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 | 6 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 | 6 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 | 6 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 | 6 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 | 6 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 | 6 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 | 6 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 | 6 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 | 6 years ago

NASA Cancels First All-Female Spacewalk Due to Spacesuit Size Issues

NASA didn’t have two properly fitting and space-ready suits for both women | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

The dolphins' expert, deliberate handling of the terrorized puffer fish implies that this is not their first time at the hallucinogenic rodeo | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Artificial Intelligence Study of Human Genome Finds Unknown Human Ancestor

The genetic footprint of a | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

How the Grand Canyon Transformed from a ‘Valueless’ Place to a National Park

Before the advent of geology as a science, the canyon was avoided. Now the popular park is celebrating its centennial year | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

A Smithsonian Researcher Reflects on What It Will Take to Land Humans on Mars

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


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

‘Aspartame Causes Cancer’ Was a Classic Internet Hoax

The aspartame myth goes back to a letter circulating on the '90s internet | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

1600s England Through the Eyes of One of the First Modern Travel Writers (2017)

Celia Fiennes traveled and wrote about her adventures—including a bit of life advice | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

People Ate Pork in the Middle East Until 1,000 B.C.–What Changed?

A new study investigates the historical factors leading up to the emergence of pork prohibition | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Accidental Invention of Bubble Wrap

Two inventors turned a failed experiment into an irresistibly poppable product that revolutionized the shipping industry | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

What happens in the brain when music causes chills

The brains of people who get chills when the right song comes on are wired differently than others | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Scientists Use AI to Decode the Ultrasonic Language of Rodents

The DeepSqueak software translates the high-pitched communication into sonograms, which can be analyzed to determine what mice and rats are saying | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Four Types of Stars That Will Not Exist for Billions or Even Trillions of Years

According to models of stellar evolution, certain types of stars need longer than the universe has existed to form | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Plot to Kill George Washington

In The First Conspiracy, thriller writer Brad Meltzer uncovers a real-life story too good to turn into fiction | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Old World, High Tech

An ancient Greek calendar was ahead of its time | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Short, Frantic, Rags-To-Riches Life of Jack London (2016)

Jack London State Historic Park, home to the rough and tumble troublemaker with a prolific pen | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

The Getty Digitizes More Than 6,000 Photos from the Ottoman Era

The images date to the 19th and 20th centuries, the waning days of the once-powerful empire | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Scientists Identify Gene Pattern That Makes Some Animals Monogamous

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


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

How the First Popular Video Game Kicked Off Generations of Virtual Adventure

A simple contest of sci-fi strategy, ‘Spacewar!’ ushered in what is now a 140 billion dollar industry | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Here’s What the Future of Haptic Technology Looks (Or Rather, Feels) Like

Bringing the sense of touch to virtual reality experiences could impact everything from physical rehabilitation to online shopping | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Joshua Tree National Park Closes Due to Damage to Namesake Trees

Many national parks remain understaffed during the government shutdown while instances of vandalism and destruction rise | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

The Supposedly Pristine Amazon Rainforest Was Actually Shaped by Humans

Over thousands of years, native people played a strong role in molding the ecology of this vast wilderness | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

A Search for a Lost Hammer Led to Largest Cache of Roman Treasure in Britain

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


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Smithsonian Museums and the National Zoo Close for the U.S. Government Shutdown

Museum buildings and research centers shuttered, most federal employees furloughed, while excepted Zoo staff continue care of the animals | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

A German Grocery Chain Is Selling First-Of-Its-Kind “No-Kill” Eggs

Every year, billions of male chicks are euthanized by the egg and poultry industry, but new tech could end the chick culling | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

British Doctors May Soon Prescribe Art, Music, Dance, Singing Lessons

Campaign is expected to launch across the entire U.K. by 2023 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

In 1991, Congress authorized $650M to make driverless cars a reality

In 1991, Congress authorized $650 million to develop the technology that would make driverless cars a reality | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Charles Proteus Steinmetz, the Wizard of Schenectady

His contributions to mathematics and electrical engineering made him one of the most beloved and instantly recognizable men of his time. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

The Lazy Susan Is Neither Classic nor Chinese

How the rotating tool became the circular table that circled the globe | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

How the First Popular Video Game, Spacewar, Kicked Off Virtual Adventure

A simple contest of sci-fi strategy, ‘Spacewar!’ ushered in what is now a 140 billion dollar industry | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago

Bees successfully taught to play bee soccer (2017)

Small as they are, bumblebee brains are surprisingly capable of mastering novel, complex tasks | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 years ago