CURRENT ISSUE

January 2008

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Features

American Mine Nevada 1

Danger Zones

Warning: David Maisel's aerial landscapes may be hazardous to your assumptions

biologist Laurie Santos (with a research subject on Cayo Santiago)

Thinking Like a Monkey

What do our primate cousins know and when do they know it? Researcher Laurie Santos is trying to read their minds

Van Gogh painted this portrait of himself

Letters from Vincent

Never-before-exhibited correspondence from van Gogh to a protégé displays a thoughtful exacting side of the artist

lostfortcolumbus_main_631.jpg

The Lost Fort of Columbus

On his voyage to the Americas in 1492, the explorer built a small fort somewhere in the Caribbean. A construction contractor from Washington State has spent decades trying to find it

The real thrill of Pompeii is that the most mundane aspects of ancient Roman life have been preserved for centuries beneath fine-grained volcanic ash.

The Smithsonian Life List

We've traveled the globe and compiled a "life list" of places to visit before taking the ultimate trip to the great beyond

Departments

Indelible Images

Big News

In matters of sheer magnitude, Robert Howlett got the picture

Phenomena

The Coldest Place in the Universe

Physicists in Massachusetts come to grips with the lowest possible temperature: absolute zero

My Kind of Town

Among the Spires

Between medieval and modern, Oxford seeks equilibrium

Presence of Mind

Sound and Fury

Norman Mailer's anger and towering ego propelled-and undermined-his prodigious output

From the Editor

Pulled by Bears

In 1908, anything was possible

Letters to the Editor

Letters

Readers Respond to the November Issue

Wild Things

Wild Things

Life as We Know It

This Month in History

January Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

From the Castle

From the Castle

Aero Dynamic

Around the Mall

Rasta Revealed

A reclamation of African identity evolved into a worldwide cultural, religious and political movement

Around the Mall

Making History

Giving Back

The Object at Hand

Explorer I Satellite

In 1958, Explorer 1 launched America's response to the USSR's Sputnik

Q&A

Norman Foster

Architect norman foster designed the glass canopy at the Smithsonian's Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. He spoke with Jess Blumberg.

Around the Mall

Jukebox

Seeger Singalong

What's Up

What's Up