Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii. 1995. Nam June Paik. Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist.

Tuesday, May 14: Grand Challenges Share Fair

Even Smithsonian magazine can have a hard time keeping up with all the great research that Smithsonian scholars are doing around the world. From the stars to the seas, experts are hard at working fulfilling the institutional mission to increase and diffuse knowledge. To complete the second part, the Grand Challenges Share Fair offers everyone the chance to hear about some of the cutting edge research via a live webcast. Catch Kristofer Helgen of the Natural History Museum for his talk, “The Roosevelt Resurvey: Leveraging the Contributions of the Smithsonian and President Teddy Roosevelt for Wildlife Conservation Insight in Africa.” Or hear about the Deep Reef Observation Project from Carole Baldwin. Opening remarks from Secretary G. Wayne Clough begin at 1:00 p.m. Free. 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Webcast.

Wednesday, May 15: The Films of Nam June Paik

When the father of video art gets behind a camera, you can be sure the results will be engaging. Known for his playful embrace of new technologies, Nam June Paik’s “Electronic Superhighway” has long been a staple at the American Art Museum. Joined now by more than 60 additional works from the Korean-born artist for the exhibit “Nam June Paik: Global Visionary,” the map made of televisions serves as a sort of introductory manifesto. Curator John G. Hanhardt, who worked with Paik to bring his archive to the museum, will be on hand to discuss the films and Paik’s legacy. during Free. 6:30 p.m. American Art Museum.

Thursday, May 16: Take 5! Jazz Night

You’ve made it to Thursday, now relax with a little after-work concert courtesy the Night and Day Quintet. And should the music of George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and Cole Porter inspire you, ArtJamz will be there as usual with all the art supplies you need to create your own masterpiece in the Kogod Courtyard. Free. 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. American Art Museum.

Also, check out our Visitors Guide App. Get the most out of your trip to Washington, D.C. and the National Mall with this selection of custom-built tours, based on your available time and passions. From the editors of Smithsonian magazine, the app is packed with handy navigational tools, maps, museum floor plans and museum information including ‘Greatest Hits’ for each Smithsonian museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Last Monday, April 15, the National Museum of Natural History actually did come to life after hours. Not with mummies or miniature armies, of course, but with a small group of volunteers, a bunch of fancy-looking equipment and two guys at the forefront of museum digitization.

Adam Metallo and Vince Rossi, of the 3D Lab in the Smithsonian’s Digitization Program Office, work with laser scanners to create high resolution, three-dimensional digital models of objects and places around the Smithsonian Institution. Last week, they teamed up with curators at the Natural History Museum for the second of two nights of scanning the Dinosaur Hall, the museum’s iconic galleries that house prehistoric fossils from the ancient seas through the Ice Age. The hall is scheduled to close in 2014 for a ground-up, multi-year renovation, so Metallo and Rossi, dubbed the “Laser Cowboys” by their colleagues, were brought in to capture the hall’s present arrangement before all the fossils are removed.

“The main purpose of 3D scanning an exhibit like this is to have an archive of what an exhibit of this era might have looked,” Metallo says. “This is a documentation for folks in the future to know what a museum experience here was like.”

The scanning has immediate uses as well. With accurate digital 3D models of T-Rex and his friends’ skeletons, curators and designers will have a much easier time envisioning the exhibition’s future iterations and testing out ideas for optimal arrangements. Paleontologists, too, will suddenly have access to fossils anytime, anywhere. “There’s one specimen that’s on display two stories up in the air,” Metallo says. “Now, instead of a researcher having to get up on a scissor lift to look at it, we can just email him the digital model.”

And if digital models aren’t enough, 3D scanning might soon allow anyone interested in fossils to get even closer to the real thing. “We’re seeing a real democratization of 3D printing along with 3D scanning,” says Rossi. “There are apps for iPhones that allow you to use a camera as a 3D scanning device. Pretty much any museum visitor could create a pretty decent model of a museum object, and potentially take that through a 3D printer. There’s still a fair amount of expertise required at the moment, but it’s going to be a lot more user-friendly in the next two or three years.”

In other words, it’s not inconceivable that you could print out your own stegosaurus skeleton for your living room on your home 3D printer someday.

Ultimately, Rossi and Metallo dream of digitizing all 137 million of the objects in the Smithsonian’s collections. Because only two percent of the objects are displayed in the Institution’s museums at any time—and many people never have the chance to see even those in person—precise replicas could be printed and sent to local museums across the country, or viewed digitally on a computer screen anywhere in the world.

