The clean, simple topography of the Dust Bowl region proved to be an ideal setting for Gerrard’s hyper-realistic virtual reality. Playing with time and technology, Gerrard’s works exhibit a stark beauty combined with the underlying menace of man’s consumption.

The exhibition, “Directions: John Gerrard” opened at the Hirshhorn last Thursday and will be on view through March 28, 2010.  I spoke to John Gerrard about his artistic process while he was fine tuning the exhibition on opening day.

With your works you can almost jump inside, it’s like a virtual reality…
It is a virtual reality.  What I’ve done is I’ve established a very formal space from which one can consider the work. It’s an orbit. I propose that the medium is profoundly orbital. It’s a type of world. It’s an unfolding scene.  It’s not a loop.  A loop is cinematic. Different activities can happen on orbit, but the orbit will remain the same. One could fly through my scenes like a wild fighter pilot, but I’ve established a very formal cinematic walking orbit.

So how much of the final artistic product is man, how much of it is machine?
That’s a funny one (smiling). In the end it’s all decisions. It’s completely made up. Everything you’ve all seen is a decision. But the scene unfolds. I don’t know what every moment’s going to look like. In a sense it’s a behavior. The light changes over time, the shadows fall. And in that sense, that’s sort of executed. The overall design is there, but it just runs. It’s a program that runs. In real terms, it’s all sorts of design really. It’s very designed.

Is this a very labor-intensive process?
It’s very labor-intensive. I come from an art school background, but I’ve developed a team of producers now who work with me: a modeler builds 3-D models; a programmer who creates solutions, such as reflection solutions or shadowing solutions; and a producer who then weaves it all together into a compelling whole. The works in this show here in the Hirshhorn have taken up to a year to make by three or four people.

What initially drew you to the scenes from the American Dust Bowl region?
Actually, it was one image I found online of a storm from Black Sunday, 1935. I traced it back to the University of Texas in Austin and found the original. I spent a lot of time in the Center of American History there, and I began to research very extensively the Dust Bowl as a historical moment in time in relationship to the surge of power that petroleum allotted upon the landscape. The Dust Bowl for me is less about the human outcomes, but more about how it bookends the 20th century. The 20th century kicks off with this incredible surge of power, which is sort of petroleum-based, which is used to plow the landscape with the catastrophic results. I just generally began to research the Dust Bowl, not in a national sense, not as an American story, but as a global narrative of relationship to power, and I thought it wasn’t interpreted in that way very widely.

This technique works well on the expansive swaths of land provided by the American West. Do you have plans to use this technique in different settings?
Absolutely. A new work is now based on a Cuban landscape, which is much less barren, but there is this curious school in the landscape which is very derelict. It’s like a functioning ruin in a way, which is interesting. The Cuban scene is post-oil realities. So the American landscape is interesting on lots of different levels. It’s very well-suited to be remade virtually because it’s largely featureless. It’s also very flat. It has a very, very formal minimalist quality in and of itself. It almost looks synthetic to begin with. You can kind of play with and amplify that feeling in the work. It’s much more challenging to remake a Cuban landscape, but we’re doing it at the moment.

Do you play a lot of video games?  How did you come across the software?
I play no video games, and in a funny way, I think that’s got something to do with my usage of the medium.  Which is not narrative-driven. It’s much more aligned with sculpture and photography than it is with gaming, which I suppose in a way has a foot in cinema. I’m definitely not a gamer. I came from an undergraduate in sculpture, MFA, and within the context of a master in science, I began to hear about this gaming engine. So I was like “What the hell is a gaming engine?” and someone sits down and explains that it’s a solution that allows virtual scenes to be rendered in real time . . . Very quickly emerging from that were all these new possibilities—particularly temporal possibilities.

Big Bird, featured on a postage stamp. Image courtesy of the Postal Museum.

It’s almost impossible for me to imagine my childhood without public television—Sesame Street which turns 40 this week and is the kind of program that can still chase the clouds away. Of course when I was tuning in, the cult of Elmo was a few years off, and Big Bird and Cookie Monster totally owned the street. Shoot, Grover still makes me laugh and the theme song alone is iconic.

