Five categories (People, Arts, Nature, Travel and Mobile) and a grand prize of $2,000.

Two of the preeminent researchers of gene therapy hope to improve their patients' sight in an experimental operation (Stephen Voss/WPN)

Hear audio of mouse lemurs and pied babblers (Note: Lemur calls have been slowed down to one-tenth their speed so that scientists can analyze their differences.)

Our giant of a host, Eric Schulze, explains why size mattered in prehistory.

A. Aubrey Bodine's daughter reflects on her father's trained eye toward capturing the people of Charm City. Read more at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/photographing-baltimores-working-class-9338157/

Around the Mall bloggers sit down and talk with a few old friends from Sesame Street (Narration and Video by Megan Gambino / Anika Gupta as Intrepid Reporter / Beth Py-Lieberman as the voice of Big Bird / Script by Jesse Rhodes / Jesse Rhodes as the voice of Cookie Monster and Oscar). Read more at http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2008/10/sesame-street-redux/

Re-enactors relive the Battle of Baltimore and celebrate the flag that inspired our national anthem (Ryan R. Reed). Read more at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/star-spangled-banner-back-on-display-83229098/

Learn more about color blindness: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/ask-smithsonian-how-does-world-look-the-color-blind-180960415/ Have a question in mind? It's your turn to Ask Smithsonian: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/ask-smithsonian/ask-form/

Credit: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum

New technologies helped marine archaeologists recover the H.L. Hunley, a Civil War submarine

Watch how a mother rhesus makes funny faces to her infant child to grab its attention

Credit: Carlos Jaramillo, German Bayona and Edward Duarte, using Gplates and VideoPad by NCHsoftware

Yacouba Sawadogo, a farmer from Burkina Faso, has become a pioneer in the fight against desertification – succeeding where many international agencies have failed

http://j.mp/196BLpQ From her salon in Maryland, Camille Reed sees more black women embracing natural hair

Have you ever wondered if the Leaning Tower of Pisa is a catastrophe waiting to happen? In this one-minute video, Ask Smithsonian host Eric Schulze explains how architects and engineers spent the last eight hundred years or so making things go from bad to worse, bringing the gravity-defying tower to the brink of disaster

Vice president of engineering and chief evangelist at Google on the connected world in 2050. Read more at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/vinton-cerf-on-where-the-internet-will-take-us-1128826/

After arriving at the zoo obese, Nikki the Bear was put on a strict diet by the zoo nutritionists with great results (Video by: Ryan R. Reed). Read more at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/nikki-the-bear-lost-110-pounds-on-the-national-zoo-diet-46145236/

Jeff Bezos | Smithsonian Magazine’s 2016 American Ingenuity Award Winner for Technology The Princeton-educated Amazon founder, Washington Post owner and new-economy pioneer also helms an innovative spaceflight company, Blue Origin, which he founded in 2000. This year it became the first aerospace manufacturer to launch, land and relaunch a rocket into space—an essential leap toward our extraterrestrial future. Bezos aims to revolutionize travel and work in space by making spaceflight so inexpensive that entrepreneurs will rush to create new businesses that have not even been imagined yet. Blue Origin’s achievement has been described as comparable to the shift from the sail to the steam engine. Read more about Bezos’ work: http://smithmag.co/GICDO2 | #IngenuityAwards And more about the American Ingenuity Awards: http://smithmag.co/77xPqy

Historically feared by humans, brown bears were once aggressively hunted in the contiguous U.S. Because of this, 95% of these majestic creatures live in Alaska.

Researchers from South Korea have discovered a unconventional way to produce gasoline.

DC chef Erik Bruner-Yang interviews Jill-of-all-trades Kaitlyn Hova about her plan to infuse STEM education with open source, 3D printable instruments.

Credit: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum

The city famous for blues and barbecue is a little “ragged around the edges” according to tour guide Tad Pierson, who drives tourists around in his pink 1955 Cadillac by Lucian Perkins

After a dog digs up a rabbit's nest and leaves a litter exposed, the team at the Toronto Wildlife Center must rehabilitate the malnourished babies before they can be released back into the wild.

Ever the media gadfly himself, the pop artist was fascinated by newspapers, especially the tabloids, as explored in a new exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. Read more at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Bringing-Andy-Warhols-Shadows-to-the-Hirshhorn.html

Watch as researchers study the paradise tree snake that is capable of launching itself as far as 330 feet

Are you the kind of person who needs to know what keeps satellites from plummeting to the Earth in a big, fiery ball? Then you need to watch this one-minute video, where Ask Smithsonian host Eric Schulze gives us the lowdown on what-in-the-name-of-science makes those satellites stay up.

The naked stone is on exhibit at the Natural History museum through next spring

Venture into Virunga National Park with Smithsonian writer Paul Raffaele as he examines the threats facing mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Can quicksand really swallow you up, or does that just happen in the movies? Host Eric Schulze dives in to separate science fact from science fiction."

Primatologist Tetsuro Matsuzawa studies chimps in hopes of uncovering how they learn and communicate

Fifteen-year-old Esteban, a clarinetist from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, uses music to survive his chaotic environment Reporting by Dominic Bracco II / Prime and Susana Seijas

Student Tiffany Riesenberg measures the velocity of a stream's flow

More on The Music Box: http://j.mp/KX15yK The artists behind the most eccentric place in New Orleans present their wacky homemade instruments

Aziz Ansari | Smithsonian Magazine’s 2016 American Ingenuity Award Winner for Performing Arts The actor, comedian and author is being honored for his starring role as Dev Shah in “Master of None,” the Netflix series that he created with Alan Yang. Like the character he plays, Ansari is the son of Indian immigrant parents, and his smart, surprising take on life, love, technology and cultural identity in the United States has helped make the show “the year’s best comedy straight out of the gate,” as the New York Times put it. Among Ansari’s other accomplishments are his unforgettable portrayal of the loopy Tom Haverford on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” his best-selling book about dating in the internet age, Modern Romance (co-authored with Eric Klinenberg), and his blockbuster stand-up act that sold out Madison Square Garden. Read more about Ansari’s work: http://smithmag.co/jvdAaL | #IngenuityAwards And more about the American Ingenuity Awards: http://smithmag.co/77xPqy

Credit: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum

The cheetah cubs will be named after the fastest male and female American Olympic athletes in the 100-meter dash at the London Olympics.

In the Virunga National Forest, the mountain gorilla population sits in the middle of a war zone in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as forest rangers track and keep a watchful eye on the threatened primates Music: Kevin MacLeod

Selected by Albert Watson for our special issue, this up-and-coming photographer discusses his work

The Director of the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum predicts what the museum's collections will hold in the next 40 years Read more at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/40th-anniversary/Arts-Bold-New-Direction.html

Thomas Edison's 1902 trick film, "Hindoo Fakir," depicts an Indian fakir-yogi performing a magic act.

In between trips to archaeology digs around the world, scientist Bruno Frohlich uses 3-D imaging to uncover what makes a great stringed instrument. Read more at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/scanning-a-stradivarius-13807009/

In this one-minute video, our Ask Smithsonian Host, Eric Schulze, weighs in on whether or not elephants can jump.

Bull elephant Kevin, crazed with testosterone, challenges Greg, the most powerful elephant in the group

A museum in Portland, Oregon highlights the multi-layered path of 3D imagery, from stereoscopes of the American West to blockbuster movies

The power behind the music of Our Native Daughters comes from giving voice to the struggles of those who came before us—and few have struggled to be heard as much as black women.

In 1945, Maraquita Sargeant was admitted to a mental institution in Australia against her will and remained their for 22 years - produced by Matt Cleaves and George Clipp