There Might Be Something Human in the Way Bonobos Communicate—Their Calls Share a Key Trait With Our Language, Study Suggests

Researchers attempted to decode bonobo calls by recording their social context, then analyzed how the primates string together these vocalizations | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 9 hours ago

Metal Detectorists Unearth Ancient Dagger Decorated With Tiny Stars, Crescent Moons and Geometric Patterns

Found at a beach in northern Poland, the nearly ten-inch-long artifact could be up to 2,500 years old. It had been lodged inside a lump of clay | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 9 hours ago

At 97, Endangered Tortoise Becomes Oldest First-Time Mom of Her Species With Four New Hatchlings—and Potentially More on the Way

Proud parents Mommy and Abrazzo are both nearly 100 years old, but they’re contributing to Galápagos tortoise conservation at Philadelphia Zoo | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 10 hours ago

Rare Early Beatles Demo Tape Found Collecting Dust in Vancouver Record Store

The 15-song recording dates to the Liverpool band's failed audition for Decca Records in early 1962—months before it released its first hit | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 hours ago

Researchers Develop the World's Smallest Pacemaker, and It Could Be Revolutionary for Newborn Babies With Heart Defects

The new device is smaller than a grain of rice and gets absorbed by the patient’s body when it’s no longer needed, eliminating the risks of an extraction surgery | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 hours ago

Climate Activists Say They Will Stop Throwing Soup and Halt Disruptive Protest Tactics

Members of Just Stop Oil made headlines for their controversial demonstrations involving valuable artworks and artifacts. Now, they say they've achieved their initial goal | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 13 hours ago

The TikTok-Famous Dubai Chocolate Traces Its Origins to the 13th-Century Middle East

Generation Z is putting its own spin on knafeh, a dish first designed to quash a caliph's hunger pangs | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 13 hours ago

Stone Tools Discovered in China Resemble Neanderthal Technology Used in Europe, Creating a Middle Stone Age Mystery

Archaeologists previously assumed that East Asia did not see considerable tool development during the Middle Paleolithic, but new findings might change that widely held idea | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 14 hours ago

How ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’ Introduced the ‘First Lady of Children’s Music’ to a Large National Audience

When musician Ella Jenkins appeared on the show, she brought Black diasporic music and her signature songs to televisions across America | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 17 hours ago

See 15 Photos That Will Remind You to Appreciate the Rain

Take a look at these Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest pictures of this precious precipitation | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 17 hours ago

How Do Cancer Cells Migrate to New Tissues and Take Hold?

Scientists are looking for answers about how these confounding trips, known as metastases, occur throughout the human body | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 18 hours ago

Why Were These Teenagers Chosen as Human Sacrifices at an Ancient Mesopotamian Cemetery?

Researchers previously assumed that some of the graves at the site were royal burials. A new study presents a different theory, which challenges existing ideas about early class structures | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Enormous, Crocodile-Sized Amphibians Mysteriously Died Together in Wyoming 230 Million Years Ago

Paleontologists found a group of four-legged Triassic creatures preserved in the same bone bed—but they don’t know what killed the animals | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

New Orca Calf Is a Descendant of the 'Budd Inlet Six,' the Last Killer Whales Captured in United States Waters in 1976

The black and slightly orange Bigg’s killer whale was spotted swimming with its mother, Sedna, in the Salish Sea | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Toddler Discovers 3,800-Year-Old Egyptian Amulet While Hiking With Her Family in Israel

The 3-year-old picked up an ancient Canaanite scarab that dates back to the Middle Bronze Age | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

A Field of Dreams Built in an Unlikely Place: A Japanese American Internment Camp

A baseball diamond buried long ago at Manzanar has been rebuilt to honor the Americans who once played the sport there | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Can A.I. Resurrect a Delacroix Mural That Was Destroyed in a Fire More Than 150 Years Ago?

A new project called Digital Delacroix is training cutting-edge technology on the French painter's style to unravel the lost artwork's secrets | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Ten Exceptional Ancient Elephants, From Small Swimming Creatures to Shovel-Tusked Beasts

A wide variety of the exotic animals evolved on Earth over the past 60 million years | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Readers Respond to the March 2025 Issue

Your feedback on a pioneering surgeon, a diligent historian and a sacred Southwestern site | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Through Good Teams and Bad, Wrigley Field Remains the Coziest Park in Baseball

The Chicago landmark represents the purest form of the American pastime | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

How an American Merchant, a French Official and a Pioneering Chemist Smuggled Much-Needed Gunpowder to the Continental Army

The trio's scheming became a crucial element of the fledgling nation's success in the Revolutionary War | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

The Science Behind the MLB 'Torpedo' Bats That Everyone's Talking About—How Do They Work? And Are They Really Better?

