Download or read book Funding Smithsonian Scientific Research written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-01-28 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report assesses whether the Smithsonian Institution should continue to receive direct federal appropriations for its scientific research programs or if this funding should be transferred to a peer-reviewed program open to all researchers in another agency. The report concludes that the National Museum of Natural History, the National Zoological Park, and the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education in Suitland should remain exempt from having to compete for federal research dollars because they make unique contributions to the scientific and museum communities. Three other Smithsonian research programs should continue to receive federal funding since they are performing science of the highest quality and already compete for much of their government research money.
Download or read book Scientific Research at the Smithsonian written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (2011). Subcommittee on Research and Technology and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Funding Smithsonian Scientific Research written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-02-28 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report assesses whether the Smithsonian Institution should continue to receive direct federal appropriations for its scientific research programs or if this funding should be transferred to a peer-reviewed program open to all researchers in another agency. The report concludes that the National Museum of Natural History, the National Zoological Park, and the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education in Suitland should remain exempt from having to compete for federal research dollars because they make unique contributions to the scientific and museum communities. Three other Smithsonian research programs should continue to receive federal funding since they are performing science of the highest quality and already compete for much of their government research money.
Download or read book The Science of James Smithson written by Steven Turner and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accessible exploration of the noteworthy scientific career of James Smithson, who left his fortune to establish the Smithsonian Institution. James Smithson is best known as the founder of the Smithsonian Institution, but few people know his full and fascinating story. He was a widely respected chemist and mineralogist and a member of the Royal Society, but in 1865, his letters, collection of 10,000 minerals, and more than 200 unpublished papers were lost to a fire in the Smithsonian Castle. His scientific legacy was further written off as insignificant in an 1879 essay published through the Smithsonian fifty years after his death--a claim that author Steven Turner demonstrates is far from the truth. By providing scientific and intellectual context to his work, The Science of James Smithson is a comprehensive tribute to Smithson's contributions to his fields, including chemistry, mineralogy, and more. This detailed narrative illuminates Smithson and his quest for knowledge at a time when chemists still debated thing as basic as the nature of fire, and struggled to maintain their networks amid the ever-changing conditions of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
Download or read book Smithsonian Research Opportunities written by Smithsonian Institution. Office of Education and Training and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Natural History of Birds written by Eleazar Fl 1713-1759 Albin and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in London in 1731, A Natural History of Birds is a classic work of ornithology that features stunning illustrations of various bird species. This edition, with one hundred and one copper plates, will delight bird lovers and fans of natural history. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book Best of Both Worlds written by G. Wayne Clough and published by Smithsonian Books. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, asks “How can we prepare ourselves to reach the generation of digital natives who bring a huge appetite—and aptitude—for the digital world?” He explains how the Smithsonian is tackling this issue in Best of Both Worlds: Museums, Libraries, and Archives in a Digital Age. Libraries and archives have already made many documents available through the Internet. The digital world presents a bigger challenge for museums; producing images of 3D objects is more complicated, and collections are built with exhibitions in mind rather than open access on computers. In 2009, the Smithsonian began digitizing its vast collections to make them accessible to the millions of people who do not visit the museums in person. “Digital access can provide limitless opportunities for engagement and lifelong learning.” Clough sees museums gradually moving beyond showcasing collections to engaging the public online so “visitors” can access the objects they find most interesting. Education has always been at the core of the Smithsonian. Today, the Smithsonian offers materials and lesson plans that meet state standards for K–12 curricula; online summits on many diverse subjects; the Collections Search Center website; and apps. The Smithsonian’s website, www.seriouslyamazing.com, draws people in with fun questions and then takes them deeper into the subject. The question “What European colonizer is still invading the U.S. today?” reveals not only the answer—earthworms—but also in-depth info on worms from environmental researchers. Clough concludes with this thought: “While digital technology poses great challenges, it also offers great possibilities.”
Download or read book The Smithsonian National Gem Collection Unearthed written by Jeffrey Edward Post and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2021-03-23 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The scandals, mysteries, and human stories behind the world’s greatest gems are brought to life by the curator of the Smithsonian’s National Gem Collection Dr. Jeffrey E. Post, curator of the National Gem Collection for more than 25 years, separates fact from fiction in an all-new and original book, revealing fresh information and regaling the reader with anecdotes and tales of some of the world’s greatest and most famous gemstones. Dr. Post is the author of the now out-of-print book The National Gem Collection (Abrams, 1997), which has sold more than 50,000 copies. In this brand-new book, he tells the stories of the Smithsonian’s most famous gems, including the Hope Diamond, Star of Asia Sapphire, Carmen Lucia Ruby, Hooker Emerald, and Blue Heart Diamond—and also presents the tales, details, and fascinating facts surrounding rarely displayed gems from the Smithsonian vault and additions made to the collection since 1997. Not only a resource for learning about rare and beautiful gems, the book also presents the stories of the people who once owned or were associated with these jewels—from ordinary people to kings, emperors, maharajas, celebrities, and captains of industry.
Download or read book Ainu written by William W. Fitzhugh and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Some 55 scholars, mostly Japanese but with a considerable number from the US and Europe, write about the ethnicity, theories of origin, history, economies, art, religious beliefs, mythology, and other aspects of the culture of the Ainu, the indigenous people of Japan, now principally found in Hokkaido and smaller far northern islands. Hundreds of photographs and paintings, mostly in excellent quality color, show a wide variety of Ainu people, as well as clothing, jewelry, and various artifacts."--"Choice". "The most in-depth treatise available on Ainu prehistory, material culture, and ethnohistory." - "Library Journal".--Amazon.com (2001 ed, book description).
Download or read book Bone Rooms written by Samuel J. Redman and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-14 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Smithsonian Book of the Year A Nature Book of the Year “Provides much-needed foundation of the relationship between museums and Native Americans.” —Smithsonian “How did our museums become great storehouses of human remains? What have we learned from the skulls and bones of unburied dead? Bone Rooms chases answers to these questions through shifting ideas about race, anatomy, anthropology, and archaeology and helps explain recent ethical standards for the collection and display of human dead.” —Ann Fabian, author of The Skull Collectors “Details the nascent views of racial science that evolved in U.S. natural history, anthropological, and medical museums...Redman effectively portrays the remarkable personalities behind [these debates]...pitting the prickly Aleš Hrdlička at the Smithsonian...against ally-turned-rival Franz Boas at the American Museum of Natural History.” —David Hurst Thomas, Nature “In exquisite detail...Bone Rooms narrates the rise and fall of racial science in America...This complicated and engrossing story is filled with unexpected twists and significant implications for the history of anthropology...and intellectual history of race in the United States, and American intellectual history more generally.” —Matthew Dennis, author of Seneca Possessed “A beautifully written, meticulously documented analysis of [this] little-known history.” —Brian Fagan, Current World Archeology In 1864 a U.S. army doctor dug up the remains of a Dakota man who had been killed in Minnesota and sent the skeleton to a museum in Washington that was collecting human remains for research. In the “bone rooms” of the Smithsonian, a scientific revolution was unfolding that would change our understanding of the human body, race, and prehistory. Seeking evidence to support new theories of racial classification, collectors embarked on a global competition to recover the best specimens of skeletons, mummies, and fossils. As the study of these discoveries increasingly discredited racial theory, new ideas emerging in the budding field of anthropology displaced race as the main motive for building bone rooms. Today, debates about the ethics of these collections have taken on a new urgency as a new generation seeks to learn about the indigenous past and to return objects of spiritual significance to native peoples.
Download or read book The Air Balloon Or A Treatise on the Aerostatic Globe Lately Invented by Mons Montgolfier The Third Edition with Additions written by and published by . This book was released on 1783 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Extinct Monsters to Deep Time written by Diana E. Marsh and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2019-02-18 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Extinct Monsters to Deep Time is an ethnography that documents the growing friction between the research and outreach functions of the museum in the 21st century. Marsh describes participant observation and historical research at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History as it prepared for its largest-ever exhibit renovation, Deep Time. As a museum ethnography, the book provides a grounded perspective on the inner-workings of the world’s largest natural history museum and the social processes of communicating science to the public.
