Smithsonian articles from June 2001

Smithsonian archives from June 2001

Smithsonian Science : A note from the secretary.
June 1, 2001... English scientist James Smithson's only mandate for the Institution that would bear his name was the "increase and diffusion of knowledge," and from the Smithsonian's first days, in 1846, that mandate has been interpreted to include scientific...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2001... PANDAS Reading articles such as Leslie Allen's "Return of the Pandas," in the April 2001 issue, always make me think of January 1944. I was a U.S. Air Force radio operator assigned to the airlift operation over the Himalayas between India...

In Good Spirits : LILY DALE, NEW YORK, IS A CURIOUS LITTLE VILLAGE WHERE THE STILL-QUICK COMMUNE WITH THE ONCE-QUICK.
June 1, 2001... I've long wanted to spend some time in a town called Lily Dale, and recently I did. It's an otherworldly community of some 250 more or less permanent residents situated above Cassadaga Lake, 60 miles south of Buffalo, New York. Most true Lily...

Painted Ladies in Space -- HIGH SCHOOLERS ASK: WOULD METAMORPHOSIS ABOARD A SPACE SHUTTLE MISSION YIELD NORMAL BUTTERFLIES?
June 1, 2001... Of all the gravity-defying wings displayed at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, the prettiest were forged by nature in outer space. Tiny when compared with the spread of the pioneering Wright brothers' plane or the globe-circling...

Communing with Ancestors.(African art exhibition)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... A royal stool by the Songo peoples in Malanje Province, Angola, takes the form of a female ancestor supporting an object where a titleholder might sit. Her nude body is shown touching the earth, alluding to the connection between this land and...

Exhibitions and Events.(Smithsonian Institution)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... GEORGE GUSTAV HEYE CENTER, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN [NEW YORK CITY] Seth Eastman Watercolors: A Soldier Artist Among the Dakota (through October 7) Fifty-six watercolor paintings by Eastman, a career Army officer,...

SMITHSONIAN Website.
June 1, 2001... WWW.SMITHSONIANMAG.COM At the magazine's homepage, click on "Events" and go to the calendar to view on-line versions of exhibitions.

PLANNING A SMITHSONIAN VISIT?
June 1, 2001... To receive an associates' planning packet, write to Smithsonian Information, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560, or send an e-mail to: info @info.si.edu, or call 202-357-2700 (voice) or 202-357-1729 (tty), 9 a.m.-5 p.m.,...

The Leaning Tower Straightens Up : IN PISA THE TILTED ONE IS BACK IN BUSINESS AFTER AN 11-YEAR EFFORT TO KEEP IT FROM COLLAPSING.
June 1, 2001... There is not a breath of wind in the soft spring Tuscan air. Why then am I dangerously weaving about like a storm-tossed sailor with a too-short wooden peg leg? Up here on the bell chamber of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, those devilishly clever...

Mapping Galactic Foam : SMITHSONIAN ASTRONOMER MARGARET GELLER PLOTTED THE BUBBLE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE. NOW SHE'S WORKING TO FIND OUT HOW IT GOT THAT WAY.
June 1, 2001... On a wall of her office Margaret Geller has hung a picture of the stickman--her stickman. It is not large, perhaps a foot on each side. As stickmen go, in fact, this one is just average--or mind-bogglingly huge, depending on how you look at it....

Sage Grouse Strut Their Stuff : THE STAR OF ONE OF NATURE'S MOST SPECTACULAR SPRING SHOWS IS LOSING GROUND AND MAY BE HEADED FOR THE FEDERAL ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST.
June 1, 2001... It was dark, the kind of dark that you find these days only in the remoter corners of the West--the high desert of eastern Idaho's Snake River Plain, in this case. Overhead there was a sky crammed to capacity with stars, the inky silhouette of...

Women athletes put on their game face.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... THERE WAS A TIME WHEN THE TERM "FEMALE ATHLETE" was an oxymoron. Muscles and sweat were not feminine, and few parents encouraged their daughters to compete in "unladylike" activities. But as women won more rights, attitudes began to change....

Eternal Egypt.(traveling exhibition of Egyptian art in U.S.)
June 1, 2001... A LANDMARK TRAVELING EXHIBITION FEATURES MASTERWORKS FROM THE BRITISH MUSEUM'S COLLECTION OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART Among the most exquisite examples of Roman painting to have survived from ancient times is a portrait of a stylish young woman...

Across the Russian Wilds.(nature reserves)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Starting at the shore of the deepest lake on earth, in the heart of Siberia, we clamber upward. Picking our way over sharp scree and buttery reindeer moss (right), we pass cowberries beloved by bears, trees shredded by bears and mauled...

CRUISE TO Alaska : VISITING THE 49TH STATE BY SEA MEANS YOU'RE IN FOR SCENIC GRANDEUR AND GRAND HOTEL COMFORT.
June 1, 2001... Hans van Biljouw, the captain of the motor ship Volendam, is as jolly as Santa Claus, but even he goes quiet as the big ship heads toward Snow Passage in darkness and fog. "It's only about two cables wide there," he says quietly as he...

Dr. Franklin's Plan.(Benjamin Franklin)
June 1, 2001... On a Sunday in late October 1776, seventy-year-old Benjamin Franklin sailed for France in the American 16-gun sloop Reprisal to take up his duties as one of his new nation's commissioners to the Court of Versailles. He did so in the certain...

River Run Cookbook: Southern Comfort from Vermont.(Review)
June 1, 2001... River Run Cookbook: Southern Comfort from Vermont by Jimmy and Maya Kennedy and Marialisa Calta Foreword by David Mamet; Afterword by Howard Norman HarperCollins, $35 The title to the contrary, River Run is, as it turns out, a...

Additional Sources.
June 1, 2001... Leaning Tower of Pisa [p. 40] The Tower of Pisa official Website: http://torre.duomo.pisa.it/ The Tower of Pisa unofficial Website: www.endex.com/gf/buildings/ltpisa/ tpisa.html Mapping Galaxies [p. 48] Harvard-Smithsonian...

No Place Like Home.(travel writing)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... I write guidebooks for a living. Mostly it's a great job. But an unusual occupational hazard revealed itself to me recently when I rolled into my driveway after several weeks on the road and instinctively reached for my notebook. This is what I...