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March 2010

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Features

Construction around old mosque Kashgar

Wrecking History

A 1,000-year-old city in northwest China, Kashgar was a vital stop on the ancient Silk Road. Why is the government now demolishing its oldest neighborhoods, home to the fiercely, independent Uighur people?

Ardipithecus ramidus life appearance and bones

Our Earliest Ancestors

How did ape-like creatures evolve into members of the human family? Research on fossil remains including 4.4-million-year-old "Ardi," is leading to new insights into our origins

Pho Spice Garden buffet

Ultimate Pho

With more and more Americans sampling Vietnam's savory soup, a noted food critic and an esteemed maestro track down Hanoi's best

Dolley Madison rescue of George Washington portrait

Dolley Madison Saves the Day

In August 1814, with invading British soldiers only a few hours away, the first lady took command of the White House to save the young nation's treasures

Paul Jennings descendants

Witness to History

The first memoir by a White House slave recreates the events of August 23, 1814

whale-bones-Barrow-Alaska-631.jpg

Welcome to Barrow, Alaska, Ground Zero for Climate Change

Scientists converge on the northernmost city in the United States to study global warming's dramatic consequences

Rescued horses

The Mustang Mystique

Descended from animals that escaped the Spanish conquistadors almost 500 years ago, wild horses roam the West. But are they running out of room?

Lockport New York

Going Home Again

The celebrated novelist returns to the upstate New York town where so much of her was formed

Departments

From the Editor

Big Digs

Excavations in Ethiopia and Lockport, New York

Letters to the Editor

Letters

Readers Respond to the January Issue

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Pollinating crickets, the longest migration, puffed up toads and more...

Indelible Images

The Vigil

Shelby Lee Adams' 1990 photograph of Appalachian life captured a poignant tradition

This Month in History

March Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Around the Mall

Sculpting Evolution

A series of statues brings us face to face with our early ancestors

From the Castle

Becoming Us

The Object at Hand

Beyond Bones

A rare cache of hominid fossils offers a window on Neanderthal culture

Q&A

Q and A: Rick Potts

The Smithsonian anthropologist turned heads in scientific circles when he proposed that climate change was the driving force in human evolution

What's Up

What's Up

The Last Page

Leagues of Their Own

From underwater hockey to chess boxing, some hybrid sports aren't yet ready for prime time