Smithsonian Honors Female Scientists With 120 Bright Orange Statues

The 3-D–printed figures will be displayed on the National Mall in celebration of Women's History Month | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

New Tools May Help Diagnose Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

If conditions stemming from exposure to alcohol in-utero can be better identified, then scientists can more effectively research treatments | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

2,000-Year-Old Buddhist Temple Unearthed in Pakistan

The structure is one of the oldest of its kind in the Gandhara region | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Women Warriors Ran the Ancient World in Artist Toyin Ojih Odutola's Imagined Past

The Hirshhorn's show, "A Countervailing Theory," posits a society where gender roles are reversed | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Meet Dolly, the First Dinosaur Discovered With a Case of the Sniffles

Abnormal growths in its fossilized neck bones suggest that the long-necked dino suffered from a pneumonia-like illness | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Crocodile With a Tire Stuck Around Its Neck Is Finally Freed After Six Years

In Indonesia, a local bird catcher trapped the large reptile and sawed off the trash because he didn’t want to watch the animal suffer | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

James Webb Space Telescope's First Look at Outer Space Is a Kaleidoscope of Faint Starlight

As NASA astronomers adjust its mirrors over the next month, the dots of light will eventually align into one image of a star in Ursa Major | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Judge Restores Federal Protections for Gray Wolves in 44 States

The move is heralded as a conservation success but faces criticism from hunters and ranchers | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Astronomers Spot First Lone, Free-Wheeling Black Hole in the Milky Way Galaxy

The massive void, zipping at 28 miles per second, may have been blasted into space by a supernova explosion | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

A 50,000-Year-Old Fashion Statement Could Be One of the World's Oldest Social Networks

Nearly identical beads carved from ostrich eggshells, found over a large region of Africa, might have been a first in cool trends | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Seven Fitness Inventions That Were Dropped Like New Year's Resolutions

From roller armor to a weight helmet, these patented pieces of exercise equipment came and went | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Listen to These Amazing Sounds of Lost Places and Animals Within Them

Prolific audio naturalist Martyn Stewart has released a free collection of his remarkable recordings before his passing | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

A Snowy Scene at Italy's Lake Santa Croce Wins the People's Choice Award in Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest

London's Natural History Museum has announced five winners of the 57th annual competition | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Solar Storm Knocks 40 SpaceX Satellites Out of Orbit

A solar outburst is increasing atmospheric drag and pulling the satellites back down to Earth | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Scientists Build an Artificial Fish That Swims on Its Own Using Human Heart Cells

The experiment could advance pacemaker technology and bring science closer to developing artificial hearts for people | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Dive Into Mobile’s Melting Pot of People, Cultures and Dangerously Delicious Fusion Food

Uncovering the vibrant and complicated history of the formerly French colonial city, once known as “the Paris of the South” | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Dozens of Decapitated Skeletons Found at Roman Cemetery in England

Uncovered at the largest burial site in Buckinghamshire, the bodies may have belonged to criminals or outcasts, researchers suggest | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Eighty Years After the U.S. Incarcerated 120,000 Japanese Americans, Trauma and Scars Still Remain

Families were stripped of their rights and freedoms in February 1942, when FDR signed Executive Order 9066 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

To Impress Lady Birds, Male Sparrows Sing Their Songs on Shuffle

The singers will memorize a 30-minute playlist and remix the order later to avoid losing their lover's attention | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Discovery of Ancient Baby Tooth Places Humans in Western Europe 10,000 Years Earlier Than Previously Thought

The archeologists also uncovered a number of Neanderthal artifacts suggesting the two species coexisted in the area | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Discovery of Omicron in New York Deer Raises Concern Over Possible New Variants

White-tailed deer could become a reservoir for Covid-19, putting people and animals at risk | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

The Freaky Physics of Ski Jump

Olympic ski jumpers do everything they can do counteract the effects of gravity and fly as far as they can down hills | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Who Would Win in a Real-World Battle: A Bengal Tiger or a Ram?

