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What Was the Biggest Dinosaur? Fragmentary Fossils Make It Hard to Tell Pinning down the most titanic of the large sauropod dinosaurs is not an easy task, since the odds were generally against the biggest ones being buried and preserved… via Smithsonian Magazine
Georgia O’Keeffe Ignored Advice to Mimic Great European Masters. Her Goal Instead Was to Be a Great American Painter The genius of her work was in painting things as she saw them through her own eyes. So when she surrounded herself with beauty, her work reflected it… via Smithsonian Magazine
A Blip on a Telescope in a Colorado Parking Lot Bolstered a Space Mission That Has Found Thousands of Planets … and Counting The Kepler telescope changed how we saw the sky. It’s just one of the devices we’ve sent out beyond the reach of humans to search our solar system… via Smithsonian Magazine
In the Early 1900s, a Young Ecologist Shot a Wolf and Watched the Life Leave Its Eyes. That Changed His Position on Conservation Aldo Leopold’s writing reconsidered the place of humans in the natural world and challenged people to be less conquerors of the land and more citizens of it… via Smithsonian Magazine
'Stupid Hot': Heat Waves Muddle the Minds of Animals and Humans as Confusion and Aggression Seem to Rise With the Temperature Wide-ranging research suggests that as temperatures increase, some creatures pick fights while others struggle to learn. The findings hint at consequences that may ripple through ecosystems… via Smithsonian Magazine
Alan Lomax Spent Years Traveling the Country to Record the Sounds of America. The Legacy of His Obsession Will Live Forever By letting Muddy Waters hear himself for the first time, he unlocked a new confidence that set the sharecropper on the path to superstardom. And that’s just the start of what he found in churches, prisons and even lumberjack camps… via Smithsonian Magazine
A Rare Recording of Harpo Marx Speaking Publicly Was Mislabeled in an Archive for Decades. Now You Can Listen to the 'Silent' Comedian Yourself The comedian of the stage and big screen thrilled millions of Americans without ever speaking a word, leaving many to wonder what his voice sounded like… via Smithsonian Magazine
There Was No American Regional Cuisine Until One 'Virginia Housewife' Thought to Compile a Diverse Collection of Recipes Mary Randolph, an in-law of the Jefferson family who was influenced by enslaved cooks and traditions of European immigrants, didn’t change Southern cooking with her 1824 cookbook … she originated it… via Smithsonian Magazine
When a Team of Meteorologists and Combat Pilots Set Out to Understand Thunderstorms, They Made Flying Safer for Everyone The sky was a very dangerous place in the early days of commercial aviation. By flying into storms to learn how they worked, these experts made air travel and weather forecasting much more predictable… via Smithsonian Magazine
The Queen of Soap Operas Started Off By Telling Stories About the Drama She Was Missing in Her Own Life Irna Phillips was a radio voice actor in Chicago when she was asked to create a serialized program. From that, she created a legacy that includes ‘Guiding Light’ and ‘As the World Turns’… via Smithsonian Magazine
Five Advances That Helped Turn a Night Out at the Movies Into the All-Enveloping Experience It Has Become The power of film is often in its ability to feel larger than life. Movie makers have been developing ways to accentuate that aspect for more than a century… via Smithsonian Magazine
A Massive Flow of Rock and Mud Tumbled Down Mount Rainier Centuries Ago. Scientists Pinpointed Its Date to Better Understand the Volcano's Complex Threats In a recent study, researchers dated a historic lahar called the Electron Mudflow to the summer of 1507, establishing a way to determine when past geologic events around the Puget Sound occurred… via Smithsonian Magazine
A Vietnam Veteran Collected Fossils for 66 Years. One, Mislabeled 'Baby Lamprey,' Made Paleontologists Reconsider How Vertebrates Moved From Water to Land The fossil turned out to be a hatchling of a crocodile-like creature, and it suggests, according to a new study, that early animals did not use metamorphosis to evolve to dwell on land… via Smithsonian Magazine
You’ll Be More Than Amused by These 15 Photos of Theme Parks. Their Electrifying Attractions Will Have Your Heart Racing Before You Even Set Foot on a Ride These images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest remind us that amusement parks have entertained generations of thrill-seekers… via Smithsonian Magazine
Speed Limits for Ships Protect Endangered Right Whales From Vessel Strikes. Could the Animals Survive Without Them? Since 2008, rules requiring ships to slow down to avoid collisions with North Atlantic right whales have reduced fatalities of the critically endangered animals. Now, NOAA is calling the regulations into question, raising concerns for the mammals’ future… via Smithsonian Magazine
A Rare Comet Made History as the Third Known Interstellar Object to Fly Through Our Solar System. Studies Are Now Revealing the Mysterious Conditions in Which It Formed In the latest research, telescope observations of 3I/ATLAS examine its chemical structure and suggest that it took shape in a peripheral region of a relatively calm planetary system… via Smithsonian Magazine
A.I. Music Is Already Here. To Protect Human Artists, the Record Industry Proposes New Labels, Like Those for Explicit Lyrics The proposal comes as A.I.-generated music makes up an increasing share of what’s available on streaming platforms… via Smithsonian Magazine
Did These Ancient Egyptian Princesses Wield Weapons and Train in Martial Arts, Just Like the Men of Their Time? A new analysis of their bones suggests they were buried alongside arrows, maces and daggers because they had repeatedly used those weapons in life… via Smithsonian Magazine
Giraffes Might Be Even Smarter Than We Thought. Some Can Solve Simple Math Problems, a New Study Suggests Two of four tested giraffes seemed to be able to mentally combine numbers to get one of their favorite treats: carrots. But all the animals failed at tasks involving subtraction or multiple calculations… via Smithsonian Magazine
Man Sentenced for Stealing 'Rare and Unique' Chinese Texts, Valued at More Than $200,000, by Using Aliases, Fake IDs and Dummy Manuscripts The works were stolen from the University of California, Los Angeles, over the course of several years… via Smithsonian Magazine