Abigail Tucker

A frequent contributor to Smithsonian, Abigail Tucker is the author of The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World and Mom Genes: Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct. More information is available at her website: abigailtucker.com

At home and abroad, vampire scares usually began when a person died and others in the vicinity began dying, too, usually of the same sickness.

Meet the Real-Life Vampires of New England and Abroad

The legend of the blood suckers, and the violence heaped upon their corpses, came out of ignorance of contagious disease

None

How Can a Jellyfish This Slow Be So Deadly? It's Invisible

One of the world's most devastating predators is brainless, slow and voracious

From The Smithsonian Collections: Plastic Flamingos, c. 1980

The Tacky History of the Pink Flamingo

From its start in Massachusetts, of all places, to its inspiration of a John Waters film, the lawn ornament has some staying power

Choking may be most painful in sports, where athletes bungle moves they've spent a lifetime perfecting.

The Science of Choking Under Pressure

With amateurs and pros clamoring for answers, a psychologist who studies screw-ups comes through in the clutch

The lifestyles of the modern-day prospectors are not so far removed from that of the forty-niners.

There's a New Breed of Forty-Niners Rushing to the Pacific

Lured by the soaring price of the precious metal, prospectors are heading for the California hills like it's 1849 all over again

Woody Guthrie, shown here in the 1940s, created great lines in songs and drawings.

Happy 100th Birthday, Woody Guthrie!

New songs by the American folk legend keep turning up, a century after his birth

Bathynomus

The Sea Monster Bathynomus

The hulking crustacean has razor-sharp mandibles and eyes that catch the light like a cat's. Now it has turned into a high-tech saboteur

Vince Rossi wields a laser to document a whale fossil in Chile.

How Two Laser Cowboys Saved The Day

Paleontologist Nick Pyenson was in a race against a construction crew to salvage a bed of whale fossils, so he called upon 3-D technologists for help

A 72 hour survival test of a typical family in a bomb shelter, circa 1955.

The New Hot Item on the Housing Market: Bomb Shelters

The cold war may be over, but sales of a new breed of bomb shelter are on the rise. Prepare to survive Armageddon in style

The transformation of a homeless America.

Inside the Plan to Get 100,000 Homeless Off the Streets

A new campaign has enjoyed stunning success in lowering the number of chronically homeless in the United States

None

Help the Homeless? There's an App for That

Two doctors in Boston may have found a way to identify which homeless people are most in need of urgent medical care

On May 6, 1937, the hydrogen-filled zeppelin burst into flames, shown here in a colorized photo, above a New Jersey field, killing 35 of 97 riders.

Found: Letters from the Hindenburg

A new addition to the Smithsonian collections tells a new story about the legendary disaster

The species could self-destruct because of its biting behavior.

What is Killing the Tasmanian Devil?

The island’s most famous inhabitant is under attack by a diabolical disease

None

How to Become the Engineers of Our Own Evolution

The "transhumanist" movement says better technology will enable you to replace more and more body parts—even your brain

Upon the release of the Bangle-era BMW Z4 Coupe in 2006, Business Week observed that it seems to be moving "even when standing still."

How Futurist Art Inspired the Design of a BMW

The Italian art movement that celebrated modernity still moves us 100 years later

None

Who Would Live on Wall Street?

In the wake of the financial crisis, New York's financial district is getting something new: full-time residents

Aitken’s plans for the museum (an artist’s rendering) include music, too.

Turning the Hirshhorn Into the Ultimate Movie Screen

Artist Doug Aitken’s “SONG1” will transform the Smithsonian art museum, projecting a series of fantastic moving images onto its concrete exterior

Almost a whole page of the Dictionary of American Regional English is dedicated to "wampus," a Southern term for a variety of real creatures, such as a wild horse, and imagined ones, such as swamp wampuses and whistling wampuses.

Words from the Dictionary of American Regional English

After half a century of studying jib-jabbing, linguists have just finished the nation's most ambitious dictionary of regional dialects

In Mass Effect 2, human colonies in space mysteriously vanish.

The Art of Video Games

For decades, video games have enthralled and inspired, and now they are the subject of a new exhibit that views them as serious works of art

Whales evolved from mammals that adapted to hunt in oceans. Skeletons of Basilosaurus, a whale ancestor, reveal the leviathan still retained tiny hind legs.

Evolution World Tour: Wadi Hitan, Egypt

In Egypt's Western Desert, evidence abounds that before they were the kings of the ocean, whales roamed the earth on four legs

Page 3 of 6