As for future of the Dino Hall, Matthew Carrano, the museum’s curator of dinosauria, says his team is still in the early stages of planning exactly how the exhibit will look when it reopens in 2019, but that it definitely will strive to incorporate humans into the dinosaurs’ story. “The biggest thing I hope for in the new hall is that a visitor comes here and is inspired, amazed and interested in the history of life on earth, and understands that this history is still relevant to them today, and to the world today,” he explains. “There are problems we face as human beings that paleontology can help address. Dinosaurs didn’t exist by themselves; they were part of environments and ecosystems just like we are today. And that connection is really important to everything we’re going to show in this hall.”

To learn more about 3D scanning and printing at Smithsonian, check out Metallo and Rossi’s Facebook page, and follow them on twitter @3D_Digi_SI. To learn more about dinosaurs, check out the Natural History Museum’s dinosaur page.

Secretary G. Wayne Clough testified before Congress today about the effects of sequestration on the institution. Photo by Ken Rahalm, courtesy of the Smithsonian

On April 16, Smithsonian Institution Secretary G. Wayne Clough testified before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about the impending effects of sequestration. Though the Obama administration had sought a $59 million budget increase for the Institution in fiscal 2014, this year Clough has to contend with a $41 million budget reduction due to sequestration. Gallery closings, fewer exhibitions, reduced educational offerings, loss of funding for research and cuts to the planning process of the under-construction National Museum of African American History and Culture were listed among the impacts of the sequestration.

Clough began his testimony: “Each year millions of our fellow citizens come to Washington to visit—for free—our great museums and galleries and the National Zoo, all of which are open every day of the year but one. Our visitors come with high aspirations to learn and be inspired by our exhibitions and programs.”

“It is my hope,” Clough told the committee, “that our spring visitors will not notice the impact of the sequestration.” Perhaps most noticeable would be the gallery closures, which, while they would not close entire museums, would restrict access to certain floors or spaces in the museums, unable to pay for sufficient security. Those changes would begin May 1, according to Clough.

Clough warned, however, that while these short-term measures will save in the near future, they might also entail long-term consequences. Unforeseen costs may arise in the form of diminished maintenance capabilities, for example. “Any delays in revitalization or construction projects will certainly result in higher future operating and repair costs,” Clough said.

This also threatens the Institution’s role as steward of thousands of historic and valuable artifacts–”Morse’s telegraph; Edison’s light bulb; the Salk vaccine; the 1865 telescope designed by Maria Mitchell, America’s first woman astronomer who discovered a comet; the Wright Flyer; Amelia Earhart’s plane; Louis Armstrong’s trumpet; the jacket of labor leader Cesar Chavez,” to name a few.

Around the Mall will keep the issue updated and tweet significant closures.

See the moon up close through a 16-inch telescope this Wednesday at the Air and Space Museum’s observatory. Photo by cotinis, courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

Update: Oops! Apparently, we got something wrong here, folks. You can visit the tarantula and you can watch the creature eat, but you can’t hold it in your hand. Sorry about that.

Tuesday, April 9: Live Tarantula Feeding

Ever held a tarantula in your hand? How about watched one chomp on crickets? Stop by the Insect Zoo today during their feeding demonstration and get up close and personal with one of the creepy crawlers, which can be touched and held. Not an event for the timid! Free. Year-round from Tuesday to Friday at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and on Saturday and Sunday at 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. Natural History Museum.

Wednesday, April 10: Public Observatory Project

Here’s something more exciting to look at than your computer screen on your lunch break today: moon craters and sun spots! The Air and Space Museum opens its observatory to the public on Wednesdays, which means visitors have access to a 16-inch telescope to survey the cosmos. Astronomy educators are on hand to guide visitors in their observations, and the observatory’s Discovery Station has other interactive activities that teach more about astronomy and telescopes. Free. 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Air and Space Museum.

Thursday, April 11: Almayer’s Folly

Sometimes we get so caught up in our goals that we lose sight of why we’re pursuing them. That’s one of the dangers explored in Almayer’s Folly, a 2012 film by Chantal Akerman on view this evening about a French expatriate in search of pirate treasure in Malaysia as he tries to manage his beautiful, mentally unstable daughter. In French and Khmer with English subtitles. Free. 8 p.m. Hirshhorn Museum.

Also, check out our Visitors Guide App. Get the most out of your trip to Washington, D.C. and the National Mall with this selection of custom-built tours, based on your available time and passions. From the editors of Smithsonian magazine, the app is packed with handy navigational tools, maps, museum floor plans and museum information including ‘Greatest Hits’ for each Smithsonian museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Playful but poignant, this photo of a tiny yellow goby living inside an abandoned soda can taken in Suruga Bay, Japan reveals the arresting quality of Brian Skerry’s work. All photos courtesy of Brian Skerry.

Brian Skerry may have just about the best office in the world. It’s beautiful, quiet and big, like 70 percent of the Earth big. That’s because Skerry is a photojournalist who spends most of his time exploring the oceans.

“To some, my work might seem like one long, endless vacation,” writes Skerry on his blog, “traveling to exotic locales and living romantic adventures.” But he says, “The reality is far less romantic of course.”  Inevitably, capturing that perfect moment, when a tiny yellow goby peeks out from a discarded soda can, for example, takes time and patience. But in the end, the work that takes him all over the world and lets him swim with sharks or capture changing environments, is well worth it.

In honor of the opening of the renovated portion of Ocean Hall at the Natural History Museum on April 5, 20 of Skerry’s stunning photographs will be on display for the exhibit, “Portraits of Planet Ocean: The Photography of Brian Skerry.”

“My hope,” he says, “is to continually find new ways of creating images and stories that both celebrate the sea yet also highlight environmental problems.”

Read more about his work here.

Sea pens and a blue cod mingle in a rare moment in New Zealand.

His work often deals with issues of conservation. Here, a leatherback turtle hatchling heads to the sea in Trinidad.

Skerry says he traveled to the Auckland Islands, hoping to photograph a pristine population of right whales after having spent the previous year working on a story about the beleaguered North Atlantic right whales, of which about only 350 remain. He says his encounter here with a 70-ton whale was the single most incredible animal encounter he’s ever had.

From big to small, Skerry sees it all, including a spiny-headed blenny in Belize.

The colors and textures of ocean life never disappoint.

A group of black margate pose in the waters off Belize.

A female leatherback turtle crawls ashore under moonlight to rest in Trinidad.

Skerry captures an oceanic whitetip shark and diver in the Bahamas. He says he has had countless magical encounters with sharks, an animal he considers to be perfect.

The tiny parasitic wasps flourish by laying eggs inside other insects (above: a wasp punctures a fruit fly). Photo by USDAgov, courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons

Friday, March 29: The Secret Life of Parasitic Wasps

Parasitic wasps are some of the creepiest bugs on the planet. To further their species, they hunt down other insects and inject eggs  into them. When the eggs hatch, the baby parasitic wasp larvae feed on the host’s insides and grow, until they burst out Alien-style—eeeewww!! Today, Dr. Matthew Buffington of the USDA Systematic Entomology Lab is in the house to tell you everything you wanted to know about these wicked wasps. (You might want to avoid eating anything too heavy for lunch before you go.) Free. 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Natural History Museum

Saturday, March 30: Historic Theater: Meet Joseph Henry

Just how did the Smithsonian Institution begin, anyway? Joseph Henry, the first secretary, is cruising the American History Museum’s halls today (actually, he’s a historical reenactor) to talk about the Smithsonian during the Civil War and Henry’s great influence on the Institution from during the years 1846 to 1878. Ask him about electromagnets! Free. 10:30 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. American History Museum.

Sunday, March 31: “Pictures in the Parlor”

Family portraits were a luxury reserved for the rich in until the 1840s, when the invention of photography allowed Victorian-era America to begin documenting—and flaunting—their loved ones. “Pictures in the Parlor,” a newly-opened exhibition, features more than 50 portraits that show how seemingly simple decisions about where and how to display these new status symbols reflected a quiet revolution overtaking the middle-class home. Great for comparing and contrasting with your own living room! Free. Ends June 30, on display during regular museum hours. American Art Museum.

Also, check out our Visitors Guide App. Get the most out of your trip to Washington, D.C. and the National Mall with this selection of custom-built tours, based on your available time and passions. From the editors of Smithsonian magazine, the app is packed with handy navigational tools, maps, museum floor plans and museum information including ‘Greatest Hits’ for each Smithsonian museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

These flowers are always in bloom at the American Art Museum. Courtesy of the museum

Though you might not know it judging from the forecast most places, spring has indeed arrived. And despite the unpredictable D.C. weather, the snow, sleet, cold rain and wind hasn’t kept the tourists away. Crowds are gathering in the nation’s capital for the first glimpses of the cherry blossoms. For those of you interested in making the most of your visit, the editors over here have released two new spring-themed tours to help showcase the seasonal delights both inside and outside along the Mall.

The Gardens tour will take you to our many well-maintained plots around the Mall to see more than just a few pink blooms by the Tidal Basin, including heirloom plants, geometric splendors reminiscent of the grandest of European gardens and even a Victory Garden.

The Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden provides an iconic backdrop for your family vacation photo. Courtesy of Smithsonian Gardens

The courtyard at the Freer Gallery of Art is as beautiful as the museum’s collection inside. Courtesy of Smithsonian Gardens

The winding paths of the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden provide a quiet retreat. Courtesy of Smithsonian Gardens

What would spring be without the crack of bat? Pay homage to some of the game’s greats at the National Portrait Gallery. Courtesy of the museum

In case the sun forgets to show up, head inside for a dose of paradise in the Butterfly Pavilion. Courtesy of the Natural History Museum

Spring in space could mean a few things, but in this instance, we’re talking about a clever spring made of two metals that heat and cool at different points, which was essential to the Lunar Rover Vehicle from the Apollo missions. Courtesy of the Air and Space Museum

The birds and blooms from this Japanese painting were actually borrowed symbols from China, likely to mark an auspicious occasion. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery

Head here to download the visitor’s app and get your step-by-step directions, custom postcard feature and greatest hits from the museums.

Fear-inducing or awe-inspiring? For more stunning shots of spiders, check out our Save a Spider Day slideshow. Photo by Thomas Vignaud

If you’re afraid of spiders, you’re in good company–at least according to the Wikipedia page on arachnophobia, which lists Justin Timberlake, Kim Kardashian and Jessica Simpson as sharing the affliction. As star-studded as the fear may be, however, it’s not particularly well-founded.

For example, one of the most infamous spiders, the brown recluse, has earned a terrible and outsized reputation for its supposedly deadly bite. Doctors often blame the species for spider bites, even in states where the brown recluse isn’t present. Researchers like Rick Vetter of the University of California, Riverside work tirelessly to clear the brown recluse’s name and fight “media-driven hyperbole and erroneous, anxiety-filled public hearsay.”

The brown recluse has few allies in its fight to clear its name. Photo by Br-recluse-guy, courtesy of Wikimedia

Vitter describes himself as, “a highly volatile arachnologist who is bloody tired of everybody claiming that every little mark on their body is the result of a brown recluse bite and who believe with a religious zeal that brown recluses are part of the California spider fauna despite the incredibly overwhelming evidence to the contrary.”

Even where the species is present, says Dan Babbit, insect keeper at the Natural History Museum Dan Babbitt, “They don’t often bite people–they’re recluses, they tend to hide.”

Growing up with nature, Babbitt says he was never afraid of spiders, but that he was definitely not wildly fond of them when he began working with them at the museum in 1998. After spending time with them, though, he’s come to appreciate their unique qualities and even species personalities, something he thinks all people can do and which National Save a Spider Day, held every March 14, helps encourage as well.

On any given day, the museum displays nine different spiders, while the remaining 40 rest in the laboratory where they can burrow and hide and do all the things they might not when on view.

For a sense of scale, a goliath birdeater tarantula by a dollar bill and ruler. Photo by Flickr user Snakecollector, courtesy of Wikimedia.

The pinktoe tarantula can climb, swim and even fly, kind of. Photo by Ron Taylor, courtesy of the Burke Museum

More often than not, visitors come seeking the much-maligned brown recluse and black widow, says Babbitt. Then they spot the crowd-pleaser, the Goliath bird-eating tarantula, whose body can fill your palm and whose legs can stretch up to 12 inches across. The species got its name from a Victorian explorer who witnessed one eating a hummingbird in the rain forests of South America.

Babbitt’s personal favorite is the pinktoe tarantula, a South American spider with pink-tipped legs that give the impression of freshly-painted nails. Because the pinktoe spider comes from the rainforest, it’s one of the few tarantulas that can climb trees, survive falls and even swim. Where other tarantulas would be killed by a drop of just a few feet, these spiders “can essentially parachute down” from the treetops.

Aside from their hidden talents, spiders also offer humans benefits in some surprising ways. Their venom has been used in research for new medicines, their super strong webs (ounce per ounce stronger than steel) are helping designers dream up new industry technology and they’ve even inspired artworks and clothing products.

There are even new spiders still being discovered, like when spelunkers found a previously unknown family since dubbed Trogloraptor, or cave robbers, in southern Oregon. Taxonomy and spider expert as well as associate director for science at the Natural History Museum John Coddington told the Associated Press the finding was unique: “To walk out in the woods and find an example of an ancient lineage that no one has ever seen before is special.”

We’re still a long way from ridding ourselves of arachnophobia, but Babbitt believes we’re improving “I think there’s a chance for spiders but it’s a tough one, it’s a big fear people have.” He says every time a new group of visitors crowds around the tarantula cage for one of the thrice-daily feedings held Tuesday through Sunday at the museum’s insect zoo, they come away with a new appreciation for the creature and its relatives.

“They still might not be the biggest fans of tarantulas but at least they’re starting to ask questions about them and they’re not wanting to immediately smash them or run away from them.”

And for more fun with spiders:

Check out a slideshow of eye-catching spiders from around the globe.

 See how one photographer locks eyes (all of them) with spiders.

Check out a 3-D rendering of a spider that lived 300 million years ago.

Find out why urbanization may be supersizing spiders.

Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin, where scientists search for fossils to better understand ancient climate change. Image via Dave Bezaire and Susi Havens-Bezaire

In a relatively short time, global emissions of carbon dioxide increased massively. Through the greenhouse effect, they raised temperatures around the planet by an average of 7 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit; they also changed the chemistry of the oceans, triggering a surge in acidity that may have led to mass extinctions among marine life. Overall, during this era of rapid change, global sea levels may have risen by as much as 65 feet.

Reading this, you could be forgiven if you assume we’re talking about a scenario related to the present-day climate crisis. But the previous paragraph actually refers to a 20,000-year-long period of warming that occurred 55 million years ago, an event scientists call the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (or PETM for short). Scott Wing, a paleobiologist at the Natural History Museum who has studied the PETM for more than 20 years, says, “If all this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s essentially what we’re doing right now.”

As we embark on an unprecedented experiment with the Earth’s atmosphere and climate, the PETM is suddenly a hot topic among scientists in many disparate fields. “It’s an event that a lot of people are interested in, because it is the best example we have of a really sudden global warming connected to a large release of carbon,” Wing says.

Although scientists still don’t fully understand what triggered the PETM, it is clear that more and more carbon was injected into both the atmosphere and the oceans, initiating the climate change. This carbon may have been supplied by volcanic activity, the spontaneous combustion of peat or even the impact of a particularly carbon-rich comet. Additionally, the initial warming likely led to a release of methane gas from the seafloor, acting as a positive feedback that led to even more climate change. It’s also clear that all this warming wreaked havoc on the world’s ecosystems, leading to extinctions and altering the ranges of numerous plant and animal species.

There is, of course, one key difference: During this previous episode, all that warming took several thousand years. This time, carbon emissions are rising ten times faster than during the PETM, with the warming happening in a century—the geologic equivalent of a blink of an eye.

The sharp uptick in the green line towards the upper-left of this climate chart represents the PETM, the closest analog for our present era of climate change. Image via Wikimedia Commons

Scott Wing researches the PETM by digging for ancient plant remains in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin. Over several decades of work, he has constructed a general picture of what types of plants thrived before, during and after the warming period, attempting to identify the sorts of trends in plant life we can expect as we change the climate going forward.

A 65-million-year-old leaf cuticle, the sort of specimen used by scientists like Scott Wing to understand the Earth’s ancient climate. Photo by Joseph Stromberg

“During the warm period, essentially none of the plants that had lived in the area previously survived—their local populations were driven extinct,” Wing says. The area had been dominated by ancestors of the types of plants that live in temperate deciduous forests today, such as dogwood, sycamore and redwood trees.

But as the region heated up, these were replaced by a variety of plants related to the present-day bean family, most commonly found in warmer, drier areas such as southern Mexico or Costa Rica. “We believe that what happened is the dispersal into this region of plants that were living somewhere else, probably much farther south,” says Wing. His team has also uncovered evidence that the warmer climate led to a greater level of insect pest damage on the plants that did survive the PETM.

His research has, however, turned up one trend from the PETM that could be a reason to hope ecosystems can someday rebound from climate change. After roughly 200,000 years, long after the PETM subsided and temperatures returned to normal, many of the temperate plants that had lived in the Bighorn Basin finally returned.

“One possible explanation,” Wing says, “is that there were cooler climates in the nearby mountains that served as refuges for these species.” In that scenario—one that he and his research team plan to more closely investigate as they continue to excavate and piece together the fossil record—these types of plants would have waited out the PETM in the relatively cold highlands, then returned to recolonize the basin afterward.

If our climate continues to change as rapidly as it has over the past few decades, though, such a scenario seems less likely—immobile organisms such as plants need hundreds of years to gradually migrate from one area to another. Thus, one key aspect of preserving our planet’s ecosystems, in addition to limiting climate change as much as possible, is slowing it down as much as we can.

Smithsonian in snow, circa 1977. Photo by Smithsonian Institution

Looking for something to do today, while the snowy weather conditions persist? The Smithsonian museums will be open for business today. But the National Zoo will be closed Wednesday, March 6, 2013.

Plan your visit, using our convenient Tours app, a free download is available here.

Under the black light, the Butterfly Brooch shows off a whole separate array of fluorescent colors. Photo by Donald Hurlbert, Smithsonian

Cindy Chao knew, with more than 2,300 gems of diamonds, rubies and tsavorite garnets, her butterfly brooch was masterpiece of craftsmanship. Made in 2009, the brooch found its way to the cover of Women’s Wear Daily–the first piece of jewelry ever to do so in 100 years. Known for her wearable works of art, Chao had made a name for herself as the first Taiwanese jeweler included at a Christie’s auction in 2007, and her work even debuted on the Hollywood red carpet.

Now her butterfly brooch comes to the Natural History Museum’s Gems and Minerals collection as the first piece designed by a Taiwanese artist. Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and brilliant enough to illuminate a room. The brooch packs a punch. But it also packs a surprise.

From left to right, Director Kirk Johnson, Artist Cindy Chao and Curator Jeffrey Post unveil the brooch as press look on. Photo by Leah Binkovitz

Curator Jeffrey Post says he was compelled by his ongoing interest in the optical behaviors of diamonds to put the piece under ultraviolet light, and the ensuing light show was nothing short of spectacular. The diamonds and sapphires fluoresced, glowing neon in the dark. “When we saw all these fluorescing diamonds, all these different colors, it was just the whipped cream on top of the cake,” says Post, “It was just the most wonderful surprise.”

Chao, meanwhile, had never seen this phenomenon. “When Dr. Post showed it to me under the ultraviolet light, I was shocked because he thought I did it on purpose.” An artist influenced by her father’s career as both an architect and sculptor, Chao cares about the craft of jewelry-making and working with unique materials. She calls the fluorescent reaction a natural miracle. Now, she says, “I check everything under the ultraviolet light.”

Front and back views of the piece show its detailed design. Photos by Cindy Chao

A symbol of metamorphosis, the butterfly speaks to Chao’s own transformation from jeweler to artist. While she’s had great success in the market (her pieces command any where from $15,000 for a ring and nearly $1 million for a brooch), she says earning a spot in the Smithsonian was a great honor as an artist. She hopes to pass on her lessons to students who share her passion for the craft of jewelry-making.

The brooch also speaks to the natural metamorphosis each gemstone undergoes. “Every gemstone,” says Post, “including this butterfly, starts out as a mineral crystal that forms, and only the best and most perfect of those mineral crystals are transformed into gemstones.” Post says that the incredibly detailed design of the brooch, which mimics the microstructure and scale of a living butterfly’s wings, speaks to the piece’s rarified quality. “The other side of the butterfly is just as beautiful as the front and that’s how you know, this is really a masterpiece creation,” he says.

Johnson and Chao show off the newest donation to the gems collection. Photo by Leah Binkovitz

Johnson, Chao and Post pose with the brooch. Photo by Leah Binkovitz

Chao holds her creation in its natural habitat. Photo by Brittany Hance

Joining the recent Dom Pedro donation, as well as the famed Hope Diamond, the piece will brooch in the Hall of Gems and Minerals. Its donation also marks the fifth anniversary of the museum’s Butterfly Pavilion.

These two ladies are on their way to the Smithsonian to celebrate woman’s history month. Photo by Percival Bryan, courtesy of the Anacostia Community Museum

Women in jazz, women in science, women in the arts, women were everywhere. Even in the days when women were supposed to just be in the kitchen, they were busy making history. And this month at the Smithsonian, a month-long celebration of those women kicks off with the American History’s exhibit on the 100th anniversary of the Woman Suffrage Parade.

Get the full schedule of films, lectures and events here, but check out these highlights:

LECTURE The Scientist is In

Museum specialist at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Ruth Gibbons, discusses deepwater biodiversity surveys of an extinct undersea volcano in the Atlantic Ocean. Volcanos, oceans and deepwater diving, now that’s the life. March 6, Natural History Museum, 1 pm-2 pm.

Jazz star Carmen McRae, courtesy of Wikimedia

PERFORMANCE Rhythm Cafe: The Life and Mastery of Carmen McRae

Good friends with her musical inspiration Billie Holliday, Carme McRae sang one Lady Day song at each performance she gave. Nonetheless, the jazz musician born to Jamaican parents in Harlem carved out her identity with witty interpretations and star-studded collaborations. Mikaela Carlton, of the Howard University Vocal Music Department, will talk about jazz pioneer McRae’s life and achievements and the Carmen McRae Tribute Band will provide the tunes. March 10, Anacostia Community Museum, 2 pm-4 pm. Free, but space is limited, RSVP.

Looks simple enough, but wait until you see through a female lens. Courtesy of the American Art Museum

TOUR America “Through a Female Lens”

A domestic scene of family life may seem a quaint setting for a traditional painting, but there’s more to art than meets the eye. Learn how works, from colonial paintings to contemporary pieces, can be seen through “a female lens” with this tour at the American Art Museum. March 14 and March 21, 12:30 pm.

FILM Rebel: Loreta Velazquez and the Role of Women in the American Civil War

How did a Cuban woman raised in New Orleans become a spy for the Confederate army and even fight at Bull Run? That’s the question behind this documentary that traces the life a woman many believed to be a hoax.  The screening will be followed by a broader discussion of women in the Civil War with director and producer Mari Agui Carter, as well as scholars Virginia Sanchez Korrol, Margaret Vining, and Catherine Clinton. March 28, American History Museum, 6 pm.

ONLINE MATERIALS

If you can’t make it to the Smithsonian, then take advantage of its online resources with guides to the Seneca Falls Convention, women inventors (fitting, since this year’s theme is “Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination“), African American female artists and more.

Naseer Shamma, world-renowned ‘ud (lute) player, performs at the Freer Gallery this with the Al-Oyoun ensemble Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Photo by Ahmed Abd El-fatah, courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

Tuesday, March 5: Is This Art?

Contemporary art isn’t always the easiest to understand. What does an odd-shaped sculpture or a painting of a bunch of lines say about the world, and why should we care? This series of gallery talks, facilitated by museum staff members, introduces viewers to some of the American Art Museum’s provocative contemporary works and explores different ways of interpreting them. Debate encouraged! Free. 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. American Art Museum.

Wednesday, March 6: Le Cuisine de Quebec: Exploring the Passion and Depth of Québec’s Emerging Microbreweries

Québec, home to more than 100 microbreweries, has risen to international fame in the beer world in recent decades. The city’s brews are known for their diverse styles and fusion of disparate European traditions. Sylvain Bouchard has helped the city win this reputation; as head sommelier at the city’s most iconic brewery, Unibroue, for more than a decade, he has pioneered the use of ancient brewing European methods to produce new flavors. This evening, as part of the 2013 Francophonie Cultural Festival, Bouchard explains Québec’s burgeoning microbrewery movement and introduces the range of its products. A tasting and pairing of cheeses and other Québec treats follows his presentation. $30 general admission, $25 members. 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Natural History Museum.

Thursday, March 7: Naseer Shamma’s Al-Oyoun Ensemble concert

Naseer Shamma, one of the Arab world’s ‘ud (lute)-playing superstars (see him in action here), returns to America for the first time in ten years this evening to perform new arrangements of classical Arab music. Shamma is a native of Iraq and a devoted teacher; he developed a method of playing the ‘ud with one hand for children wounded in the Iraq War. He will be accompanied by the Al-Oyoun ensemble, a cairo-based orchestra that includes violins, flutes, bass and percussion. Free tickets required. 7:30 p.m., with a museum tour of the “Arts of the Islamic World” at 6:45 p.m. Freer Gallery.

Also, check out our Visitors Guide App. Get the most out of your trip to Washington, D.C. and the National Mall with this selection of custom-built tours, based on your available time and passions. From the editors of Smithsonian magazine, the app is packed with handy navigational tools, maps, museum floor plans and museum information including ‘Greatest Hits’ for each Smithsonian museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

So, what’s the difference between a replica and the real thing? The answer seems pretty straightforward if you deal with one-of-a-kind specimens, like at a museum: there’s an original object; and then there are facsimiles—copies—made from silicone or latex molds or, these days, 3D prints from digital scans (see video, above). Sometimes copies are made for exhibit, or for research exchanges. Or, if the original specimen is too fragile (or unwieldy), high precision replicas are preferred for measurements or side-by-side comparisons.

The real thing: This fossil whale, as it was found, on location at Cerro Ballena, Chile. Now, specimen number 678, in the collections of the Museo Paleontologico de Caldera. Photo by V. Rossi / Smithsonian Digitization Program Office 3D Lab

By making copies, museums function in the same way as a library. Though this analogy falls apart if you consider the increasing rate that books are being sold and process digitally. What happens when an entire book—its cover, binding, marginalia and type—gets digitized and made searchable? What’s a physical book then, other than a doorstop? While the searchable digitized book can be a useful tool, happily, the real thing still does matter: to researchers following the historical trail of a book’s age, owner or reader; or just as a work of art. Ask an antiquarian book seller. As a consequence, there’s a need for places like libraries or the Smithsonian, to archive and protect the real deal.

A scale model replica of MPC 678, made as a hand-held 3D print. Photo by A. Metallo/ Smithsonian Digitization Program Office 3D Lab

Lately, making digital copies of museum specimens has become a process far more sophisticated than taking high-resolution photographs. And like digital books, these replicas become extremely useful tools. Bits and bytes are more easily accessible to researchers than specimens looked away in isolated museums. Here at the Natural History Museum, we can supplement traditional 2D methods with CT scanning, 3D surface scans, and we can archive bits of molecular code. We’re in the first stages of building digital avatars of specimens: the digital versions of their DNA, voices, surfaces and innards. And we can even bring the technology into the field, which opens new doors into saving, studying and archiving one-time collecting events.

So keep your eyes peeled. The next time you see something from the Smithsonian, it might be better than the real thing.

Nick Pyenson from the Natural History Museum

Nicholas Pyenson is a curator of fossil marine mammals at the Natural History Museum and records his fieldwork and other activities at Pyenson Lab. He studies the paleobiology of marine mammals with an interest in evolutionary comparisons. This is his first in a series of posts that he will be contributing to Around the Mall.

The Natural History Museum celebrates orchids from Latin America on Saturday in its “Orchids of Latin America Family Day”

Friday, February 22: Recognizing Adaptation in the Early Human Fossil Record

We humans have come a long way from our caveman (or cavewoman) ancestors. We have complex languages, elaborate societies and iPods. But how have we changed physically? Our bodies’ adaptations to our environments have been key in ensuring our survival over all these years. Friday, George Washington University’s Dr. Erin Marie Williams talks about recognizing evidence of adaption in early human fossils. A part of Smithsonian’s HOT (Human Origins Today) Topic series, the discussion encourages audience members to join in the conversation. Free. 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Natural History Museum.

Saturday, February 23: Orchids of Latin America Family Day

Orchids’ exotic beauty is appreciated around the world. One of the two largest families of flowering plants, with around 25,000 accepted species, the flower grows in the most concentrated varieties in the tropics, including Latin America. Smithsonian celebrates Latin America’s orchids today with a family flower extravaganza, including orchid mosaic building, orchid tattoos and face painting. Orchid experts are on site to answer questions and to show off some of the unique plants from their collections. Free. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Natural History Museum.

Sunday, February 24: Against the Odds: The Artists of the Harlem Renaissance 

Director Amber Edwards offers a trip back to the 1920s today in Against the Odds: The Artists of the Harlem Renaissance, a 1-hour documentary about the black writers, musicians, artists and intellectuals who launched a cultural movement that redefined how America viewed African Americans. Seeing the film and joining the discussion that is held afterwards are perfect ways to celebrate Black History Month this weekend. Free. 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Anacostia Community Museum.

Also, check out our Visitors Guide App. Get the most out of your trip to Washington, D.C. and the National Mall with this selection of custom-built tours, based on your available time and passions. From the editors of Smithsonian magazine, the app is packed with handy navigational tools, maps, museum floor plans and museum information including ‘Greatest Hits’ for each Smithsonian museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.