As Greenland’s Ice Sheet Melts, an Island Town Rises

Geologists are working with local communities to determine how residents can adapt as the area's sea level, in effect, goes down | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 hours ago

The World's Deadliest Industrial Disaster Exposed 500,000 People to Toxic Gas and Claimed Thousands of Lives

A web of technical failures, human errors and corporate malpractice in Bhopal, India, culminated in an unthinkable tragedy on this day in 1984 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 hours ago

Footprints Reveal Two Early Human Species Walked the Same Lakeshore in Kenya 1.5 Million Years Ago

A new, “mind-blowing” discovery reveals evidence that Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei stepped at the same site within days—or hours—of each other | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 20 hours ago

'Brain Rot,' the Scourge of the Chronically Online, Becomes Oxford's 2024 Word of the Year

The term refers to "the supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state" that's linked to spending extensive stretches of time scrolling through low-quality content | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 22 hours ago

A 65,000-Year-Old Hearth Reveals Evidence That Neanderthals Produced Tar for Stone Tools in Iberia

While Neanderthals have been found to create glue-like substances with other materials, this finding, if confirmed, would be the first sign of Neanderthals burning the rockrose plant to make tar | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 23 hours ago

Scientists Are Trying to Crack the Recipe for the Perfect Plant-Based Eggs

With new ingredients and processes, the next generation of substitutes will be not just more egg-like, but potentially more nutritious | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 23 hours ago

You Can Actually Smell the Incense, Rainy Meadows and Musty Cloth in These Pre-Raphaelite Paintings

At an exhibition in England, curators have placed artworks alongside diffusers that dispense carefully crafted fragrances, which visitors can trigger by pushing a button | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

When 170 Wild Monkeys Escaped From a 'Jungle Camp' and Terrorized New York

In 1935, dozens of rhesus macaques absconded from Frank Buck's Long Island menagerie. Nearly a century later, 43 members of the same species broke out of a South Carolina research facility | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

The Public Is Watching as Conservators Carefully Restore a Rembrandt Masterpiece to Its Former Glory

Experts are removing layers of old varnish from "The Night Watch," which have yellowed with time, as museumgoers look on through a glass barrier | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

NASA Radar Detects Abandoned Site of Secret Cold War Project in Greenland—a 'City Under the Ice'

Camp Century was built in 1959 and advertised as a U.S. research site—but it also hosted a clandestine missile facility | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

The Little-Known Story Behind the Oldest Surviving Synagogue in America

Through revolution and war, Touro Synagogue, which opened in Newport, Rhode Island, on this day in 1763, has long been a beacon for religious tolerance on the coast of New England | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

When No Candidate Won the 1824 Presidential Election, the House of Representatives Was Given the Rare Task of Deciding the Victor

A "corrupt bargain" that delivered John Quincy Adams the presidency ended the Era of Good Feelings and prompted a new period of partisan hostility | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

When London's Iconic Crystal Palace Burned to the Ground in a Devastating Fire

Three years before World War II, on this day in 1936, an inferno marked the symbolic end of the global hegemony of the British Empire | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

Engineers Choose the Ten Best STEM Toys to Gift in 2024

Creative circuitry and rolling robots make up this year’s top toys for teaching kids to love science, technology, engineering and math | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 days ago

In a ‘Horrific’ Attack Meant to Scare the Intruders, Natchez Warriors Revolted Against the French, Killing 230 Colonists

The 1729 attack in present-day Mississippi was part of a vicious cycle of violence and retribution | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 days ago

Six Cars Raced to the Finish Line of the U.S.'s First Automobile Race—at Speeds of Seven Miles Per Hour

Held on this day in 1895, the 54-mile round trip took more than ten hours and involved accidents with streetcars, horses and snowbanks | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

Every Two Years, Staffers at the Met Get to See Their Own Art on the Prestigious Museum's Walls

The museum has been staging exhibitions featuring employee art since 1935. This year's show is only the second in history that's been open to the public | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

A Man Noticed a Strange Shape on the Ground on Google Earth. It Turned Out to Be the Mark of an Undetected Tornado

Geoscientists in Australia suggest a strong tornado swept across the Nullarbor Plain in November 2022 and made the 6.8-mile-long scar on the landscape—without anyone noticing | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

These Endangered Wolves Have a Sweet Tooth—and It Might Make Them Rare Carnivorous Pollinators

Ethiopian wolves like to lick up the flower nectar of red hot poker plants, and researchers have caught the behavior on camera | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

Archaeologists Discover Ancient Canals Used to Trap Fish in Belize 4,000 Years Ago

Pre-Maya hunter-gatherers built the system in Central America in response to a drought between 2200 and 1900 B.C.E., according to a new study | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

Archaeologist Discovers Two Neolithic Stone Circles in England, Supporting a 'Sacred Arc' Theory

The idea suggests prehistoric people built a ring of stone circles in modern-day Dartmoor National Park around the same time that Stonehenge was created—and the new finds have just added another piece to the puzzle | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 days ago

The Ten Best Books About Food of 2024

Travel to the American South, Vietnam and beyond with this year’s best cookbooks, memoirs and historic deep dives | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 days ago

Rare 1,600-Year-Old Pendant Discovered in Turkey Depicts King Solomon Defeating the Devil

The fifth-century artifact was found in the ruins of a structure that may have been connected to the military. Historians think it was used as a protective amulet | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 days ago

What 'Lucy,' One of the World's Most Important Fossils, Has Taught Scientists in the 50 Years Since Her Discovery

The famous early human is still providing lessons to anthropologists about prehistoric Earth and its inhabitants | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

Read the 132-Year-Old Message in a Bottle Found Hidden Inside the Walls of a Scottish Lighthouse

Engineers discovered the mysterious missive while working on repairs at Corsewall Lighthouse last month. Now, they plan to write their own note for future generations to find | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

Astronomers Spot a Galaxy Smashing Into Its Neighbors at 800 Times the Speed of a Fighter Jet

The collision in Stephan's Quintet was observed by WEAVE, a new instrument on one of the world's most powerful telescopes, in its first major scientific results | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

Listen to the Resurrected Voice of Richard III—Who Speaks With an Unexpected Accent

A team of experts has created a digital avatar of the maligned monarch, who speaks with a Yorkshire accent. The 15th-century king was born in Northampton, but he spent much of his life in northern England | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

Why the Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb Was the Most Significant Archaeological Find of the 20th Century

The intact burial—unearthed on this day in 1922—contained a "wonderful" cache of objects linked to the ancient Egyptian pharaoh | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

'Demure' Is Dictionary.com's Word of the Year for 2024

The term's popularity skyrocketed after content creator Jools Lebron used it in a now-viral TikTok video, in which she described being "very demure, very mindful" | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

A Solo Dolphin Is Chattering Away Off Denmark's Coast—Is He Talking to Himself?

Marine biologists are perplexed by the lone bottlenose dolphin's vocalizations, because some resemble sounds typically used for communication | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

Scientists Are Trying to Make Whiskey Using Rye Seeds That Were Submerged in a Lake Huron Shipwreck for Nearly 150 Years

Divers, distillers and researchers recently recovered grain from the "James R. Bentley," a wooden schooner that sank during a storm in 1878 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

Paleontologists Discover a New Pterosaur, Filling a Key Gap on the Evolutionary Timeline for These Flying Reptiles

Revealed by a German fossil, the newly described species sheds light on questions that scientists have been puzzling over for nearly two centuries | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

Researchers Uncover the Oldest Record of Humans Using Fire in Tasmania, Almost 2,000 Years Earlier Than Previously Known

A new paper reveals how Aboriginal people changed the landscape by burning, demonstrating how similar practices could help manage modern bushfires | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 days ago

Ancient Egyptians Drank Psychedelic Concoctions From This 2,000-Year-Old Mug, Study Finds

Scientists have discovered traces of hallucinogens in a small vessel depicting an Egyptian deity that may have been used in ancient rituals | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 days ago

Why Are Urban Turkeys Thriving?

As many wild populations decline, some city dwellers flourish—and may become a source for reintroductions to rural areas | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 days ago

The World's Largest Mammal Migration Is Taking Place in Zambia Right Now

Each year, millions of straw-colored fruit bats descend on Kasanka National Park for a few months, and scientists are working to understand their mysterious journey | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 days ago

The Shocking Moment When a Group of Confederate Spies Plotted—and Failed—to Burn Down New York City

Southern operatives tried to light New York businesses on fire and bring the Northern city to its knees on this date in 1864 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 days ago

How Henry VIII's Armies Defeated a Much Larger Scottish Force, Humiliating His Nephew, the King of Scotland

On this day in 1542, the Battle of Solway Moss left James V enfeebled and ill, clearing the way for his young daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, to claim the throne weeks later | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 9 days ago

Read Freddie Mercury’s Heartbreaking Announcement of His Diagnosis With HIV/AIDS, Released on This Date in 1991, Just a Day Before the Queen Frontman Died

Until Mercury released the statement, tabloid newspapers hounded the ailing singer, while only a smaller inner circle knew about the extent of his illness | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 10 days ago

Astronomers Discover a 'Newborn' World, the Youngest Known Transiting Exoplanet

At nearly three million years old, the exoplanet is about the age of a two-week-old baby in planet-years | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 10 days ago

Archaeologists Say These Mysterious Markings Could Be the World's Oldest Known Alphabetic Writing

Found etched into clay cylinders in Syria, the strange symbols date to around 2400 B.C.E.—500 years before other known alphabetic scripts | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 10 days ago

Gus, the Young Emperor Penguin Who Made a Surprise Appearance in Australia, Is Now Heading Home

Wildlife caretakers released the bird into the Southern Ocean after he'd put on some weight and regained his strength | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 10 days ago

A Little Girl Dropped a Message in a Bottle Into a Lake. Her Daughter's Classmate Found It 26 Years Later

Makenzie Van Eyk wrote the letter as part of a class project in 1998, when she was in fourth grade. Recently, the note was discovered by a boy who goes to school with her daughter—who is now in fourth grade herself | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 10 days ago

How an Engraving of Queen Victoria Ushered in the Era of the Bouquet Holder in England

The monarch set fashion trends during her time, and the flower holder became a sought-after accessory in Victorian society | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 10 days ago

This New, Yellow Powder Quickly Pulls Carbon Dioxide From the Air, and Researchers Say 'There's Nothing Like It'

Scientists say just 200 grams of the material could capture 44 pounds of the greenhouse gas per year—the same as a large tree | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 days ago

These Ice Age Artworks Etched Into Rock 15,800 Years Ago May Be the Earliest Known Depictions of Fishing

Found in western Germany, the stone plaques feature etchings of fish trapped in grid-like nets, according to a new study | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 days ago

A Deep Look Into the Wacky and Wild Lives of Earwigs

The insects participate in elaborate courtships, are devoted parents, occasionally eat each other and have a gregarious nature | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 days ago

Italian Police Arrest ‘Clumsy’ Tomb Raiders Who Allegedly Posted Stolen Etruscan Artifacts on Facebook

The items include artistic urns, a bone comb and an ancient sarcophagus with a full skeleton inside | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 days ago