in...

Painted dreams: rare artworks from an unsurpassed collection evoke the inner lives and secret rites of Australia's indigenous people.('Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa')
January 1, 2010... An art movement's origins usually can't be pinpointed, but boldly patterned Aboriginal acrylic painting first appeared at a specific time and place. In July 1971, an art teacher named Geoffrey Bardon distributed some brushes, paints and other...

Wurst case scenario: as Germans turn to American-style supermarkets, the local butcher--a fixture in their sausage-happy culture--is packing it in.
January 1, 2010... When it comes to animal protein, the German language is lacking in euphemism. Meat is "flesh," hamburger is "hacked flesh," pork is "pig flesh" and uncured bacon is "belly flesh," as in, "Could you please pass me another slice of flesh from the...

Proper manors: residents, please recycle your parchment.(THE LAST PAGE)
January 1, 2010... Ah, the homeowners association, which dictates everything from the shape of your shrubs to the color of your house. Such meticulously planned communities are generally thought to be a modern phenomenon, but a recent archaeological excavation...