Granted, Sesame Street has its share of devoted critics who say the show does more harm than good, it’s hard to argue against the fact that when the show hit the airwaves in 1969—along with Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, which debuted the year before—it opened the door for educational children’s entertainment. Sesame Street has since spread the world over in its mission not only to help kids with their ABCs and 123s, but to help the littlest members of your family with difficult concepts—like death and childbirth—as well as to teach them how to get along with the different types of people in your neighborhood.

If you are among the show’s fans, read about Sesame Street characters from around the world. (I think you could also get away with “Doing the Pigeon” or singing some of Sesame Street’s funkadelic musical numbers from the show’s heyday, or perhaps a verse from the more even keel “Being Green.”) Furthermore, the Discovery Theater in D.C. is throwing a birthday party with Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Zoe, and Prairie Dawn, along with Muppeteers Kevin Clash, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, and Fran Brill, join Sesame Street executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente and Sonia Manzano (‘Maria’) to talk about the show’s 40 years of fun and learning. They share clips from the first season in 1969 and scenes from new episodes. Tickets are required for this event. Prices and additional information are available through Smithsonian Associates. Also, don’t forget to swing by the American History Museum where you can see Kermit the Frog, who was a regular on the show. Happy 40th!

Commemorate Veteran's day with a tour around the National Mall and the Smithsonian museums. Postage stamp, "Hometowns honor their returning veterans," courtesy of the National Postal Museum.

Monday, November 9: Curator’s Talk with Cesáreo Moreno

The Anacostia Museum is pleased to host the newly-opened exhibition The African Presence in México, which looks at the history, culture and Art of Afr0-Mexicans from the colonial era up to the present day. The show’s curator, Cesáreo Moreno, will be on deck today to discuss topics such as the history and cultural renditions of Africans in Mexico, Spanish history and the slave trade. This event is free but reservations are required. Please call 202-633-4844 to reserve your spot today. Anacostia Community Museum, 2:00 PM

Tuesday, November 10: Home-School Open House

The National Portrait Gallery education department hosts a homeschool open house with mini-tours of special exhibitions, story time for children, hands-on art activities, and an interactive self-guide for groups. Reservations are required. Attendees please e-mail the number of children with ages, number of adults, mailing address and phone number to: provostg@si.edu. National Portrait Gallery, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm

Wednesday, November 11: Robert M. Poole’s On Hallowed Ground

Smithsonian magazine contributing editor Robert M. Poole will be available to sign copies of his book On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery, a portion of which was adapted into a magazine article in the November 2009 issue. American History Museum, 12 – 2pm

Thursday, November 12: Meet Our Museum: Confederate Currency—Whatever It Took to Keep It Circulating

There are those out there who will assert even today that during the s0-called “War of Northern Aggression,” the South was not defeated, it was simply overwhelmed. Although the preservation of the Union would  indicate otherwise, the South had its moments of sheer ingenuity—an example of which being how they kept money in circulation during the Civil War, and curator Dick Doty of the American History Museum’s Numismatics collection will talk about the methods they used. A question and answer session will follow. Free. American History Museum, 12:00-12:30 PM

Friday, November 13: Vice Adm. Donald D. Engen Flight Jacket Night: A Conversation with Alan Bean

On November 19th, 1969, Alan Bean became the fourth man to set foot on the Moon during the second lunar landing as the Apollo 12 lunar module pilot. After a distinguished career at NASA, he retired in 1981 to pursue painting and public speaking—and both of those talents will be on display this evening at the Air and Space Museum. Alan Bean will discuss his life and career and be available for book signings. And don’t forget to explore the galleries of his otherworldly artwork in the companion exhibit, Alan Bean: Painting Apollo, First Artist on Another World. Air and Space Museum, 8:00 PM.

Head out to the National Zoo in honor of Teacher Appreciation Day! Detail of Class learning about the Sahara Desert, Washington, D.C. (1957) by the Scurlock Studio.

Friday, November 5:

Sorry kids, no special evening events happening at the Smithsonian tonight.

