Mathematician Who Shed Light on Randomness in Algorithms Wins Top Prize in Computing

Avi Wigderson earned the 2023 Turing Award for wide-ranging work in theoretical computer science | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Behold 15 Beautiful Photos of Cherry Blossoms in Bloom

These 15 picture-perfect cherry blossom images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest are pretty in pink. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

How to Watch the Brilliant Lyrid Meteor Shower This Month

Fiery streaks will illuminate the night sky from April 15-29, with the spectacle's peak occurring from April 21-22 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

You Can Help Migrating Fish Traverse a Dutch Canal By Ringing This Digital 'Doorbell'

The live stream from the Netherlands, which lets viewers notify a boat lock operator when fish need to be let through, has become a popular pastime for people around the world | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Archaeologists Were Looking for a Medieval Hermitage. They Found a 'Monumental' Prehistoric Henge

The site in eastern England may have served as a sacred space for groups across thousands of years | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Why Are Some People Left-Handed? Scientists Identify Rare Genetic Variants That May Be Linked to the Trait

The variants are present in fewer than 1 percent of people, but they were 2.7 times more likely to appear in lefties than in righties | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

This Is What Being in Your Twenties Was Like in 18th-Century London

A newly restored collection of letters describes a 27-year-old's office job, social life and financial concerns beginning in 1719 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Medieval English Coins Were Made With Melted Byzantine Silver

Researchers have solved the mystery of the silver coin boom that took place around 660 C.E. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Tiny and Rare, a Blind Mole That 'Swims' Through Desert Sand Is Spotted in Australia

Typically seen just five to ten times per decade, the elusive species has now been found for the second time in six months | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

One of the World's Oldest Surviving Books Is for Sale

The rare early Christian text was written in a monastery in Egypt between 250 and 350 C.E. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Physicist Peter Higgs, Who Prompted a Decades-Long Search for a Tiny Particle, Dies at 94

The Nobel Prize winner predicted the Higgs boson, a fundamental particle that scientists successfully discovered in 2012, explaining how particles get their mass and underlying a key theory of the universe | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

The Real Story Behind Apple TV+'s 'Franklin'

A new limited series starring Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin revisits the founding father's years as the American ambassador to France | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

See a Restored Ancient Roman Helmet—and Two Shiny New Replicas

The 2,000-year-old Hallaton Helmet is now on permanent display at the Harborough Museum in England | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

When Are the Next Solar Eclipses? 2026 Promises Totality in Europe, While Much of America Has a Decades-Long Wait

The next total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous U.S. won’t take place until August 23, 2044—but eclipse chasers will have other opportunities to experience totality before that | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Little Rock Nine and Paul McCartney React to Beyoncé's 'Blackbird' Cover

McCartney was inspired to write the song after hearing about the battle to integrate Little Rock Central High School in 1957 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

The First Issue of Superman Just Became the Most Valuable Comic Book in the World

An original copy of 1938's "Action Comics No. 1" sold for a record-breaking $6 million at auction | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

A Secretive Experiment Released Salt Crystals Over San Francisco Bay—Could It Help Curb Warming?

The technology could make clouds reflect more sunlight, cooling the Earth below. But even the scientists leading the study say letting go of fossil fuels is a much-preferred response to climate change | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Why Do So Many Beetle Species Exist?

Diet played a key role in the evolution of the vast beetle family tree | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

The Ellis Island Museum Is Revitalizing the Story of American Immigration

A $100 million renovation will help preserve the history of the millions of immigrants who passed through the island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

This Artist Used A.I. to Recreate a Velázquez Painting Lost in a Fire 300 Years Ago

Fernando Sánchez Castillo employed historical resources and image-generation technologies to reimagine "Expulsion of the Moriscos" | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

80 Percent of Global CO2 Emissions Come From Just 57 Companies, Report Shows

Many of these companies increased their fossil fuel production after the Paris Agreement was signed in 2016 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

A Michigan Hunter Thought He Killed a Large Coyote. It Turned Out to Be an Endangered Gray Wolf

Wildlife officials believe the animal was likely the first gray wolf spotted in the southern Lower Peninsula in 100 years | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

A Massive Crane Helping With the Baltimore Bridge Cleanup Was Built to Recover a Sunken Soviet Submarine

The Chesapeake 1000 was used to construct a ship for a top-secret CIA mission in the 1970s | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Mount Etna Puffs 'Smoke Rings' Into the Sky

