How the British Navy Camouflaged Their Ships Using Art

The British Navy knew it couldn't completely disguise a ship to protect it from attack during WWI. So they turned to 'Dazzle Painting' which sought to disguise a ship's speed and direction. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Drone Captures First Images of an Uncontacted Amazon Tribe

Officials say images like these can help them learn how to better protect Brazil’s indigenous people | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

This Secret Boat Was Built for a WWII Invasion That Never Happened

In 2011, declassified CIA documents shed light on a covert government program dating back to WWII. At its center was a submersible craft built for a hypothetical invasion of Japan. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Silver Coins Lead to One of the Earliest Roman Sites in Yorkshire

The dig site found by metal detectorists 3 years ago appears to be a high-status homestead that once had two villas | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

U.S. Troops in the Pacific Treat Themselves to a Little R&R

A brief respite from the frontlines of the Pacific War sees American troops trying to inject a little comfort into their lives: from more habitable living quarters to enjoying the enemy's hidden supply of liquor. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Do Animals Experience Grief?

A growing body of evidence points to how animals are aware of death and will sometimes mourn for or ritualize their dead | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

First Auction House to Sell Art Made by Artificial Intelligence

Christie's will sell the work from Paris-based art collective Obvious, which created ‘Portrait of Edmond Belamy’ with the machine-learning algorithm GAN | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Why Depth Charges Don't Have to Touch a Submarine to Sink It

It's 1942 and the USS Silversides, a U.S. submarine submerged in the Pacific, is frantically trying to dodge depth charges dropped by a Japanese warship. Even a near miss could be catastrophic. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

When Rhinos Once Roamed in Washington State

Road-tripping through prehistoric times on the West Coast | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

What Drove Sigmund Freud to Write a Scandalous Biography of Woodrow Wilson?

The founder of psychoanalysis collaborated with a junior American diplomat to lambaste the former president | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Actual Combat Footage of the Battle of the Philippines Sea

Relive the aerial dogfights and naval clashes of the Battle of the Philippines Sea, thanks to stunning color footage. It is a visual record of the battle that underlined U.S. superiority in the Pacific. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Five Young Lion Brothers Mate With One Lioness

A group of five adolescent male lions - dubbed the Musketeers - are wandering the desert looking to find their own kingdom. They come across a lioness, but not all seem interested in settling down. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Science Proves: Pop Music Has Actually Gotten Worse

Science confirms what you've always suspected: music these days is worse than it used to be | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Drones Air-Dropping 50,000 Mosquitoes from Above

These horny buggers are actually here to help us fight the spread of disease | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Hostile Lioness Withholds Food From Hungry Orphaned Cubs

A group of orphaned lion cubs are facing an uncertain future. If they're to survive into adulthood, they will have to convince their reluctant aunt to share her kill with them. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

How Italy Used Human Torpedoes to Attack British Ships

On December 16, 1941, the Italian navy launched a daring attack on three British ships outside Alexandria harbor. At the heart of the operation was a unique weapon: a human torpedo. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Innacurate Images of Colonial America Made by European Printmakers

To satisfy customers hungry for visions of the British colonies, these artists created wildly imaginative and inaccurate scenes | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

How Doughnut-Loving Cops Became a Stereotype

A sugar-sweet symbol for beat cops around the country | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Driverless Car Technology Could Help Find Unmarked Graves

The same LIDAR technology that lets driverless cars | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

The Botulism Outbreak That Gave Rise to America’s Food Safety System

In late 1919 and early 1920, scientists and canners worked with the government to protect the public from the deadly toxin | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Behind the Scenes With the Spacecraft That Will Soar Through the Sun's Atmosphere

The probe, which launches Sunday, will attempt to solve enduring mysteries about the sun | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

The First Academy Awards Had Its Own Version of the "Popular" Oscar

The ceremony itself was rooted in union-busting, laying the basis for the art vs. mass acclaim debate we see play out today | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Remains of Tuskegee Airman Found in Austria

Researchers and archaeologists have recovered the remains of distinguished flyer Lawrence E. Dickson whose plane crashed during a mission in 1944 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Dads Pass on More Than Genetics in Their Sperm

Seminal research reveals that sperm change their cargo as they travel the reproductive tract—and the differences can have consequences for fertility | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Scientists Give New Particle Accelerator the Thumbs Up

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine endorses the $1 billion Electron-Ion Collider | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Maldivian Government Destroys World's First Intertidal Art Gallery

Before President Abdulla Yasmeen lost the country's election, his government ordered the demolition of the conservation-minded underwater sculpture garden | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

How Enslaved Chefs Helped Shape American Cuisine

Black cooks created the feasts that gave the South its reputation for hospitality | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Into the Cave of Chile’s Witches

Did members of a powerful society of warlocks actually murder their enemies and kidnap children? | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Urine (Not Chlorine) Causes Red Eyes in Pools (2015)

CDC spreads the word about the peril of pee in pools | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

What Knitting Can Teach You About Math

In this professor's class, there are no calculators. Instead, students learn advanced math by drawing pictures, playing with beach balls—and knitting | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Buried by the Ash of Vesuvius, Scrolls Are Being Read for the First Time

A revolutionary American scientist is using subatomic physics to decipher 2,000-year-old texts from the early days of Western civilization | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

What Knitting Can Teach You About Math

In this professor's class, there are no calculators. Instead, students learn advanced math by drawing pictures, playing with beach balls—and knitting | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

When Mammals Ate Dinosaurs

Our ancestors and cousins didn't all live in the shadows of the Mesozoic world—some were burly carnivores | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Ptolemaic-Era Black Granite Sarcophagus Discovered in Alexandria

The tomb, which was found at a building site, measure 8.5 feet long and 5 feet wide | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

How Noisy Males Control the Gnu's Cycle

New research shows that ovulation in Serengeti wildebeests is accelerated and synchronized by the yammering of eager males | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

European Dogs Devastated Indigenous American Pup Populations

Disease, cultural change wiped out pre-contact populations, leaving no trace of ancient dogs’ DNA in modern counterparts | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Artificial Ovaries Could Expand Fertility Options for Chemo Patients

Scientists have taken the next steps toward creating an alternative fertility preservation method using modified ovarian tissue | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Why Do Mosquitoes Bite Some People More Than Others?

Blood type, metabolism, exercise, shirt color and even drinking beer can make individuals especially delicious to mosquitoes | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Personal Flying Machines of the Future Won’t Look Much Like Jet Packs

Judging from the GoFly competition, they're much more likely to resemble flying motorbikes | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Her escape at age eight inspired the film “Rabbit Proof Fence”

Kadibil, who died at the age of 95, had her incredible odyssey recounted in the acclaimed 2002 film ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’ | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

The Battle Over the Memory of the Spanish Civil War

How Spain chooses to memorialize Francisco Franco and the victims of his authoritarian regime is tearing the nation apart | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Today's Whales Are Huge, But Why Aren't They Huger?

Most giant cetaceans only got giant in the past 4.5 million years, suggesting they could have room to grow | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

How Jupiter May Have Gifted Early Earth with Water

A new model of the solar system suggest we have gas giants to thank for our watery world | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Can Artificial Intelligence Help Stop School Shootings?

Some researchers believe it could help predict student violence. Others worry about unintended consequences | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

The Neuroscientist in the Art Museum

At Massachusetts's Peabody Essex Museum, Tedi Asher is using neuroscience research to create impactful art experiences | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

The U.S. Military Has Been in Space From the Beginning

While the proposed branch of the armed forces may be controversial, the history of the so-called | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

100 Years Ago This Week American Socialist Jailed for Anti-World War Speech

After winning 6 percent of the vote in the 1912 presidential election, Eugene Debs ran afoul of the nation's new anti-sedition laws | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Why We Should Teach Music History Backwards

Rock fans do their own investigative work to understand their favorite groups’ influences. So why can’t the rest of us get with the program? | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago