Discover how small observations led to big breakthroughs on deciphering honey bee behavior. Cornell University biology professor Thomas D. Seeley discusses how he and his colleagues solved long-standing mysteries of honey bee nature. He tells how worker bees function as scouts to choose a home site for their colony, furnish their home with beeswax combs, and stock it with brood and food while keeping tens of thousands of colony inhabitants warm and defended from intruders.
Walter Raleigh called Henry VIII a “merciless prince.” He was a “disgrace to human nature and a blot of blood and grease upon the history of England” according to Charles Dickens, and clergyman Edward Lewis declared him “a sincere Christian and a patriot king.” Tudor scholar Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger examines why the real Henry VIII was all these men, a complex king who fascinates us more than 450 years after his tumultuous reign.
From the late 1920s through the end of World War II, Hollywood studios dominated film production throughout the world. Despite the economic problems posed by the Depression, several studios produced more than 50 movies a year, including some of the best-loved and most significant films ever made. Media historian Brian Rose examines the forces that made Hollywood the giant of global filmmaking and the special nature of its achievements during its Golden Age.
Join curator Elizabeth Lay Little for an image-rich late spring lunchtime series focusing on decorative arts and design topics. This session explores why younger collectors aren’t eager to inherit their parents’ antiques with antique dealer Taylor Thistlethwaite. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
In colloquial Lebanese Arabic, “ilili” means “tell me”—and it’s always an invitation. Take advantage of your invitation to visit The Wharf in Southwest Washington and break fresh pita at ilili DC in a three-course lunch designed exclusively for Smithsonian Associates. Executive chef Satinder Vij is on hand to introduce the menu, which includes mezze, an entrée, and dessert.
Just in time for summer, learn how to safely move and care for your orchids outside in the hotter months.
Pluto was the first object discovered in the Kuiper Belt, which contains hundreds of thousands of other icy bodies. Their orbits provide us with a good deal of information about our solar system. Samantha Lawler, an astronomy professor at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, details how meticulous observations and simulations are being carried out and how future observations are under threat.