Rainforests are the world's treasure houses of biodiversity, but all rainforests are not the same. Biodiversity may be more evenly distributed in some forests than in others and, therefore, may require different management and preservation strategies. That is one of the conclusions of a large-scale Smithsonian Museum study of a lowland rainforest in New Guinea.

"Provoking Magic: Lighting of Ingo Maurer," a retrospective of German lighting designer Ingo Maurer's four decades of work, opens Sept. 14 at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and runs through Jan. 27, 2008.

"Driven," an exhibition highlighting the works of emerging artists with disabilities, opens at the Smithsonian's S. Dillon Ripley Center Sept. 15. The exhibition is the sixth collaboration between VSA arts and Volkswagen of America Inc. It features the works of 15 finalists selected from 204 applicants ranging in age from 16 to 25. The exhibition closes Dec. 31.

"Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape," the first major retrospective in 35 years devoted to this celebrated leader of the Hudson River School, is on view from Sept. 14 through Jan. 6, 2008 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

"Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente" opens at the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory in Louisville, Ky., Saturday, Oct. 20, where it will remain on view through Feb. 28, 2008, before continuing on a 20-city national tour through 2012.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has organized a wide variety of programs to complement the exhibition "Earl Cunningham's America," which features 50 paintings by one of the foremost folk artists of the 20th century.

The Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, a signature element of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture that houses the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, opens to the public Sunday, Nov. 18.

The Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, one of the most important long-term research efforts in the Amazon, is imperiled by new colonization proposed by the Brazilian federal agency SUFRAMA, according to a commentary in the July 26, 2007 journal Nature, co-authored by William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and Regina Luizão of Brazil’s National Institute for Amazonian Research.

An exhibition named "Harry Benson: Being There" will run through Sept. 3 at the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition highlights the renowned photojournalist's knack for being in the right place at the right time-a skill that has served him well for the past 50 years.

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery is honored to present "Great Britons: Treasures from the National Portrait Gallery, London." The exhibition runs through Sept. 3.

Throughout May, the Smithsonian will celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with a series of exhibitions, films, performances, family activities and lectures at various museums around the Institution. All programs are free, unless otherwise noted.

Smithsonian scientists have discovered a biodiversity bounty in the Eastern Pacific-approximately 50 percent of the organisms found in some groups are new to science. The research team spent 11 days in the Eastern Pacific, a unique, understudied region off the coast of Panama.