By Ron Cowen
Like many places since Sept. 11, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., feels like a different world. Security guards wearing latex gloves use batons to comb through handbags, searching for suspicious packages or powdery substances.
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In one of the first-floor exhibition halls, it’s also a different world, but an uplifting one. An ambitious display has replaced a long-time exhibit about the nature of stars.