CURRENT ISSUE

May 2010

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Features

Prohibition in Detroit

The Man Who Turned Off the Taps

Prohibition touched every American life. It couldn't have happened without Wayne B. Wheeler

Memory hippocampus brain

Making Memories

Does your memory play tricks on you? New research may explain why—and even help some people make peace with their past

Wildebeest migration

Danger Ahead

Africa's wildebeest migration pits a million thundering animals against a gantlet of perils, even—some experts fear—climate change

Scott Bridge Vermont

Road Taken

The state's Route 100 offers an unparalleled access to old New England, from wandering moose to Robert Frost's hideaway cabin

Filoli garden lavender

Garden of a Golden Age

Filoli—a lavish early 20th-century estate that is the last of its kind—harks back when San Francisco's richest families built to dazzle

Beale Street Memphis Tennessee

The Soul of Memphis

Despite setbacks, the Mississippi River city has held onto its rollicking blues joints, smokin' barbeque and welcoming, can-do spirit

Mark Twain and Laura Wright

Mark Twain in Love

A chance encounter on a New Orleans dock in 1858 haunted the writer to his dying day 100 years ago

Departments

From the Editor

Model Moralist

Wayne Wheeler had a mission

Letters

Letters

Readers Respond to the March Issue

Indelible Images

Sum of Her Parts

Frances Benjamin Johnson's self-portraits show a woman who could play contrasting roles

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Running elephants, far-flying mosquitos, ancient crocodiles and more...

Phenomena

Coldblooded Rescue

Researchers are saving the world's most endangered sea turtles by degrees

From the Castle

Antarctica!

Around the Mall

The Sight of Music

3-D Imaging reveals how instrument makers might recreate the sound of a Stradivarius

The Object at Hand

Snail Mail

A letter that took two years to reach its destination evokes the hazards of the Pony Express

Q&A

Q&A: Barron Hall

Root canals on cheetahs, lions and gorillas is just another day at the office for veterinary dentist Barron Hall

What's Up

What's Up

This Month in History

May Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

The Last Page

Will Work for Brain Scans

Your dream job—part-time zombie? candle consultant?—is only a click away