WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian Institution and MIT announced the April 4 launch of VANISHED, an 8-week online/offline environmental disaster mystery game for middle-school children, meant to inspire engagement and problem solving through science. Developed and curated by MIT’s Education Arcade and the Smithsonian, VANISHED is a first-of-its-kind experience where participants become investigators racing to solve puzzles and other online challenges, visit museums and collect samples from their neighborhoods to help unlock the secrets of the game. Players can only discover the truth about the environmental disaster by using real scientific methods and knowledge to unravel the game’s secrets. To navigate through the mystery game’s challenges, participants will meetSmithsonian scientists from such diverse disciplines as paleobiology, volcanology, forensic anthropology and entomology, as well as