Developed by a physicist, these bats have their widest part, called the barrel, closer to the player's hands to offer a better chance of hitting the ball on their "sweet spot" | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Art Exhibition Immortalizes Switzerland's Rhône Glacier, Predicted to Disappear by 2050

Ohan Breiding's "Belly of a Glacier" combines experimental film and photography to reflect on a moment of loss—and to fight against it | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Enhanced Brain Implant Translates Stroke Survivor's Thoughts Into Nearly Instant Speech Using Artificial Intelligence

The system harnesses technology similar to that of devices like Alexa and Siri, according to the researchers, and improves on a previous model | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Archaeologists Uncover Two Nearly Life-Size Statues Carved Into the Wall of a Tomb in Ancient Pompeii

The figures appear to represent a married couple. Experts think the woman, who is holding laurel leaves, may have been a priestess | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

The Body Model Used During a Famous Scene in 'E.T.' Is Heading to Auction

Created by Italian special effects designer Carlo Rambaldi, the three-foot-tall prop can be seen in the film hiding among stuffed animals in 10-year-old Elliott's closet | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Four Civilian Astronauts Capture Imagery of Earth's Icy Poles on Fram2, the First Crewed Mission to Polar Orbit

The mission, funded and commanded by a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, was launched by SpaceX on Monday and has grabbed headlines for its flight path | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Two Great Empires Traded for Financial Gain and Achieved a Brilliant Cultural Exchange as Well

A new show illuminates the rich artistic wonders that arose out of the 400 years of commerce between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

What Spurred the South to Join the American Revolution?

How a disagreement with a Scottish lord over westward expansion, a cache of gunpowder, and the future of enslaved labor helped kick-start the southern colonies' embrace of the radical cause | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

High-Tech Imaging Allows Researchers to Read Handwritten Medieval Arthurian Tales Hidden in the Binding of a Property Record

The stories are part of a French sequel to Arthurian legend, and its binding was repurposed in the 16th century | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Britain's Famous Sutton Hoo Helmet May Have Come From Denmark, Not Sweden, New Discovery Suggests

A small metal stamp discovered on a Danish island bears many similarities to the iconic seventh-century helmet | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

A Gladiator's Marble-Etched Epitaph Is Found in an Ancient Roman Necropolis

The graveyard of Liternum, near Naples, was in use between the first century B.C.E. and the third century C.E. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

This Eight-Pound Miniature Dachshund Survived 16 Months on a Rugged Australian Island. But She's Still Evading Rescuers

Valerie the wiener dog is still on the loose, more than a year after she escaped during her parents’ vacation on Kangaroo Island | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

Who Drank Wine in Ancient Troy? New Research Suggests Just About Everyone

Chemical analyses revealed wine residue on both expensive goblets and common cups unearthed among the legendary city's ruins | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

Aquarium Builds New 'Assisted Living' Retirement Retreat for Aging African Penguins to Live Out Their Golden Years

At the New England Aquarium, the geriatric birds can now enjoy a quieter, calmer setting with an emphasis on personalized care | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

Newly Declassified Documents Reveal the Untold Stories of the Red Scare, a Hunt for Communists in Postwar America

In his latest book, journalist and historian Clay Risen explores how the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joseph McCarthy upended the nation | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

Remains of American Soldier Captured by the Japanese During World War II Identified Nearly 80 Years Later

After his plane was shot down, Glenn H. Hodak was sent to a military prison in Tokyo, where he was killed by U.S. firebombing in May 1945 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

This New Book Reveals the Daredevil Lives of Four Italian Women Who Stood Up to Hitler and Mussolini

By delivering newspapers, munitions and secret messages to resistance groups, among many other incredible tasks, the brave fighters strove for a freer world | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

From Worlds That Look Like Cotton Candy to Others Covered in Volcanoes, These Are the Strangest and Most Captivating Exoplanets

Scientists are using an array of instruments to detect other planets, some of which may harbor life—and others that most definitely don’t | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

How a Forgotten Bean Could Save Coffee From Extinction

One leading botanist is scouring remote corners of the earth to find new species that could keep our mugs full | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

Death Toll Passes 2,000 After Magnitude 7.7 Earthquake Hits Myanmar, Among the Most Powerful Quakes in the Region Since 1900

The natural disaster compounds humanitarian concerns in a country already in the throes of a devastating civil war | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 days ago

Archaeologists Unearth Rare Reminder of Britain's Brief Reign Over the 'Nation's Oldest City'

The find offers archaeological evidence of the 20-year interlude when the British ruled St. Augustine, Florida, which was founded by the Spanish in 1565 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 days ago

First Orbital Rocket Launched From Western Europe Crashes Into Sea After Roughly 30-Second Flight

Isar Aerospace, the company behind the rocket, is still heralding the launch as a success due to the data it provided | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 days ago

Judge Reprimands Thieves in Bear Statue Heist: 'Your Actions Were the Antithesis of Everything Paddington Stands For'

Daniel Heath and William Lawrence, a pair of 22-year-old members of the British Royal Air Force, apologized for stealing a statue of the beloved bear from a park bench | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 days ago

Being Struck by Lightning Is No Big Deal for This Tropical Tree—the Zap Even Gives It a Boost

The almendro tree may have evolved to attract lightning, which helps clear more space for it to grow, according to new research | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 days ago

See for Yourself One of the World's Rarest Red Diamonds at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum

Unraveling the surprising science that gives colorful diamonds their special allure | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 days ago

The Nation's First Black Female Doctor Blazed a Path for Women in Medicine. But She Was Left Out of the Story for Decades

After earning a medical degree in 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler died in obscurity and was buried without a headstone | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 days ago

These Dramatic Photos Reveal How It's Always High Noon in Tombstone

Saddle up for a visit to the most notorious town in the West, where a certain infamous showdown happens day after day | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 days ago