Saturday, November 6: Teacher Appreciation Day

After spending a week at school, teachers need a day of fun just like the kids they have to put up with, er, nurture for seven hours a day five days a week. In honor of Teacher Appreciation Day, the National Zoo has put together a special lineup of programs especially for educators, including animal demonstrations and exhibit programs that will hopefully inspire classroom activities. You will also have an opportunity to take a peek at the new exhibit Amazonian Science on a Sphere, view the documentary The Monarch Effect and much more. Go to this website for a full list of events. Teachers will also receive discounts for the day, such as a $10 flat rate for parking, a 15 percent discount in National Zoo stores and 30 percent discount at the Mane Restaurant. Free, but registration is required. Call 202-633-3059 or send an email for more information. And don’t forget to bring your school ID! National Zoo, 10:00 AM-4:00 PM

Sunday, November 7: Experiments in 19th-Century Color Photography

Cameras are everywhere nowadays so it’s easy to take for granted the technology we have at our fingertips. As far as photography has come along, it’s not always easy to look back and figure out the processes shutterbug pioneers used to create their images. Case in point, the development of color photography. It wasn’t always a matter of course, which makes some modern scholars wonder: how’d they do that? (Smithsonian contributor Robert Poole wrote “In Living Color,” a piece on an early, obscure color photography process that employed potatoes.) In this scholarly symposium, come listen to a collective of international specialists and learn how color photography came about. Speakers will include: Michelle Delaney, curator, Photographic History Collection, National Museum of American History; Dr. Susan Stulik, senior scientist, The Getty Conservation Institute; Grant Romer,senior conservator, The International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House; Kelly Wright, adjunct professor and doctoral candidate, University of Cincinnati and Francois Brunet, professor of art history and literature, University of Paris. This event is part of Fotoweek DC.

And don’t forget, Smithsonian magazine’s 7th annual photo contest that is coming to a close on December 1, 2009. Time is running out to enter your photos! Free. American History Museum, 10:00 AM-5:00 PM.

For more information on events and exhibitions at the Smithsonian museums, check our companion website, goSmithsonian.com, the official visitor’s guide to the Smithsonian.

Aerobics for Everyone (1982). Image courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways.

Autumn is upon us, which means we must once again turn our thoughts to the Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas triumvirate of culinary evil. No matter how much goodwill you show to your friends, family and neighbors, it won’t save your waistline from the smorgasbord of rich foods that you traditionally encounter this time of year. That said, let’s turn our thoughts to a bygone era, that of the 1980s, that age where you could don shoulder pads large enough to create the illusion of having a slimmer midsection that than what you actually had. Also, it was an age of star-studded aerobic exercise, be it with Jane Fonda in pastel leggings helping you look your Barbarella best or Richard Simmons encouraging you to sweat to the oldies (or start a grass roots Rockette troupe—I could never really tell.) Not to be outdone, Smithsonian Folkways has in its collections a handy dandy workout record of its own from 1982: Aerobics for Everyone. No, you don’t get the benefit of working along with a video and watching someone do the moves with you—although, per the cover, the vocal and included written instructions are easy enough to follow—you do get to drop a stone or two to the tune of world music classics like “Hava Nagila,” “The Mexican Hat Dance” and the “Tarantella.” (If you can work out to the latter while tossing pizza dough, you’re an exercise ace.)

Listen to a few selections from this album. Audio Courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways, the nonprofit record label of the national museum. For CDs or digital downloads please visit folkways.si.edu

Jim by Rebecca Westcott (2003) / Jim Houser, Philadelphia, PA / NPG, SI

“If one paints someone’s portrait, one should not know him if possible. No knowledge. I do not want to know him at all,” German Expressionist Otto Dix once said.  With that kind of detachment, it’s likely Dix wouldn’t have approved of the new Portraiture Now: Communities exhibit, where artist and subject are pals and everybody seems to know everybody, and in fact, a whole town, from the mayor to the fireman, hangs together like the neighbors they are in the museum’s gallery.

The exhibit opens tomorrow, Friday, November 6 at the National Portrait Gallery.

The three featured painters, Rose Frantzen from Maquoketa, Iowa, Jim Torok from Brookland, Brooklyn, New York, and Rebecca Westcott from Philadelphia, offer up a mix of portraits of family members, friends and neighbors.

The figures in the late Rebecca Westcott’s full-length portraits of her fellow Philadelphia twenty-somethings are slinky and elongated. There is an urban edge to her style, despite the slightly muted colors. “I think of my paintings as separate parts,” she has said, “that make up a whole world when exhibited together.”  Westcott  was  struck by a car  in 2004 at the age of 28. This is the first showing of her work in Washington, DC.

The painstakenly-created miniature portraits created by Jim Torok may be small, but the intense sharpness, color and lighting that appears almost photographic in nature entices the observer to look more closely. “Scale matters,” as curator Frank Goodyear explains. Torok’s portraits, one of which can take up to a year to complete, depict fellow New York artists like Trenton Doyle Hancock, as well as the portraits of three generations of a family from Colorado.

Rose Frantzen takes visitors back to her hometown of Maquoketa, Iowa, in both sight and sound. With her series of 180 oil portraits of fellow townspeople, she brought portraits back to the common man, literally offering her neighbors a chance to have their likenesses painted for free. When one enters the exhibit, walls full of Maquoketans greet you, their eyes gleaming, while a surround-sound recording of their voices play on a loop, telling you about life in a small town in Iowa.

“Portraiture Now: Communities” runs from November 6thuntil July 5th, 2010 at the National Portrait Gallery.

The ease of positioning the Flex-Straw made it appealing for hospital use. Joseph B. Friedman Papers, NMAH Archives Center

They are everywhere. Those quirky, bendy straws that make the satisfying crunching sound when flexed. They are in every soft drink, every restaurant… even when we don’t ask for them, those bendable straws magically appear in front of us. They’re one of the most undistinguished of utilitarian items of our time, yet few have surely ever paused to think about how they came to be.

Thankfully, for all those now hung-up on the history of the FlexStraw, the American History Museum has slurped up some straw stats to quench your thirst for knowledge.

The FlexStraw owes its existence to Joseph B. Friedman, (1900 – 1982) an independent American inventor, who came up with numerous interesting ideas that never really succeeded in the marketing world. When he was just 14, his list of inventions included an ice cream dispenser and the “pencilite”—a pencil with a light—creations that eventually granted him nine U.S. patents and even more in Great Britain, Australia and Canada. However, it was while working as a realtor in San Francisco, California in the 1930s, that Friedman experienced his most “prolific patenting period,” according to the museum. Six of his nine U.S. patents were issued then, one proving to be his most successful invention—our friend, the flexible drinking straw.

His “Eureka!” moment came when he was in an ice cream parlor with his young daughter, Judith. The tiny girl was struggling to get some height on a stiff straw while seated at the counter. Friedman had an idea. He began to experiment with an upgrade.

Pencil sketch of flexible drinking straw, no date.

According to the  Archives Center at the American History Museum, Friedman took a paper straight straw, inserted a screw and using dental floss, wrapped the paper into the screw threads, creating corrugations (see drawing at right). After removing the screw, the altered paper straw would bend conveniently over the edge of the glass, allowing small children, including his daughter Judith, to better reach their beverages. A U.S. patent was issued for this new invention under the title “Drinking Tube,” on September 28, 1937. Friedman attempted to sell his straw patent to several existing straw manufacturers beginning in 1937 without success, so after completing his straw machine, he began to produce the straw himself.

Today, from 12 to 12:30, you can see the machine that was used to make the FlexStraw, samples of the straw, and other items from the exhibit, “The Straight Truth About the Flexible Drinking Straw” at the “Meet the Museum” event held most Thursdays at the museum.

Merlin, the National Zoo's 27-year-old sloth bear, died this morning. Photo courtesy of the Zoo.

It’s a sad day at the National Zoo. Merlin, the National Zoo’s 27-year-old sloth bear, died this morning after a 48-hour illness. Merlin was born at the Zoo in 1981, and helped to introduce millions of visitors to this fascinating, but unfamiliar, bear species.

On Monday morning, Merlin underwent a routine physical examination. The examination went well, but Merlin did not fully recover from the anesthetic by the afternoon. Veterinarians also noticed that he had vomited some fluid with blood in it. Because of his medical history—he suffered a gastric volvulus, “twisted stomach” in 1994—staff members evaluated him again on Monday.

Veterinarians did blood work, ultrasounds and radiographs and decided that he needed surgery to correct a partially twisted spleen. After the procedure, Merlin seemed to be getting better, but further blood work revealed possible circulatory shock and renal failure. Staff stayed with Merlin 24 hours a day for two days until he passed away this morning.

Merlin fathered seven cubs, the youngest of which—3-year-old Balawat—left the National Zoo earlier this year to join a female cub at the Akron Zoo in Ohio. Balawat and Merlin bonded last fall after Hana, Balawat’s mother, was not receptive to mating with Merlin. Zookeepers introduced the two males last October. It took a month or so, but the pair eventually hit it off. Staff found them playing together for the first time in November. After playing, the keepers reported, the two sloth bears curled up together and took a nap.

Sloth bears, who use their curved claws to pick up ants and termites, are native to the Indian sub-continent. They use their long snout and lips to create a vacuum-like seal to suck up the insects. Sloth bears are the only bears to carry young on their backs. National Zoo scientists, engaged in sloth bear conservation efforts since the 1970s, estimate that about 6,000 to 11,000 sloth bears remain in the wild. The animals face critical loss of habitat and as a result, the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species categorizes sloth bears as vulnerable.

Merlin’s death at age 27 —the oldest sloth bear in captivity died at 29—will be reviewed. A necropsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of Merlin’s death, but results won’t be available for a few weeks. Two female sloth bears, Hana and Khali, remain on exhibit.

Smithsonian American Art Museum staff install Albert Paley’s Portal Gates at the museum’s Renwick Gallery. Photo by Gene Young.

The Renwick Gallery’s famed Portal Gates by master sculptor and blacksmith Albert Paley are once again back home, reinstalled last week on the second floor in a custom-made alcove, after going on exhibit at Iowa State University. The gates have been a much-loved staple at the gallery since their installation in 1976, when they met with critical acclaim and praise from the press. The Washington Post called them “one of the most important iron and brass works of art since Louis Sullivan.”

In fact, a work by Louis Sullivan figures in the story of how the gates came to be commissioned by the museum. When the newly renovated Renwick Gallery opened in 1972,  two elevator grills designed by Louis Sullivan for the Stock Exchange in Chicago were lent to the gallery by another Smithsonian museum,  the National Museum of American History, and installed in an alcove adjacent to the museum’s store. But according to the Renwick’s then-director Lloyd Herman, American History officials had second thoughts about the loan once they saw how beautiful the work was at the Renwick. So, “they asked for them back for installation there,” Herman explained in a letter to a visitor in 1982.

After losing the Sullivan elevator grills, the Renwick decided to commission the creation of new artwork from contemporary artists and invited several metalsmiths, including Paley, to submit designs. Paley, an art professor at the University of Rochester in New York and internationally reknowned for his one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces, won the $4,800 commission. His detailed drawings, Herman wrote in the same letter, made a “stunning addition to this fine old building.”

Paley and his assistant, Richard Palmer, spent 3,800 hours and seven months creating the 1,200-pound gates. (For the re-installation, museum staff had to use a crank to lift and position them.) Their scale had an overwhelming effect on the young jeweler.  “I felt rather like Gulliver,” he told the Washington Post.  “It didn’t seem as though the objects I was working on changed in scale but instead it was as if I had suddenly shrunk to Lilliputian size.”

Paley was born in Philadelphia in 1944 and grew up in a middle-class family. He decided against attending college, and instead worked as a salesman in a department store until someone suggested he attend the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. “I got a scholarship,” he told the Post.  “And I realized that art was who I was.” He worked primarily as a jeweler until attending a three-day blacksmith’s workshop at Southern Illinois University in 1970. Today, Paley holds an endowed chair at the Rochester Institute of Technology and continues to work in his studio there.

See more photos from the installation on the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Facebook page.

The VERITAS telescope is located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory near Amado, Arizona. Image courtesy of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Shooting through space with the greatest of ease, cosmic rays can careen through the universe at nearly the speed of light. (Cosmic ray is a bit of a misnomer. The term really describes subatomic particles, but using an umbrella term like “cosmic thing” would just be aggravatingly vague.)

But what is the driving force behind these little bits-n-pieces?  Scientists suspected that shock waves from supernovae and massive stars were propelling the superspeedy particles, but they couldn’t prove it in part because they could only observe cosmic rays that hit the Earth’s atmosphere. The VERITAS telescope—which is partially funded by the Smithsonian Institution—however, has allowed scientists to see indirect evidence of cosmic rays much farther away in the universe. While observing the M82 galaxy—which resides about 12 million light-years away from the Earth—VERITAS produced evidence that may shed some light on the matter.

M82 is a “starburst” galaxy, meaning that it is rich with newborn stars. Although VERITAS cannot observe cosmic rays directly, it can detect gamma rays—a form of radiation that is produced when cosmic rays interact with interstellar gas. It took more than two years of data collection, but VERITAS was ultimately able to detect gamma radiation emanating from M82. “The detection of M82 indicates that the universe is full of natural particle accelerators, and as ground-based gamma-ray observatories continue to improve, further discoveries are inevitable,” said Martin Pohl, a professor of physics at Iowa State University who helped lead the study. This evidence supports the theory that supernovae and massive stars are the universe’s predominant accelerators of cosmic rays.

Trek Lime Bike, winner of the People's Design Award. Courtesy of Trek Bicycle Corporation.

Every year, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum asks the public, what constitutes good design? This October, a couple hundred products were nominated and thousands of votes were cast in the fourth annual People’s Design Award contest—and the winner was (drum roll, please)…the Trek Lime bicycle.

Marketed for the 65 percent of Americans who do not own or ride a bike, the sleek, three-speed automatic shift Lime with push-back brakes is the perfect urban commuting bike. Flip up the saddle, and it has a handy-dandy storage compartment for a wallet and keys.

Its designer, Hans Eckholm of Waterloo, Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycles, accepted the award at the National Design Awards gala on October 22 in New York City. I suspect it was a proud moment for Eckholm, whose sister wrote on the contest’s comment board, “He has been engineering bikes since he was little. He would take bikes apart, put them back together and customize them to his liking!…He is our rock star and I hope this design wins!”

It has been a big couple years for bikes at the Cooper-Hewitt. In 2008, the museum partnered with New York’s Department of Transportation on the CityRacks competition to design a new sidewalk bicycle rack.

This little brown bat, found in a New York cave in October 2008, exhibits the telling sign of the white-nose syndrome: white fungus around the nose. Photo by Ryan von Linden/New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

A mysterious disease that presents with a white fungal growth around the nose has been killing bats in the Northeastern United States. It’s been estimated that more than one million bats have already died and the The United States Department of the Interior has declared the illness an “unprecedented wildlife crisis.”

At a press conference last week at the National Zoo, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced $800,000 in grants to combat the white-nose syndrome.

The National Zoo’s Conservation Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia, received a grant to create the first ever captive population of the endangered Virginia big-eared bat. The illness is so serious among this species of bat that it could entirely wipe these creatures entirely in the wild. Currently, fewer than 15,000 Virginia big-eared bats remain in selected caves in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky and white-nose syndrome has taken its toll in those caves.

“We have been calling [the captive-bat population] an insurance population in the same way that when I have car insurance, I’m hoping I never have a car accident and have to use it,” says Luis Padilla, an associate veterinarian at the Zoo. “But if I do get into a car accident, it will rescue me. While we hope that Virginia big-eared bats do not go extinct in the wild, we’re establishing this captive population because we’re being realistic that there is a very significant, very devastating threat out there.”

Padilla says they will collect a “founder population” of 20 healthy bats starting this week. Because the Virginia big-eared bat has never been kept or bred in captivity, the Zoo’s staff will take extra precautions to ensure the bats remain healthy. The biggest challenge, Padilla says, will be providing them with an adequate diet. After all, bats can eat up to 1,000 mosquitos a day.

White-nose syndrome was detected just three years ago near Albany, New York, when a caver photographed hibernating bats that had the strange white powder-like substance around their noses. He also saw many dead bats lining the floor of the cave. That next year, biologists from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation saw more bats with white noses and even some bats flying around during daylight hours, a time when they normally should have been hibernating. The biologists noted this behavior in five sites in the state of New York that winter.

Fast forward to 2009, when 81 sites in nine Northeastern states are affected. Mortality in some of these caves has reached 90 percent.  Researchers from more than 50 organizations are on the case trying to figure out what causes the fungus and how to stop it. “At this point, we have a lot more questions than answers,” said Jeremy Coleman, who is spearheading the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s effort.

The service also gave grants to organizations that will analyze the susceptibility of the Indiana bat (a common bat in the region), identify ways to stop white-nose syndrome fungal growth, compare immunity and body composition of affected bats to healthy bats, develop a rapid white-nose syndrome field test and establish a way to genetically predict at-risk populations.

Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler (1893) by John Singer Sargent. Image courtesy of the American Art Museum.

Monday, November 2: National Family Literacy Day

Knowledge is power (I know, it’s an overused phrase—but it’s true) and today is a great day to encourage the people in your family to pursue a lifetime full of reading. Enjoy storytelling sessions as well as theatrical performances that tie in to permanent museum exhibits like the Star Spangled Banner and the Greensboro lunch counter. Hopefully the day will inspire you to go home and do some reading on your own—and encourage you to talk about the things that grab your interest with those near and dear to you. Even if you aren’t in the DC area for this event, visit the website of the National Center for Family Literacy—who is co-sponsoring this event—to find programs in your area. Free. American History Museum, 10:00 AM-3:00 PM

Tuesday, November 3: FONZ Photo Club

If you’re a shutterbug with a penchant for snapping shots of critters, come on out to the National Zoo and participate in the FONZ (that’s Friends Of the National Zoo for those of you who think Henry Winkler when they see the word, FONZ) photo club’s monthly meeting. Share your photos, hear from speakers and learn about new techniques that may help you capture that picture perfect moment. You must already be a FONZ member to participate. For more information on the FONZ photo club and how to participate, check out their website. National Zoo, 7:00 PM

Wednesday, November 4: Portrait of Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler

John Singer Sargent had a knack for painting socialites and caused a perfectly marvelous scandal when he unveiled his Madame X in 1884. (The uproar over the painting was so great that it prompted him to move from Paris to London.) In tonight’s gallery talk led by deputy director emeritus Charles Robertson, come take a look at another work of Sargent’s: an 1893 portrait of Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler, heiress to the Astor fortune. Free. Smithsonian American Art Museum, 6:00 PM

Thursday, November 5: Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits

Photographer Dorothea Lange will perhaps be forever known for one photograph—a portrait of Florence Owens Thompson popularly known as Migrant Mother, which has become an iconic image of the Great Depression. Come listen to Linda Gordon, author of Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits, discuss the life and times of this famous photographer. A book signing will follow the lecture. Free. American Art Museum, 7:00 PM

Friday, November 6: Sounds of Africa

Modern music has a fair share of roots firmly planted in Africa, and today, Ugandan musician Daniel Ssuuna will teach you about African instruments as well as polyrhythms and syncopation. Visitors will also have the opportunity to play instruments. Ideal for visitors aged 6 and older. Free. African Art Museum, 10:30 AM. This event will repeat on November 20 at the same time and venue.

For more information on events and exhibitions at the Smithsonian museums, check our companion website, goSmithsonian.com, the official visitor’s guide to the Smithsonian.

Self Portrait Without Skin (1997) by Kim Eric Lilot. Image courtesy of the American Art Museum.

