Wright has his own anecdote: Smithsonian researchers hired locals to work at a nature reserve in Panama and then discovered that the locals' relatives had also moved in and had begun poaching.
Last year, the White House Office of Management and Budget proposed transferring most Smithsonian research money to the National Science Foundation and forcing Smithsonian scientists to compete for grants.
Stop by your local bookstore or library and pick up some issues of Natural History Magazine, Scientific American, Smithsonian, etc. or scholarly journals such as Cell and Nature (if you can understand what you read).
They demonstrated their version, stir-fried collards with oyster sauce and garlic, on the National Mall at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington in 1997, after being selected by local folklorists.
But politicians on all sides seem to acknowledge, as Ira Rubinoff of the local Smithsonian Institute puts it, that investing in the canal is "the manifest destiny of Panama's geography .Yet whoever wins will have a tough job selling the plan to the public.
(The Smithsonian also runs the National Zoo).
Smithsonian: Don't fret the invasion of the cicadas.
The Smithsonian called just in time.
Smithsonian: A celebration of the oft-neglected fondue pot.
(The Smithsonian raises money privately for each exhibition).
The Smithsonian project is both more forceful and more refined.
