CURRENT ISSUE

January 2002

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Features

Hero for Our Time

Challenged to prove his germ theory of disease, Louis Pasteur shaped the terrain on which the battle against anthrax is being fought

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Marco Polo's Guide to Afghanistan

Two Americans retrace the steps of the 13th-century Italian merchant through a harsh land of tough, hospitable people

Just Folk

From samplers to sugar bowls, weathervanes to whistles, an engaging exhibition heralds the opening of the American Folk Art Museum's new home in Manhattan

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Tiger Tracks

Revisiting his old haunts in Nepal, the author looks for tigers and finds a clever new strategy for saving them

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What's for Dinner?

Master of Middle Earth

When J.R.R. Tolkien finally completed his Lord of the Rings trilogy in 1949, the Oxford don scarcely imagined his fantasy epic would entrance readers

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Silk Robes and Cell Phones

Three decades after Frances FitzGerald won a Pulitzer Prize for Fire in the Lake, her classic work on Vietnam, she returned with photojournalist Mary Cross

Departments

From the Editor

Behind the Lines: Close Calls

Danger comes with the territory for our writers

From the Secretary

Sharing the Wealth

Phenomena & Curiosities

Dragonfly Dramas

Desert Whitetails and Flame Skimmers cavort in the sinkholes of New Mexico's Bitter Lake Refuge

Just Looking

Tumbleweeds are on a roll in Idaho

Around the Mall

Martin as Muse

Presence of Mind

Prince of Tides

Before "ecology" became a buzzword, John Steinbeck preached that man is related to the whole thing

People File

Harp Hero

Endangered instruments tug one musician's heartstrings

Taking Issue

Too Much?

Why does Smithsonian feel the need to be so topical?

The Last Page

Of Mies and Mice