Friday, October 30: A Salute to Judy Garland and Friends

It’s unfortunate to think that Judy Garland may now be best remembered for the tragic circumstances that filled her life, not to mention as one of the ultimate camp icons. I mean she was a darn good entertainer. (Her crowning achievement may very well have been her 1961 performances at Carnegie Hall, memorialized on vinyl—and later CD—and acknowledged by the Library of Congress as an aesthetically and culturally significant recording.) Forty years after her death (and 70 years after she appeared in The Wizard of Oz), pianist Richard Glazier is presenting a tribute show featuring a host of songs that Garland made world-famous: “The Boy Next Door,” “The Trolley Song,” “The Man That Got Away” and, of course, “Over the Rainbow.” Tickets are required. Rates are: $25 general admission, $20 for Resident Associate members. Tickets may be purchased online. American History Museum, 7:30 PM

Saturday, October 31: ImaginAsia: Predicting Your Future

Cootie catchers are a popular means of fortune telling, but their accuracy is somewhat suspect. When in doubt, consult the Book of Falnama—sort of the big honkin’ cootie catcher that commoners and royalty in Turkey and Iran used to consult when they needed advice about the future. Kick off the afternoon by touring the new exhibit Falnama: The Book of Omens and learn about the auspicious meanings behind the images and symbols and then go back into the classroom where you can create an amulet for protection and posterity. Free. Freer, 2:00 PM.

Sunday, November 1: Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos

Come and celebrate the Day of the Dead—a Latin American holiday that celebrates the memory of the dearly departed—at the American History Museum. From 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, an ofrenda (altar) will be created to memorialize the braceros, Mexican guest workers who labored in the United States from 1942–1964, and you can make your own paper flowers to leave on the ofrenda or to take home to honor the memory of whomever you like. At noon, writer Mary Andrade will talk about Day of the Dead traditions and will be available to sign copies of her book Day of the Dead: A Passion for Life. You will also be able to sample traditional Day of the Dead foods at the Stars and Stripes Café. Free. American History Museum, 11:00 AM-4:00 PM.

For more information on events and exhibitions at the Smithsonian museums, check our companion website, goSmithsonian.com, the official visitor’s guide to the Smithsonian.

Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart in Night At The Museum - Battle of the Smithsonian. Image courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

Amelia Earhart: In Night At the Museum – Battle of the Smithsonian, actress Amy Adams plays this powerful woman accessorized with inspirational tips from the museum’s Air and Space collection. Don a (still stylish) brown leather jacket, coif your hair into a sexy early-20^th century bob, carry a miniature plastic plane and you instantly become the iconic aviatrix.

The Artist Formerly Known As: If you’re feeling a fit of 1980s electro-funk coming on (no, it’s nothing like the symptoms of H1N1) on Halloween night, cue American History’s  “Yellow Cloud,” the guitar formerly owned by the Purple One himself. *Sequin jacket and high heels not provided by the Smithsonian.

Julia Child: It might be a tad difficult to tote around her kitchen, which is housed in its entirety at the National Museum of American History, however, in light of the recent film “Julia & Julia,” grab a wooden spoon, an apron and mimic Meryl Streep’s manicotti mannerisms.

Batman: Artist Mark Newport’s work (knitted superhero costumes) is currently being featured at the Renwick Gallery. The loose and not-at-all-form-fitting costumes question the validity of superheros. Obviously knitting an entire Batman costume would be impossible on our hurried schedule before the party, so ATM blogger Abby Callard suggests a shortcut: buy a Batman costume that is a few sizes too big, throw in a knitted hat or gloves and call yourself “Sloppy Batman.”

With Balloon Boy costumes bound to be this year’s version of 2008’s popular Sarah Palin costume, there’s no place like the National Air and Space Museum for aspiring ballooonists. Get inspired by the curious “Balloon Farm” photo, circa 1892, in our photo gallery. Perhaps a few plastic bags could do the trick, but don’t get offended if people think your costume is full of hot air.

Annie Oakley: If you dress up in a cowgirl outfit and tote around a rifle, you could be Annie Oakley. But you could also wear the same getup, and walk down the sidewalk belting out “You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun,” and your costume becomes Ethel Merman all the way. Take a few tips from Merman’s visage from the collections of the National Postal Museum. Portrait Gallery.

If you and your date are feeling a bit pinched from the recession, and have resorted to scarfing up fountain change to pay for your Starbucks, you could both go as “Loose Change,” picking up tips and ideas from the National Numismatic Collection at the American History Museum, home to 450,000 coins, medals and decorations and 1.1 million pieces of paper money (including the recently acquired “Confederate Treasury horde” of cancelled Confederate paper money).

View our photo gallery of last minute Halloween costume ideas.