Before the advent of geology as a science, the canyon was avoided. Now the popular park is celebrating its centennial year | Continue reading
In a new book on space exploration, Smithsonian curator emeritus Roger D. Launius predicts boots on the Red Planet ground by the 2030s | Continue reading
The aspartame myth goes back to a letter circulating on the '90s internet | Continue reading
Celia Fiennes traveled and wrote about her adventures—including a bit of life advice | Continue reading
A new study investigates the historical factors leading up to the emergence of pork prohibition | Continue reading
Two inventors turned a failed experiment into an irresistibly poppable product that revolutionized the shipping industry | Continue reading
The brains of people who get chills when the right song comes on are wired differently than others | Continue reading
The DeepSqueak software translates the high-pitched communication into sonograms, which can be analyzed to determine what mice and rats are saying | Continue reading
According to models of stellar evolution, certain types of stars need longer than the universe has existed to form | Continue reading
In The First Conspiracy, thriller writer Brad Meltzer uncovers a real-life story too good to turn into fiction | Continue reading
An ancient Greek calendar was ahead of its time | Continue reading
Jack London State Historic Park, home to the rough and tumble troublemaker with a prolific pen | Continue reading
The images date to the 19th and 20th centuries, the waning days of the once-powerful empire | Continue reading
A new study has found that 24 genes show similar activity in the brain tissue of five species stick with one mate at a time | Continue reading
A simple contest of sci-fi strategy, ‘Spacewar!’ ushered in what is now a 140 billion dollar industry | Continue reading
Bringing the sense of touch to virtual reality experiences could impact everything from physical rehabilitation to online shopping | Continue reading
Many national parks remain understaffed during the government shutdown while instances of vandalism and destruction rise | Continue reading
Over thousands of years, native people played a strong role in molding the ecology of this vast wilderness | Continue reading
Today, archaeologists are still debating just how old the hoard is—and what it tells us about the end of the Roman Empire in Britain | Continue reading
Museum buildings and research centers shuttered, most federal employees furloughed, while excepted Zoo staff continue care of the animals | Continue reading
Every year, billions of male chicks are euthanized by the egg and poultry industry, but new tech could end the chick culling | Continue reading
Campaign is expected to launch across the entire U.K. by 2023 | Continue reading
In 1991, Congress authorized $650 million to develop the technology that would make driverless cars a reality | Continue reading
His contributions to mathematics and electrical engineering made him one of the most beloved and instantly recognizable men of his time. | Continue reading
How the rotating tool became the circular table that circled the globe | Continue reading
A simple contest of sci-fi strategy, ‘Spacewar!’ ushered in what is now a 140 billion dollar industry | Continue reading
Small as they are, bumblebee brains are surprisingly capable of mastering novel, complex tasks | Continue reading
Sen. Rand Paul has stalled a measure passed by the House in February | Continue reading
Using the sustainable and ancient method of coppicing, evergreen Christmas trees can be regrown indefinitely | Continue reading
The holiday pastry has been a multicultural phenomenon since the very beginning | Continue reading
A beloved Robert Frost poem is among the many creations that are (finally) losing their protections in 2019 | Continue reading
I brought a seasoned veteran of the conflict in Afghanistan into my home—and then things got wild | Continue reading
Charged with manslaughter, the pair were acquitted in December 1911. A Smithsonian curator reexamines the conditions that lead to the deadly fire | Continue reading
Long before parents freaked over the ubiquitous video game, they flipped out over another newfangled fad | Continue reading
24 feet tall and three feet wide, these giant spires dotted the ancient landscape | Continue reading
Between the Viking Age and modern times, felines increased in size by 16 percent | Continue reading
Volume features 22 letters from author to his family, photographs of the razed city of Dresden, telegrams and news clippings | Continue reading
An ant colony can thrive for decades, changing its behavior based on past events even as individual ants die off every year or so | Continue reading
The smaller, quieter half of the magician duo Penn & Teller writes about how magicians manipulate the human mind | Continue reading
The former President, dead at 94 years old, was noteworthy for his “humanity and decency,” says a Smithsonian historian | Continue reading
What makes this utterance the “universal word”? | Continue reading
Your driverless car is already here, thanks to the visionary engineers behind a bold experiment | Continue reading
The InSight lander has successfully touched down on Mars | Continue reading
Newly discovered evidence is upending our understanding of how early settlers made a life on the island -- and why they suddenly disappeared | Continue reading
His pioneering team of black sociologists created data visualizations that explained institutionalized racism to the world | Continue reading
The Indians who first feasted with the English colonists were far more sophisticated than you were taught in school. But that wasn't enough to save them | Continue reading
Archaeologists thought these ancient tools, 80,000 years old at least, were brought to China by migrants—but now it appears they were invented locally | Continue reading