The circular wisps are mostly condensed water vapor | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Arthur Conan Doyle Agreed to Write 'The Sign of the Four' at a Fateful Dinner in 1889

The handwritten manuscript he produced is going to auction, where it could become the most expensive item associated with the mystery writer ever sold | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

The Town That Kept Its Nuclear Bunker a Secret for Three Decades

The people of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, helped keep the Greenbrier resort's bunker—designed to hold the entirety of Congress—hidden from 1958 to 1992 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

These Were the Most Challenged Books in America Last Year

Titles with LGBTQ themes dominated the American Library Association's newly released list | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

These 15 Photos Show How the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Captivated the Nation

From Texas to Maine, millions of Americans looked up and were spellbound by the spectacular phenomenon | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Vikings May Have Used Body Modification as a 'Sign of Identification'

A recent study analyzes Scandinavian examples of filed teeth and elongated skulls dating to the Viking Age | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Up to a Trillion Cicadas Could Emerge in the U.S. Later This Spring

Two specific broods will appear together for the first time since 1803 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Adorable but Deadly Fluff Balls, Better Known as Pygmy Slow Lorises, Born at the Smithsonian's National Zoo

The two babies are part of an endangered species whose unbearable cuteness has made them a target for wildlife traffickers | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

See NASA’s Initial Moon Buggy Concepts, Expected on the Moon by 2030

Three companies are competing to design NASA's lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) for the agency’s Artemis campaign | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

This Tiny Italian Island Is Giving Away Goats to Anyone Who Can Catch Them

An estimated 600 of the hoofed intruders are wreaking havoc on the two-square-mile island of Alicudi | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Sea Otters Have Helped Bolster California’s Kelp Forest

A study that looks back more than 100 years shows that where the animals have thrived, underwater forests have, too | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Dark Energy Could Be Evolving Over Time, Raising Questions About the Nature of the Cosmos

The largest 3D map of the universe ever made hints that dark energy might not be a constant, though the findings must be backed up with more data | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

'Oppenheimer' Opens in Japan Eight Months After Worldwide Release

The acclaimed biopic of the Manhattan Project's leader has been met with mixed reviews by Japanese audiences | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Bad Sleep Can Make You Feel Years Older Than You Really Are, Study Suggests

After just two nights of short sleep, a person’s “subjective age,” or how old they feel, can spike by more than four years | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Is This Stingray-Shaped Rock the Oldest Known Animal Art?

While they urge caution, researchers think an artist may have traced a stingray in the sand some 130,000 years ago | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

77,000 Young Salmon Were Dumped Into the Wrong Creek After a Truck Crashed in Oregon

The spring Chinook salmon smolts should still be able to find their way to the Pacific Ocean and help boost the threatened population of the fish, officials say, though another 25,000 salmon died in the accident | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

3D Sonar Images of Baltimore's Key Bridge Reveal the Underwater Wreckage in Detail

Divers clearing the Patapsco River are grappling with poor visibility and dangerous conditions, so they rely heavily on real-time sonar observations | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

How the Hindu Deity Hanuman Inspired Dev Patel's 'Monkey Man'

The story of the half-human, half-monkey god mirrors the journey of the protagonist in Patel's directorial debut | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Watch the Total Solar Eclipse From Your Home With These Live Streams Online

Not in the path of totality? See the moon blot out the sun, revealing its magnificent corona, from your computer or phone | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

How Do Animals React to a Total Solar Eclipse? Scientists Document Strange and Surprising Behaviors

Nature enthusiasts work with researchers to figure out how creatures respond to the celestial phenomenon | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Why Were So Many Renaissance Portraits Multisided?

A new exhibition at the Met is the first to examine the tradition of covered 15th- and 16th-century portraits, which were designed to be interactive and often portable | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

From the JogBra to Gatorade to Breakaway Basketball Rims, Sports Are a Field for Invention

A new exhibition at the National Museum of American History aims to inspire the next generation of innovators | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Take a Trip to Thailand With These Smithsonian Photo Contest Images

See what makes this country so captivating, from picturesque rice paddies to striking cityscapes | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

The Real Story Behind 'Mary & George'

The new mini-series dramatizes the Villiers family’s scandalous rise to power at the court of England's James I | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago

Can Snakes Recognize Themselves? One Species Has Passed a Modified 'Mirror Test' Based on Smell

Eastern garter snakes might recognize their own scents, suggesting the reptiles are more cognitively complex than thought, according to a new study | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 months ago