Smithsonian.com

In his tobacco pipe, James Smithson used to smoke clay dotted with tiny bits of rock.

The mineral expert, who left a small fortune in his will to establish an institution for the “diffusion of knowledge,” wasn’t just a British eccentric; he was actually a pioneer in microchemistry. To study minute samples of a mineral he rolled bits into clay and fired the mix in his pipe. The dust-studded clay could then be studied with flame analysis.

Yesterday at the Smithsonian Castle, a new book about the founder’s life spurred a lot of talk about the man who so enriched the United States but had never visited. More than 100 people gathered to tour the exhibits on Smithson (including a sample of his most notable discovery, the mineral Smithsonite) and to see his small tomb near the entrance of the castle.

But piecing together the story hasn’t been an easy task. Many of Smithson’s belongings that were shipped to the Smithsonian after his death, including the journals he kept for most of his life, were destroyed in a catastrophic fire at the Castle in 1865.

“Smithson will always be an enigmatic figure,” said curator Steven Turner. “Precious little of the man survived.”

Even Smithson’s bones couldn’t get a rest from the search for clues. Yesterday, forensic anthropologist David Hunt described how in 1973 the founder’s skeleton was exhumed from the crypt. It went through an analysis that determined that the bones did indeed most likely belong to an older European gentleman who had bad teeth and probably smoked a pipe.

But the process didn’t start out so smoothly: A blowtorch was used to open the sealed coffin, which caught the silk lining inside on fire. To put it out, workers rushed over to a nearby water fountain, filled up their mouths and spit the water onto the flames. Luckily, it worked.

Biographer Heather Ewing was able to put together all the strange pieces of the hazy puzzle to write The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution and the Birth of the Smithsonian.

The Smithsonian’s founder was the illegitimate son of English nobility, and was obsessed by that background, Ewing believes. As a young man he went by his mother’s name, Macie, but changed it to Smithson after his father, a prestigious Duke. Smithson even sought out references to his famous father in books and marked them.

As the search for information on Smithson continues, the task could get easier. Officials announced that the Library of Congress agreed yesterday to return some of Smithson’s books that had ended up over there, making the Smithsonian’s collection just a little more Smithson-ian.

(Photograph Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution)

The countdown is on. Ten weeks until we know for sure if the National Zoo’s 32-year-old Asian Elephant, Shanthi, is going to have another baby. Remember back in 2001 when Shanthi gave birth to Kandula? For a few rare moments, Washington, D.C. was going gaga over elephants—the real ones.

Now, Zoo officials have announced that Shanthi was artificially inseminated with the sperm of a bull elephant from the Tulsa Zoo and Living Museum in Oklahoma.

Apparently, it’s quite a challenge to get an elephant pregnant. All conditions have to be just so—the female needs to be healthy and happy, the bull elephant’s semen has to be put in just the right place and, it’s all a matter timing. Is this too much information?

As scientists monitor the level of hormone in Shanthi’s blood, we’ll keep you posted. Keep your figure’s crossed.

(Photograph Courtesy of the National Zoo)

Snarkmeister Stephen Colbert’s portrait is now on view at the National Portrait Gallery. Find it on the second floor—kinda, sorta nigh on to George Washington.

Actually, closer to the restrooms. (See it there until March 2).

Asked to comment, the museum’s director Marc Pachter acquiesced: “This is the perfect opportunity to engage more people in the conversation about who belongs in the National Portrait Gallery.”

(Photo Courtesy of National Portrait Gallery)

Caller ID just got more interesting. Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ), the nonprofit partner of Smithsonian’s National Zoo, just released ringtones of 25 animal sounds, from the familiar tiger’s roar to the obscure gargle of the giant anteater. Zoo keepers recorded the sounds.

Program Mom’s calls to be the screech of the wise barred owl and make dad the growl of the patriarchal African lion. Got a goofy friend? How ’bout a hyena?

So far the most popular are the common loon and the Sumatran tiger. Proceeds go to the Zoo’s conservation and education programs. Visit the Zoo’s Web site to listen, download and stay up to speed with all the chatter going on over at the Zoo.

(Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo)

Stephen Colbert, forget the portrait. The Smithsonian wants your slippers. Check it out.

Watch video from part 2 of Stephen Colbert’s visit to the Smithsonian. Tune into “The Colbert Report” Tuesday night to see how his adventure concludes.

Hunter Hoffman, director of the University of Washington’s Virtual Reality Research Center, has a new take on how to deal with pain. He’s created SnowWorld, an innovative virtual reality program that distracts burn victims during painful wound care procedures with a glacial world of snowmen waiting to be pegged with snowballs. We caught up with Hoffman—one of the 87 designers in the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s Design Life Now exhibition—before his VR headset moves to the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston on January 26.

Why did you choose to focus on burn patients?

Wound care of burn patients is one of the most painful procedures in medicine. So if you can get something to work with those patients, chances are good that it will work for other medical procedures. Patients report re-experiencing their injuries when getting their wound care so it’s almost like getting burned again when getting bandages changed.

Why did you choose to create a snowy world for the patients?

The snow and the icy imagery is the antithesis of fire. We’re trying to help the person escape from the fire. There’s a natural evolutionarily selected behavior to get away from the thing that’s injuring you and so people want to leave the treatment room. What we do with SnowWorld is say, ‘We need your body to be here to get the wound care done, but your mind doesn’t have to be here. Your mind can escape into this snowy canyon.’

How much does SnowWorld lower pain perception?

Dave Patterson and I get around 35 to 50 percent reductions on average. Todd Richards and I did some brain scans and studied pain-related brain activity, and there we found 50 to 90 percent reductions in pain-related brain activity.

With Nintendo’s Wii being used for physical therapy and now SnowWorld, do you think that medicine will be tapping into gaming technology more and more?

The gaming industry has created a $40 billion a year incentive for companies to come up with faster and faster computers, faster and faster video cards. The ultra fast, inexpensive computers are being used like crazy in the medical community, and the gaming industry is having a big impact on the quality of medical care and the computerization of western medicine.

How did you feel getting selected for Design Life Now?

It’s easier to believe that SnowWorld is well designed than it is to believe it’s a work of art. I think this exhibit is opening up the definition of design to include medical design. I was surprised to see that, and I think it’s a great idea.

(Photograph courtesy of Hunter Hoffman, UW Seattle)

When Ellen Holen started stitching her sons’ old neckties into a colorful silk quilt some seven decades ago on a central Nebraskan farm, she was probably just being practical, not trying to create a work of art. After all, it was during the Great Depression and she had 10 children — they couldn’t afford to waste much.

If she were alive today, Ellen would probably be startled to see her quilt on display in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery as part of the traveling exhibit Going West! Quilts and Community, which features rare quilts pieced together by pioneering women on the American prairie during the 19th and early 20th century. (more…)