Forensic Scientists Are Testing Whether Honey Bees Can Help Locate Human Bodies

Researchers think they can find evidence of volatile organic compounds from a decomposing body in honey | Continue reading


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The Enslaved Woman Who Liberated a Slave Jail and Transformed It Into an HBCU

Forced to bear her enslaver's children, Mary Lumpkin later forged her own path to freedom | Continue reading


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From ducks to dolphins, females have developed sex organs that help them deter undesirable suitors and derive pleasure from non-reproductive behavior | Continue reading


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Scientists Have Finally Sequenced a 'Gapless' Human Genome

Scientists have deciphered the missing eight percent of our genetic blueprint, setting the stage for new discoveries in human evolution and disease | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Hubble Telescope Spots the Most Distant Star Ever Detected in Outer Space

The star, nicknamed Earendel, is 12.9 billion light-years from Earth | Continue reading


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Apollo 11 Moon Dust Samples Go Up for Auction Against NASA’s Wishes

Auction house Bonhams is expecting around $1 million | Continue reading


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Why Archaeologists Virtually Reconstructed an Ancient House in Pompeii

The team hopes to simulate how visitors would have experienced the space and gain a stronger understanding of the motivation behind Roman designs | Continue reading


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Françoise Gilot Was More Than Picasso's Muse

The artist famously inspired the Cubist, but a new book shows that her own paintings deserve renown | Continue reading


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Each Guitar Reuben Forsland Makes Tells a Story

The Canadian luthier builds custom instruments from unique materials that deliver impeccable sound | Continue reading


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The Legend of The Music Tree

Exotic lumber salvaged from a remote forest in Belize is the world’s most coveted tonewood | Continue reading


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Good News

Uplifting stories to brighten your day | Continue reading


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Puerto Rico

Explore the history, culture and natural wonders of the United States territory | Continue reading


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The Lure of Puerto Rico's Chinchorros

Eating, drinking and dancing between food stalls has become a popular way to experience the island | Continue reading


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Researchers Find Potential Evidence of Oldest-Known Mummification

Newly discovered photographs help researchers to re-analyze 8,000-year-old remains from burials in Portugal | Continue reading


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How Do Birds Stay Upright When They Are Sleeping?

You've got questions. We've got experts | Continue reading


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Readers Respond to the March 2022 Issue

Your feedback on the excavations at Troy and the development of the whooping cough vaccine | Continue reading


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10 Otherworldly Adventures of a Lifetime in Western Australia

From swimming with whale sharks to soaking in the sight of surreal bubble gum pink waters, these Western Australian destinations seem out-of-this-world | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Why Are Regency-Era Shows Like 'Bridgerton' So Popular?

An Austen expert and a period drama TV critic reflect on the enduring appeal of romance series set in turn-of-the-19th-century England | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

A Killer Fungus Is Annihilating Invasive 'Crazy Ants' in the United States

Entomologists are hopeful the pathogen could slow the insects' spread through the country | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Study Finds Hundreds of Mammals Are Waiting to Be Discovered

New species may be hidden in areas that have more comprehensive geographic ranges with high variability in temperature and precipitation | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

3-D Scans Show 30,000-Year-Old Stone Sculpture Dug Up in Austria Likely Came from Italy

Scientists suspect an ancient limestone carving known as the Venus of Willendorf traveled hundreds of miles across the Southern Alps | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Why Sunflowers Are Ukraine's National Flower

People around the world are embracing the bright bloom as a symbol of solidarity with the beleaguered country | Continue reading


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Five Women Inventors You Didn't Learn About in History Class

These innovators pioneered word processing, launched Americans into space, and more | Continue reading


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The Bald Eagle's Soaring Return Shows that the U.S. Can Change for the Better

The true meaning of a national symbol | Continue reading


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Researchers Are Closer to Creating Hypoallergenic Cats Using CRISPR Technology

The allergen-causing protein Fel d 1 was removed from feline cells using the gene-editing tool | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

New Study Finds Migrants Brought Maize to the Maya

DNA analysis of skeletal remains in Belize helps piece together how corn cultivation came to thrive in Central America | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Why Have Female Animals Evolved Such Wild Genitals?

From ducks to dolphins, females have developed sex organs that help them deter undesirable suitors and derive pleasure from non-reproductive behavior | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Flamingo That Escaped From a Zoo in Kansas Is Spotted Once Again in Texas 17 Years Later

The zoo hasn’t made any plans to catch the bird, saying any attempts might harm the flamingo and other wildlife | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

A Welcome Comeback for Norway's Walruses

A hunting ban has fostered the return of a nearly extinct species | Continue reading


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What Archaeologists Are Learning About the Lives of the Chinese Immigrants Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad

In the sparse Utah desert, the vital contributions of these 19th-century laborers are finally coming to light | Continue reading


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Pluto's Hidden Ice Volcanoes Hint at the Possibility of Life

The discovery suggests the dwarf planet may be harboring a subsurface liquid ocean | Continue reading


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Inside the Efforts to Preserve Ukraine's Cultural Heritage

Here's how experts and civilians alike are working to protect the country's art, artifacts and scientific specimens | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Why a U.S. Company Plans to Release 2.4 Billion Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

The insects, created by biotech firm Oxitec, will be non-biting males engineered to only produce viable male offspring, per the company | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Why Donatello Was a Father of the Renaissance

A blockbuster exhibition in Florence argues that the Italian sculptor deserves to be a household name on par with Michelangelo and Raphael | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Can Spraying Lions With ‘The Love Hormone’ Help Them Live Together?

Researchers administered oxytocin to captive animals, and preliminary results showed the big cats were less hostile towards strangers | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Why Did the Salamander Cross the Road?

To reproduce, of course. And a band of volunteers gathers at night to help it—and countless other amphibians—get to the other side | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Digging Up the Rich Viking History of Britain

A massive 1,100-year-old graveyard leads to a surprising new view of the Nordic legacy in Britain | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

How Baseball Put Its Stamp on the American Psyche

An exhibition at the National Postal Museum examines the history of the nation’s favorite pastime | Continue reading


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This Small-Town Newspaper Is the Last of Its Kind

The "Saguache Crescent," a weekly in a Colorado hamlet, still prints on the 19th-century technology known as linotype | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

The United Arab Emirates' Earliest Buildings Are 8,500 Years Old

Found off the coast of Abu Dhabi, the structures likely served as houses for Ghagha Island's Neolithic inhabitants | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

A 5,000-Year-Old Human Bone Was Found in the River Thames

Well preserved by mud, the femur dates to Britain’s Neolithic period | Continue reading


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Negative Effects of Social Media May Impact Adolescent Girls and Boys at Different Ages

A new study suggests certain 'windows' of development when youngsters appear most sensitive to technology | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

When Patsy Cline Broke Through as a Country Music Sensation

The recording star sported a homemade suit as spectacular as her voice | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Imported Lead Ingots Offer Evidence of Complex Bronze Age Trade Networks

A new analysis of shipwrecked metals inscribed with Cypro-Minoan markings suggests the objects originated in Sardinia, some 1,550 miles away from Cyprus | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

How to Rebuild Notre-Dame Using 12th-Century Tools

In Washington, D.C., an innovative team of designers demonstrated how medieval techniques could be used to repair the Parisian landmark | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

How Italy Is Bringing Its Rustic Villages Back to Life

Take a photographic tour through the country's effort to revitalize its rural towns | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

This Historic Community Is Pushing the Nation Toward a Wind Power Revolution

Block Island, off the New England coast, overcame political strife to lead the way on energy independence | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Mercury's Cratered Crust May Hold Glittering Gemstones

Fragments of a graphite shell from the planet's past and a series of violent meteorite impacts may have combined to form sparkling diamonds | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago