CURRENT ISSUE
June 2015
Features
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/9a/91/9a915e4d-0f04-4070-a23a-14acbf3351ed/jun2015_g01_pluto.jpg)
Plutonic Love
For almost half his life, Alan Stern has been crazy about a cold and distant world. Now, they're finally going to meet
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/89/bc/89bc1741-8f44-4a7a-8ce8-2a307be134fb/jun2015_e09_lions_1.jpg)
Animal Magnetism
He's famous for getting dangerously close to his fearsome charges at his private wildlife sanctuary in South Africa. But what can the self-taught "lion whisperer" teach us about ethical conservation—and ourselves?
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/d1/da/d1da393f-63ac-4dca-a833-6869e8f11918/jun2015_l03_seismologists.jpg)
Aftershock
The criminal conviction of Italian geologists for failing to predict a temblor has been overturned, but the shaky science of earthquake prediction is still on trial
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/8f/7e/8f7ed7db-786d-4750-b2cb-494892b530a3/jun2015_h06_colorado.jpg)
Gilded Colorado
When city slickers went looking for wild times in Rock Mountain National Park a century ago, they invented a new kind of American vacation
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/0d/ae/0dae914d-7b47-447b-bfdb-77ae93db34b9/jun2015_b01_nationaltreausre.jpg)
Rocketeers
The space-age jet pack still takes our imaginations on a wild ride
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/0a/91/0a91faa8-b38a-4f74-b9a3-4efff566f212/jun2015_k10_kurds.jpg)
Dream State
The Kurds of Iraq, America's most important allies in the battle against ISIS, are closer than ever to fulfilling their hope of founding a new nation
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/37/f7/37f76041-e0f6-4087-8388-ec211c26a9fb/jun2015_j04_waterloo.jpg)
Napoleon's Last Charge
On the bicentennial of the most famous battle in world history, a distinguished historian argues that Waterloo never should have been fought
Departments
The Big Picture
The government of Dubai is taking this abstract structure to the next level