The big cats are stealthy predators, but the mountain-climbing ungulates are agile defenders | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

A Colorful History of Cats in the White House

Willow Biden isn’t the first feline to grace the presidential residence's halls | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Why Researchers Are Clashing Over Proposed Identification of Captain Cook's 'Endeavour'

Australian archaeologists say they've found the wreck of the British explorer's research vessel. American scholars called the announcement "premature" | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Scientists Can Spot Shrimp Eggs From Space

By analyzing the light it reflects, scientists can say whether that floating blob in a satellite image is made up of shrimp, seaweed or something else | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Why Smuggled Fossils Are Hurting Paleontology

Parachute science and lingering colonialism in fossil studies have negatively impacted the discipline | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

How Agatha Christie's Love of Archaeology Influenced 'Death on the Nile'

In the 1930s, the mystery writer accompanied her archaeologist husband on annual digs in the Middle East | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Like Owls, Some Prehistoric Flying Reptiles May Have Regurgitated Pellets

The discovery of vomited projectiles from two pterosaurs provides new clues about the its diet and digestive system | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Dozens of Extinct Ice Age Animal Remains Found During Construction of a New Town in England

Archeologists found bones from a woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, wolf, hyena, horse, reindeer, mountain hare, red fox and various small mammals | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Spinal Stimulation Device Helps Paralyzed Patients Walk, Cycle and Swim

Within days of their implants being activated, all three men were able to walk with support | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Hunters Have Killed 24 Yellowstone Gray Wolves So Far This Season—the Most in Over 25 Years

An entire pack may have been 'eliminated' near the park's vulnerable border in Montana, where hunting restrictions were gutted last year | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

How Gloria Richardson’s Look of Righteous Indignation Became a Symbol of No Retreat

In 1963, the civil rights leader shoved aside a guardsmen’s bayonet with disgust and defiance; photography preserved the charged moment | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

How Exercise Boosts the Brain and Improves Mental Health

New research is revealing how physical activity can reduce and even ward off depression, anxiety and other psychological ailments | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Archaeologists Uncover 18,000 Ancient Egyptian 'Notepads'

Known as "ostraca," the inscribed pottery shards document everyday life in the city of Athribis | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

The Photo Album That Succeeded Where Pancho Villa Failed

The revolutionary may have tried to find the author's grandfather by raiding a New Mexico village—but a friend's camera truly captured her family patriarch | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Your Pet Cat Has a Smaller Brain Than Its Wild Ancestors

The researchers replicated experiments done in the '60s and '70s with updated knowledge of feline lineage | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Chimpanzees Appear to Use Insects to Treat Their Wounds

In a first, chimps in Gabon were seen applying insects to sores on themselves—and others, a possible show of empathy | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

How Iceland's Herring Girls Helped Bring Equality to the Island Nation

Between the 1910s and 1960s, thousands of young women formed the backbone of the country's thriving fishing industry | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

The High-Speed Physics of Olympic Bobsled, Luge and Skeleton

In these sports that send humans hurtling faster than a car on a highway, tiny motions mean the difference between gold and a crash | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

New Antarctic Penguin Colonies Discovered Further South Than Normal

As the climate warms, gentoo penguins are expanding to habitats that were previously too icy for them to raise chicks | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Why Twin-Like Ice Giants Uranus and Neptune Are Different Shades of Blue

A whiteish layer of haze forms where methane reacts with sunlight | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

There Never Was Real Tulip Fever

A new movie sets its doomed entrepreneurs amidst 17th-century “tulipmania”—but historians of the phenomenon have their own bubble to burst | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Take in These Stunning Sights in Colonial Williamsburg

As a living, breathing city, the sights, sounds and smells of Colonial Williamsburg can capture the entire family's sense of adventure | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

The Top Three Reasons to Visit Colonial Williamsburg

Connect more deeply with history, relax in 18th-century style, and experience fun for the whole family | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Researchers Now Know Where the Ancient Maya Planted Their Sacred Cacao Groves

Sinkholes across the Yucatan Peninsula provided perfect growing conditions for the plant, used as currency in the Mesoamerican civilization | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Freedom House, an Iconic Civil Rights Hub in Boston, Is Set for Demolition

Nicknamed the "Black Pentagon," the building served as a meeting place for local racial justice activists | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Scientists Find 'Chemical Fingerprint' of Comet Airburst That May Have Ignited the Decline of Hopewell Culture

Many Indigenous groups documented the cosmic event with oral histories and other records, including earthworks | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago