The donation includes an early version of the original solid-state Capri dimmer manufactured by Lutron in September 1964. Also part of the donation is a retail display featuring the fully functional dimmer and other Lutron dimmers and lighting-control systems that show developments at the company over the past 50 years. [...more]
As its name suggests, the omnimetre was designed to carry out numerous operations of arithmetic and trigonometry, says Peggy Kidwell, curator of mathematics at the Smithsonian. “It has scales for multiplication, division and common logarithms, as well as squares, cubes, and fifth powers of numbers.” In his own words, Sexton called his circular invention a “quite useful and inexpensive slide rule.” [...more]
FluMist is not only the first intranasal administered influenza vaccine in the United States, it’s also the first live virus influenza vaccine approved in the United States. [...more]
Stanley is one of the first autonomous robotic vehicles to enter the Smithsonian collection. This blue 2005 Volkswagen Toureg is equipped with custom drive-by-wire system, a sensor rack and a computing system that enables Stanley to navigate without a human in the driver’s seat. [...more]
In a pilot study that used seven Stradivari violins made between 1670 and 1709, the researchers scanned each violin with a CT scanner then used the data to create digital, 3-D images of each violin. [...more]
Scientists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center have found that fledgling catbirds living in the suburbs are extremely vulnerable. Almost 80 percent are killed by predators before they reach adulthood. Nearly half of the deaths are connected to domestic cats. The team studied catbird nests in 3 suburban neighborhoods in Maryland: Spring Park, Opal Daniels Park, and Bethesda. Learn more about this 2011 study by clicking here. (Catbird photo by Gerhard Hofmann)
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