Field biologist George Schaller will be at the National Zoo Wednesday for a free lecture on his experience in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Tibetan Plateau. Photo courtesy of WCS. DCist's guide to lectures and panel discussions in the D.C. area Wednesday >> At 7:30 p.m., the National Zoo will have a free lecture by field biologist and Wildlife Conservation Society head conservationist, George Scheller. At A Life in the Wild, Schaller......

Yesterday, DCist got the chance to preview the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History's new Sant Ocean Hall, which opens to the public this Saturday. Our photographer, Meaghan Gay, said "It really is a very cool space. I am kind of a museum freak, and this blows away the Natural History museum in NY, or the one in Vienna for that matter. This is a totally interactive space, with video touch screens all around." The musuem......

Neurobiologist and author Robert Sapolsky will be at National Geographic on Tuesday for a post-Killer Stress discussion. Photograph by John Heminway, courtesy of National Geographic. DCist's guide to lectures and panel discussions in the D.C. area Welcome to Talk to Me, Baby, a new feature where we highlight the city's best talking events: the free, the cheap, and the spendy at the area's museums, galleries, and auditoriums. As always, stay tuned to Popcorn and Candy......

Jet packs, hover boards and robot maids. That future has yet to come true. But The New Future, now on view at DCAC, gives us a glimpse into what our next future holds, while reflecting on what didn’t come to pass. Curated by Kristina Bilonick, the exhibit brings together a collection of four artists and their eclectic mix of old and new, pointing out disappointment in what could have been and small wisps of......

My mother and I used to think we were so clever sneaking out of the house after the post-pumpkin pie haze to spend our tryptophan relaxing time at the movie theater, while our extended family lay sprawled on the couches in front of the boob tube ... until a few years later when the entire world caught on and every theater had lines around the block on Turkey Day. Lucky for you, we're in Washington,......

When this photo popped in the DCist Flickr Group, I assumed that epmd had gone on a trip out west somewhere — Texas, Utah, something like that. But no, this is our very own Anacostia River! As furcafe notes in the comments, it looks like one of those natural history museum dioramas. We almost expect to see pronghorns having a drink. And adding to the wackiness, the shot was taken by a camera from......

Oh look, we have our very own Hiroshi Sugimoto. As you may have seen first-hand during his retrospective at the Hirshhorn last spring, Sugimoto got his start in photography by taking images of the exhibits at the Natural History Museum, turning them inexplicably into real-life scenes. Maybe Flickr user xtol7's photo didn't quite convince you that triceratops are roaming the D.C. area willy-nilly just waiting to be photographed, but it kind of makes you......

Doilies make things look precious, dainty and cute, like snowflakes without the hassle of puddles. They look good on mantels, under candelabra and posh clocks. But doilies made from cheap paper simply look tacky when they frame paintings — exactly the look Marcel Duchamp wanted when he hung the Société Anonyme’s first show in New York in 1920. The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America, currently showing at the Phillips Collection, is the first visiting show......

FROSTBURG, Md. -- From the DCist mobile command center on I-68, we present to you our picks for stuff you should do this weekend. (Actually, we did this early this morning, we think we'll be around Frostburg around lunchtime. But wouldn't it be cool if we did have a mobile command center? C'mon Jake, can you spare a few pennies for that? We promise we won't take it on any joyrides ...) Anyhow, with Catherine......