Engineer Says Notre-Dame Is Vulnerable to High Winds

Models show damage to the roof vaults have cut the structure's wind resistance by over half | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Fossil Discovery Pushes Back the Origin of Fungi by Half a Billion Years

Ancient fungus helps rewrite what we know about evolution and the tree of life | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

What Makes Francisco Toledo 'El Maestro'

Mexico's most important living artist mixes magical realism with passionate rebellion | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Plankton Haven’t Been the Same Since the Industrial Revolution

Changes in plankton populations over the past centuries correlate with rising sea temperatures | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Tower of London Welcomes Baby Ravens for the First Time in 30 Years

The four chicks eat at least once every two hours, feasting on a diet of quail, mice and rats | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Morse Code Celebrates 175 Years and Counting

The elegantly simple code works whether flashing a spotlight or blinking your eyes—or even tapping on a smartphone touchscreen | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The Disturbing Resilience of Scientific Racism

A new book explores how racist biases continue to maintain a foothold in research today | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Jeff Koons’ ‘Rabbit’ Breaks Record for Most Expensive Work by Living Artist

The stainless steel sculpture sold for $91.1 million, surpassing the $90.2 million record set by David Hockney last November | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

When Niagara Falls Ran Dry

While seemingly a natural wonder of the world, the destination on the U.S./Canada border has been subject to human meddling for years | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Neil Armstrong’s Spacesuit Set to Return to Public View

Duplicates of the 3D scanned historic Apollo artifact will also tour Major League ballparks this summer | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Breathing Problems in Pugs and Bulldogs Might Have a Genetic Component

It might not be their smushed-up snouts after all | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Cheese Made from Celebrity Belly Button and Armpit Bacteria Goes on Display

Five types of | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Nanoscale ‘Signatures’ Could Keep Counterfeit Parts Out of Military Equipment

Navy scientist Alison Smith will describe her novel authentication system at Smithsonian's Military Invention Day | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

LGBTQ+ Pride at the Smithsonian

Read our newest stories about LGBTQ+ arts, culture and history, as well as a list of events around the Smithsonian related to Pride | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Teeth of Early Neanderthals Indicates the Species’ Lineage Is Older Than Thought

Some of the oldest known Neanderthal remains include teeth that could push back the split with modern human lineages, but not all scientists are convinced | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Humans and Ants Engage in Similar Types of Warfare

In both humans and social insects, the capacity to engage in total war seems to hinge on population numbers | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The Money Behind the Climate Denial Movement

Nearly a billion dollars a year is flowing into the organized climate change counter-movement | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Separating Truth from Myth in So-Called ‘Golden Age’ of Detroit Auto Industry

The post-war era’s labor unrest and market instability has seemingly been forgotten in the public’s memory | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

CIA Secretly Plucked Soviet Submarine from the Ocean Floor Using a Giant Claw

The International Spy Museum details the audacious plan that involved a reclusive billionaire, a 618-foot-long ship, and a great deal of stealth | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Archaeologists Uncover an Ancient Roman Game Board at Hadrian’s Wall

The cracked stone board was likely used to play ludus latrunculorum, Rome's favorite game | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Brains plus bonnets equal a historic first (2016)

Brains plus bonnets equal a historic first | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The Definition of Holocaust Survivor Has Changed Since the End of World War II

For decades, Jews who were forced east into the uneasy confines of the Soviet Union were excluded from the conversation about the trauma of genocide | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Zoo

The zoo's cassowary “still has that mysterious aura about her—that prehistoric, dinosaur-walking-through-the-rainforest-quality. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Scientists Identify Factors That Make People Naturally Resistant to HIV

Studying key points on the HIV virus that are weak to immune system attacks could lead to new treatments or HIV vaccines | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

For the First Time, Green Power Tops Coal Industry in Energy Production in April

Renewable energy outworked coal in April—and will likely do the same in May—though the trend likely won't last once air-conditioners switch on | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Particles from Cold War Nuclear Bomb Tests Found in Deepest Parts of the Ocean

Crustaceans in the Mariana Trench and other underwater canyons feed on food from the surface laced with carbon-14 from Cold War bomb tests | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

A Counterintuitive Idea for Treating Severe Depression: Stay Awake

Doctors are finding that sleep deprivation actually helps lift some people out of depression. Now they want to know why | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The explosion of kid-friendly paraphernalia led the federal government to crack down on pot | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

When an Archaeologist Challenges Mainstream Scientific Thinking

The story of Jacques Cinq-Mars and the Bluefish Caves shows how toxic atmosphere can poison scientific progress | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The Treaty That Forced the Cherokee People from Their Homelands Goes on View

Negotiated in 1835 by a small group of Cherokee citizens without legal standing, challenged by the majority of the Cherokee nation and their elected government, the Treaty of New Echota was used by the United States to justify the removal of the Cherokee people along the Trail of … | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Lesson of a Lifetime (2005)

Her bold experiment to teach Iowa third graders about racial prejudice divided townspeople and thrust her onto the national stage | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

How Origami Is Revolutionizing Industrial Design

Scientists and engineers are finding practical applications for the Japanese art form in space, medicine, robotics, architecture and more | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Washington Becomes First State to Allow 'Human Composting' as a Burial Method

The accelerated decomposition method transforms remains into soil and uses just an eighth of the energy required for cremation | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Nasa Prepares to Build Spacecraft Bound for a Metal Asteroid

The Psyche spacecraft, headed to an asteroid with the same name, will explore a metal world thought to be the leftover core of a destroyed planet | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Can We Capture Energy from a Hurricane? (2016)

Loaded with power, massive storms may be another conduit for renewable energy | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The Secret Ingredient in Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Is Seventh-Day Adventism

America’s favorite processed breakfast was once the pinnacle of healthfulness—and spiritual purity | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

What the Obsolete Art of Mapping the Skies on Glass Plates Can Still Teach Us

The first pictures of the sky were taken on glass photographic plates, and these treasured artifacts can still help scientists make discoveries today | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Historic Notre-Dame Cathedral Salvaged From Blaze

After a tense few hours, firefighters announce they saved the landmark from 'total destruction' | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

New Scientifically Accurate Board Game Is for the Birders

Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Margaret Dayhoff Brought Modern Computing to Biology

The pioneer of bioinformatics modeled Earth’s primordial atmosphere with Carl Sagan and made a vast protein database still used today | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

How a Spy Known as the ‘Limping Lady’ Helped the Allies Win WWII

A new biography explores the remarkable feats of Virginia Hall, a disabled secret agent determined to play her part in the fight against the Nazis | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The town of Brande (population: 7,000) is headquarters of clothing brand Bestseller, which wants to construct the 1,049-foot spire | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

An estimated 66 tons of feces left behind by climbers is coming out of the deep freeze on North America's highest peak | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Woman Who Can Smell Parkinson’s Helped Scientists Create New Diagnosis Method

Joy Milne first noticed a “sort of woody, musky odor” emanating from her husband some 12 years before he was diagnosed with the degenerative disorder | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The Mathematical Madness Behind a Perfect N.C.A.A. Basketball Bracket

Picking a perfect bracket is so unlikely that it will almost certainly never occur, even if March Madness continues for billions of years | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The Priest of Abu Ghraib

Inside Iraq's most notorious prison, an Army interrogator came face to face with a shocking truth about the war—and himself | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Literary Confessions Penned by Virginia Woolf, Margaret Kennedy Unearthed

10 prominent English writers answered a 39-question survey detailing their opinions of literary predecessors and peers | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Lake Elsinore has seen tens of thousands of people descend on Walker Canyon to see the recent superbloom, overwhelming local resources | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago