Description: [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="175" caption="In this photo Reverend James O. Arthur poses on a sand dune at White Sands, New Mexico. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Catalog number: N53381."][/caption] This is the first entry in a series celebrating National Native American Heritage Month. In this series we will be highlighting photos from the
Description: The 19th century was a transformative time for the natural sciences. New discoveries didn't just happen in an armchair. Scientists adventured into unfamiliar territory by land and sea on expeditions, and their new findings fed new theories. Groups like the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences formalized America's place
Description: [view in Spanish][edan-image:id=siris_sic_7144,size=200,right]During construction of the Panama Canal at the start of the century, many laborers died of malaria and yellow fever. To find ways to control the diseases, North American biologists came to the isthmus of Panama. Some of these scientists were so impressed by the diversity of the natural environment that they later