How the Bears at Alaska's Katmai National Park Became Celebrities

Park officials had no idea that the installation of live nature cameras at Brooks River ten years ago would lead to the wildly successful Fat Bear Week | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Ada Limón Is a Poet Laureate for the 21st Century

Her work explores "what it looks like to have America in the room" | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Virgin Atlantic Is Dropping Its Gendered Uniform Policy

The change is part of a growing movement to make travel more inclusive | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Robotic Pill Aims to Replace Insulin Shots, Injected Antibiotics

The capsule withstands stomach acid and drills through mucus to deliver medication to the gut | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Hundreds of Federal Sites Officially Drop Racial Slur From Their Names

The Interior Department is renaming locations across the country to remove the derogatory word for Native American women | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

'Super-Agers' Might Have Super Neurons

Elderly people with exceptional memories have larger neurons in a brain area responsible for recollection | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

An Early Star’s Remains May Be Swirling Around a Black Hole

The first stars exploded long ago, but scientists say they've detected the chemical fingerprint that one of them left behind | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Elon Musk’s New Humanoid Robot Might One Day Buy Your Groceries

For now, though, it simply walks, dances and waves | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

How Two California Artists Can Help Personalize Your Eco-Grief

Alicia Escott and Heidi Quante founded the Bureau of Linguistical Reality to create words to help describe people's feelings about climate change | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Rare Collection of 1940s Art Returns to Zimbabwe After 70 Years

Students at the Cyrene Mission School created the works at a time when the African country was under colonial rule | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Bitcoin Could Rival Beef or Crude Oil in Environmental Impact

Carbon emissions from mining one coin increased 126-fold from 2016 to 2021, a new study finds | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Svante Pääbo Wins Nobel Prize for Unraveling the Mysteries of Neanderthal DNA

The Swedish geneticist used 40,000-year-old bones to sequence the early humans' genome | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Stunning Facial Reconstructions Resurrect a Trio of Medieval Scots

The renderings show what a bishop, a cleric and a young woman with a remarkably symmetrical face may have looked like in life | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Alzheimer's Drug Shows 'Most Encouraging Results' Yet in Clinical Trial

The medication aims to clear destructive plaque from the brain and slow cognitive decline | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Archaeologists in Greece Unearth 'Larger-Than-Life' Statue of Hercules

The team discovered the 2,000-year-old artwork in Philippi | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

After the Wright Brothers Took Flight, They Built the World's First Military Airplane

The 1909 Military Flyer is the centerpiece of the "Early Flight" exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Why LeBron James Is Buying a Pickleball Team

The Los Angeles Lakers star is a fan of America's fastest-growing sport | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Plot Your Course: 8 Ways to Explore Alaska

Experience the many wonders of the nation’s largest state, from its extraordinary natural beauty to the living culture of Alaska Native people | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

This Moonshot for Coral Breeding Was Successful

But the coral are still in tanks, waiting to be released on reefs | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

The Gold Coast King Who Fought the Might of Europe's Slave Traders

New research reveals links between the 18th-century Ahanta leader John Canoe and the Caribbean festival Junkanoo | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

New DNA Analysis Shows How Cats Spread Around the World(2016)

Felines spread in two waves including moving around Europe on Viking ships, according to researchers | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

See the New British Coins Featuring Charles III

In his new portrait, the king faces left—and doesn't wear a crown | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Dogs Can Smell When You’re Stressed Out

A small study suggests that highly sensitive canine noses can pick up on the odors that frazzled humans emit | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

The Ship That Tried to Warn the Titanic Has Been Found

Scientists discovered the S.S. Mesaba in the Irish Sea—with the help of multibeam sonar | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Burst Pipelines in Baltic Sea May Be the Largest Methane Leak Ever

Some officials believe the cause was deliberate | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Could UV Light Reduce the Spread of Covid-19 in Indoor Spaces?

Some wavelengths of light in a range called far-UVC kill microbes in experiments and appear to be harmless to people | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

The Art of Wearing Works of Art

From Japanese kimono silks to Navajo jewelry, Smithsonian’s 2022 Craft2Wear brings shoppers into a world of wearable craft and design | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

What Do Stonehenge and Japanese Stone Circles Have in Common?

A new exhibition explores the surprising parallels between British and Japanese traditions | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Has the Pandemic Changed Your Personality?

Research suggests younger adults’ dispositions shifted the most during Covid-19 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

When the Heat is On, Red-Eyed Treefrogs Hatch Early

The embryos make the move from clutches on leaves to rainforest ponds below | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

World’s Largest Mangrove Die-Off Was Likely Aided by the Moon

A lunar "wobble" affects tides, creating a cycle of growth and dieback for these carbon-sequestering trees | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

In Thousands of Recordings, Jim Metzner Collected Sounds From Around the World

The Library of Congress has acquired the prolific radio producer's full body of work | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Three Baby Chimpanzees Kidnapped and Held for Ransom

The abductors are demanding a six-figure sum to return the animals to their sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Man Pays $75 for Medieval Text That Could Be Worth $10,000

He spotted the page from the 13th-century Beauvais Missal at an estate sale in Maine | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Lizzo Played a 200-Year-Old Glass Flute Given to James Madison

The Library of Congress invited the musician, a classically trained flutist, to play the instrument at her concert this week | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Inside the Disneyland of Graveyards

How Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, a star-studded cemetery in Los Angeles, corporatized mourning in America | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Ancient Maya Cities Were Polluted With High Levels of Mercury

The concentrations at some dig sites could be hazardous for today's archaeologists | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

EPA Creates National Office for Environmental Justice and Civil Rights

It will distribute $3 billion in climate and environmental justice grants to underserved communities | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

See the Eerily Beautiful Image James Webb Captured of a Spiral Galaxy

The spooky-looking structure, known as IC 5332, is about 29 million light-years away from Earth | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Panama's Black Christ Festival Stirs Up Sorrow and a Sense of Survival

For Afro-Panamanians, October offers a chance to celebrate Catholicism and their Blackness | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Hurricane Ian Slams Cuba, Heads for Florida’s West Coast

The storm approached Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, with top winds reaching 155 miles per hour | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Abigail Disney Criticizes Labor Practices at the Company Her Family Founded

Her new documentary, "The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales," shines a light on income inequality and workers' rights | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

DNA From Skeletons Reveals Large Migration to Early Medieval England

A new study could close a long-standing debate about movement of people post-Roman rule | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

Haul of Fossil Fish Pushes Back the Origin of Teeth and Jaws

The unexpected finds illustrate life during a critical and little-understood time period | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

This 10-Year-Old Boy Makes Art That Sells for Over $100,000

Fifth-grader Andres Valencia’s inspirations range from Picasso to Pokémon | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

James Earl Jones Retires From Voicing Darth Vader

Future "Star Wars" productions will recreate Jones' menacing voice using artificial intelligence | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

3,000-Year-Old Dugout Canoe Recovered From Wisconsin Lake

Archaeologists believe it’s the oldest canoe ever found in the Great Lakes region | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago

A Small Town in Alaska Is Home to the World's First Hammer Museum

Perhaps no one knows the history of the tool better than collector Dave Pahl, who opened a shrine of his artifacts in Haines 20 years ago | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 years ago