Download or read book The Lives of Dillon Ripley written by Roger D. Stone and published by University Press of New England. This book was released on 2017-06-06 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Yale-educated Renaissance man, S. Dillon Ripley was a Òcourtly, determined, hugely ambitious, energetic, funny, and colorful ornithologist, conservationist, and cultural standard-bearerÓ who led the Smithsonian Institution for twenty years, during its greatest period of growth. During his watch, from 1964 to 1984, the SI added eight new museums and seven new research centers and began publication of the Smithsonian magazine. It was RipleyÕs vision that transformed Òthe nationÕs atticÓ from a dusty archive to a vibrant educational and cultural institution, just as he had transformed YaleÕs Peabody museum before it. Prior to his career at the SI, and running parallel with it for the rest of his life, was RipleyÕs work as an ornithologist, begun in New Guinea in the 1930s, continued through his PhD from Harvard in 1943, and culminating in his landmark thirty-year project documenting the bird life of India. His lifelong passion for ornithology led him to positions of leadership in worldwide nature conservation. In the midst of these endeavors he was recruited in 1944 to the Office of Strategic Services, a Yalie club at the outset that became the forerunner of the modern CIA. Posted to Ceylon, he recruited and ran agents who reported from and infiltrated Japanese-held Southeast Asia. Roger D. Stone worked with Ripley on the board of the World Wildlife Fund. He has access to the Ripley familyÕs archives and photos, as well as to the voluminous archives at the Smithsonian and the National Archives, and to over forty hours of transcribed interviews, conducted with Ripley at the Smithsonian.
Download or read book Places of Invention written by Arthur P. Molella and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2015-06-30 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The companion book to an upcoming museum exhibition of the same name, Places of Invention seeks to answer timely questions about the nature of invention and innovation: What is it about some places that sparks invention and innovation? Is it simply being at the right place at the right time, or is it more than that? How does “place”—whether physical, social, or cultural—support, constrain, and shape innovation? Why does invention flourish in one spot but struggle in another, even very similar location? In short: Why there? Why then? Places of Invention frames current and historic conversation on the relationship between place and creativity, citing extensive scholarship in the area and two decades of investigation and study from the National Museum of American History’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. The book is built around six place case studies: Hartford, CT, late 1800s; Hollywood, CA, 1930s; Medical Alley, MN, 1950s; Bronx, NY,1970s; Silicon Valley, CA, 1970s–1980s; and Fort Collins, CO, 2010s. Interspersed with these case studies are dispatches from three “learning labs” detailing Smithsonian Affiliate museums’ work using Places of Invention as a model for documenting local invention and innovation. Written by exhibition curators, each part of the book focuses on the central thesis that invention is everywhere and fueled by unique combinations of creative people, ready resources, and inspiring surroundings. Like the locations it explores, Places of Invention shows how the history of invention can be a transformative lens for understanding local history and cultivating creativity on scales of place ranging from the personal to the national and beyond.
Download or read book Yesterday s Tomorrows written by Joseph J. Corn and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 1996-05-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Jules Verne to the Jetsons, from a 500-passenger flying wing to an anti-aircraft flying buzz-saw, the vision of the future as seen through the eyes of the past demonstrates the play of the American imagination on the canvas of the future.
Download or read book Treasures of the Smithsonian written by Edwards Park and published by Random House Value Publishing. This book was released on 1994 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Features the masterpieces of art, history, invention, and nature selected from the Smithsonian exhibition.
Download or read book Smithsonian Atlas of Space Exploration written by Roger D. Launius and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the history of space exploration, there have been many leaps for humankind. From the foremost experts at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, here is a complete visual narrative of our journey from Earth to the stars. . . . Although the momentous October 4, 1957, launch of Sputnik 1 was not the beginning of humanity's adventure toward space—our curiosity about the skies has been one of the few constants in history—it was the first true venture into orbit. And when future generations think of the twentieth century, they will undoubtedly judge our movement into space, with both machines and people, as a crowning achievement. As we progress in the new millennium, space exploration is vital to managing our global future, as well as to understanding our past and the creation of Earth. The Atlas of Space Exploration depicts the ever-fascinating history of the space age and humanity's progress in exploring new frontiers. Incredible images from NASA and other sources, visual conceptions of Moon bases, and newly commissioned maps reveal a visual history spanning the earliest eras of the universe, the dawn of the space age, the launch of Sputnik, missions to the Moon, robot landings on the terrestrial planets, and the exploration of the outer solar system. These developments in technology are illuminated by a rich historical context, highlighting how space exploration has changed and expanded our vision of the universe.
