Articles

A Daily Food Guide. This graphic illustrates the four food group system that preceded the food pyramid model.

USDA Demolishing the Food Pyramid

USDA began offering nutritional advice in 1894. We had 12 food groups in the 1930s, seven in the 1940s, four in the 1950s, then a pyramid and now a plate

This aerial photograph shows 68 whale sharks feeding (and four snorkelers swimming) at the Afuera in August 2009.

How Do You Feed A Whale Shark?

Whale sharks gather off of the Yucatán Peninsula every summer for one big feeding frenzy

Tracks made by a medium-sized theropod on a slab of rock just outside of Moab, Utah.

Dinosaur Diamond: Moab’s Potash Road

The area is piled high with sedimentary rock from the heyday of the dinosaurs. At a few spots, it's easy to see the animals' tracks

A bar-headed goose flies over India

The Goose That Flies Over the Himalayas

The bar-headed goose spends its winters at sea level in India and its summers in central Asia

Engineer Tad McGeer, at his company's headquarters near Bingen, Washington, played a key role in getting the civilian drone industry off the ground.

Drones are Ready for Takeoff

Will unmanned aerial vehicles—drones—soon take civilian passengers on pilotless flights?

Weighing up to several tons, whale sharks are also notable for their markings. Each pattern of spots is unique and scientists identify individual fish using computer programs first developed to study star constellations.

Swimming With Whale Sharks

Wildlife researchers and tourists are heading to a tiny Mexican village to learn about the mystery of the largest fish in the sea

Chimpanzee Yawning

Wild Things: Yawning Chimps, Humpback Whales and More...

Leaping beetles, Pacific salmon, prehistoric mammals and other news updates in wildlife research

Peace Corps volunteer Laura Kutner rallied the community to stuff plastic bottles with trash. In all, the Guatemalan students turned 8,000 bottles into building materials.

How to Turn 8,000 Plastic Bottles Into a Building

Peace Corps volunteer Laura Kutner demonstrates how she turned trash into the building blocks for one community's revival

A new Folkways album is one of many offerings for the war sesquicentennial.

Civil Discourse

The Peacock Room, named for the birds James McNeill Whistler painted on its shutters and walls, reflects the tension between the artist and his first significant patron.

Freer|Sackler: Reopens

The Story Behind the Peacock Room's Princess

How a portrait sparked a battle between an artist–James McNeill Whistler—and his patron–Frederick R. Leyland

Eddie Van Halen recently donated his custom-made guitar named Frankenstein 2 to the National Museum of American History.

Q and A with Eddie Van Halen

The rock guitarist talks about his custom-made Frankenstein 2 that is now in the collections of the American History museum

Hu Jiusi's Orchid and Fungus-of-Immortality by a Torrent, 1838 and other works by Chinese painters at the Sackler Gallery until July 17.

What's Up

"Drippings are the real secret to the unique flavor of grilled food," Nathan Myhrvold insists. His passion for cross-section photographs led to many a flameout.

Food Like You've Never Seen Before

Molecular gastronomist Nathan Myhrvold creates culinary oddities and explores food science in his groundbreaking new anthology

Barbara Morgan's portrait of Martha Graham may be the most famous photo ever taken of an American dancer.

An Unforgettable Photo of Martha Graham

Barbara Morgan's portrait of the iconic dancer helped move modern dance to center stage

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Letters

Readers Respond to the April Issue

A dozen roses from a suitor may be flattering, but they can't compare to the tacit admission that we are in the same league.

The Newlywed Games

"You compete me"

The Voodoo Museum "is an entry point for people who are curious, who want to see what's behind this stuff," says anthropologist Martha Ward.

The New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum

Wooden masks, portraits and the occasional human skull mark the collections of this small museum near the French Quarter

Visitors to the missile museum may touch a Titan II, which stands 103 feet tall.

Titan Missile Museum

In Sahuarita, Arizona, in the midst of a retirement community, tourists can touch a Titan II missile, still on its launch pad

The surf is always up at this "way cool" California museum, which celebrates the sport and its legends.

The California Surf Museum

Learn about the evolution of the surfboard from 1912 through 2008 in this small gallery in Oceanside, California

Quack medicine? Inhaling the breath of a duck, according to the exhibit, was once used to cure children of thrush and other disorders of the mouth and throat.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology

A throwback to the private museums of earlier centuries, this Los Angeles spot has a true hodgepodge of natural history artifacts

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