CURRENT ISSUE
October 2009
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Features
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Prescription for Murder
In Southeast Asia, phony anti-malaria pills are linked to thousands of deaths. Now an elite team of scientists wielding cutting-edge forensic tools has put some counterfeiters behind bars
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Trekking Hadrian's Wall
The second-century Roman fortification stretched across Britain. A hike along its remains leads to spectacular crags, idyllic villages, windswept marshes, local brews—and a renewed appreciation of Rome at the height of its power
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Teaching Cops to See
Amy Herman uses art to sharpen police officers' observation skills
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Return of the Sandpiper
Years of alarming decline have finally halted for a shorebird that undertakes one of the world's longest migrations. The key? Horseshoe crabs
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Day of Reckoning
One hundred fifty years ago, abolitionist John Brown's raid on a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry propelled the nation closer to civil war
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Looking for Leonardo
For centuries an altar panel in Florence, Italy, has been attributed to Andrea del Verrocchio. But are two of its figures actually by his student Leonardo da Vinci?
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Out of This World
In the past decade, extraordinary space missions have charted flares on the Sun, detected magnetic storms on Mercury and found volcanoes on Saturn's moons
Departments
Double Play
Baseball's Tinker, Evers and Chance were celebrated in verse—as well as in Paul Thompson's portraits
Paper Trail
In Guatemala, a chance discovery of police archives may reveal the fate of tens of thousands of people who disappeared in that country's civil war
A World Too New
The European discovery of America opened possibilities for those with eyes to see. But Columbus was not one of them
Wild Things: Life as We Know It
Toucans, Orchids, Monkeys and more
Trailblazers
Xiangmei Gu once labored on a farm near Shanghai, Today, she is the Smithsonian's first and only conservator of Chinese paintings
Q and A: Mark Newport
Costume designer Mark Newport talks about knitting outfits for superheroes, both famous (Batman) and unknown (Sweaterman)