Two New Species of Killer Whale Should Be Recognized, Study Says

A couple of eastern North Pacific populations of orcas have qualities that set them apart, according to researchers | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

See The Face of Emperor Wu, a Sixth-Century Chinese Ruler Brought to Life with DNA Analysis

Genetic analysis of DNA from his skeleton offers not only a first glimpse at his face, but also insight into his mysterious death | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Five Programs Paving the Way for Gender Equality Worldwide

Around the globe, teams of women are taking on traditionally male-dominated roles | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Watch Pet Parrots Learn to Play Tablet Games—With Their Tongues

Scientists are studying how the intelligent, social birds interact with touchscreens to help design mobile apps that serve as enrichment for the birds | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

See the Winners of the 21st Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest

This year’s top photographs capture the quiet and chaotic from the American South to East Asia | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Melting Polar Ice Sheets Are Slowing Earth's Rotation. That Could Change How We Keep Time

As ice melts into water and flows toward the equator, it redistributes mass around the Earth, affecting the planet's spin, a new study finds | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Why Isn't Dental Health Considered Primary Medical Care?

Ailments of the mouth can put the body at risk for a slew of other ills, yet dentistry is often siloed | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

How Kids Cornered the Market on Lemonade

The tangy tale of how America’s children learned to squeeze life for all it’s worth | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Archaeologists Unearth 1,000-Year-Old Ice Skate Made of Animal Bone in Czech Republic

The artifact dates to a time when skates were used primarily for practical purposes | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Cargo Ships Keep Getting Bigger, and Infrastructure Is Racing to Keep Up

A massive container ship hit Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge this week, calling attention to the demands that ever-growing shipping vessels are placing on ports, canals and bridges | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Man With Broken Metal Detector Unearths Largest Gold Nugget Ever Found in England

Richard Brock stumbled upon the treasure, valued at more than $38,000, about 20 minutes after starting his search | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Someone Vandalized Banky's New Mural in London. Now, It's Been Covered Up

The coverings were added to protect the art, but critics worry they detract from the artist's intentions | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Someone Vandalized Banksy's New Mural in London. Now, It's Been Covered Up

The coverings were added to protect the art, but critics worry they detract from the artist's intentions | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Intermittent Fasting Linked to Higher Risk of Death From Heart Disease, Preliminary Study Finds

New research challenges the idea that restricting eating to a limited time frame is beneficial—though the work has some notable limitations, such as a reliance on self-reported eating habits | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

To Save Sun Bears, Scientists First Have to Find Them

The world's smallest bear plays a crucial role in repairing its tropical habitat in Southeast Asia | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Why Debutantes Volunteered to Be Horse-Riding Couriers in Rural Kentucky

Between the 1920s and 1940s, wealthy young women signed up to run errands and carry messages for the Frontier Nursing Service, whose nurse-midwives provided care to patients in hard-to-reach areas | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Can A.I. Make Beer Taste Better? Scientists Test a Model That Recommends New Flavors

Researchers spent three years developing a machine learning model that can predict how good beer will taste based on its chemical composition—and make suggestions for how to improve it | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

How Baseball’s Official Historian Dug Up the Game’s Unknown Origins

A lifelong passion for the national pastime led John Thorn to redefine the sport's relationship with statistics and reveal the truth behind its earliest days | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

This Museum Needs Your Help Identifying the Subject of a 19th-Century Painting

Nobody knows the name of the child in "The Black Boy," but a museum in Liverpool is hoping someone will recognize him | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Astronomers Capture Dazzling New Image of the Black Hole at the Milky Way's Center

The first image of the black hole taken in polarized light, the new view shows the supermassive structure's magnetic fields and hints that it could be hiding an enormous jet | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Bird Flu Confirmed in U.S. Dairy Cows for the First Time, but Milk Supply Is Unaffected, Officials Say

Tests detected the virus at two farms in Texas and two farms in Kansas, but officials and scientists stress commercial dairy products remain safe to consume | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Explore a Century of Masterpieces, From Rodin to Picasso, Brought Together by One Passionate Collector

A self-described "little man in a hurry," Joseph Hirshhorn built a premier modern art collection | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Mexican Government Acquires Rare Centuries-Old Aztec Manuscripts

The 16th- and 17th-century artifacts provide historical accounts of events such as the founding of Tenochtitlán | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Why Scientists Are Calling for the Moon to Be Better Protected From Development

Only a few lunar sites are ideal for certain cutting-edge research—and they’re under threat from mining, satellites and bases, scientists argue | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Seven of the Worst Bridge Disasters in World History

The collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge is shocking—but not unprecedented | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

The Thrills of Rediscovering Ancient Greece While Touring Modern Athens

The Mediterranean capital city savors its connections to antiquity—while reappraising its past | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Why Aren't Dolphins in the Great Lakes? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Sunken British Warship That Left Crew Marooned for 66 Days Has Been Identified

Found off the coast of Florida, the HMS "Tyger" left some 300 crew members stranded on Garden Key in 1742 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

These Small Birds Flutter Their Wings to Say 'After You' to Their Partner

A new study of Japanese tits provides the first evidence of non-primate animals using gestures to convey messages | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Planning a Road Trip for the Total Solar Eclipse? Here's Why You Should Drive Extra Carefully

Scientists found a 31 percent increase in fatal car crashes around the 2017 total solar eclipse, akin to spikes in traffic risk on busy holiday weekends | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Waiters Race Through the Streets of Paris While Balancing Trays of Coffee and Croissants

About 200 servers competed in the 1.2-mile race—a tradition that goes back to 1914 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

The Broken Seal of a Pope's 14th-Century Decree Has Been Found in Poland

The metal fragment was once part of a papal bull, an official communication distributed by the Catholic Church | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

How 'The Magic Man of Hollywood' Captured the Golden Age's Biggest Stars

George Hurrell’s photographs of actors from the 1930s and 1940s dazzle in a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

How Rapa Nui Lost a Tree, Only to Have It Sprout Up Elsewhere

Before the toromiro disappeared from the island, at least two men grabbed seeds from the last remaining plant and brought them home | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Las Vegas Is Going All In on Its Water Conservation Plan

As the Southwest dries, can a city notorious for excess find a way to survive with less? | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Louvre Receives Bomb Threat Against 'Mona Lisa' and Other Masterpieces

The message came in through the museum's online contact form on March 17 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

When Hollywood Needs a Historically Accurate Outfit That Looks Just Right, It Turns to Rabbit Goody

How do filmmakers get period clothing to look the part? Inside the textile workshop where the past comes to life | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Five Museums Unveil Audio Guides Celebrating Lesser-Known Women Artists

The project—titled Museums Without Men—debuted in the U.S. and the U.K. during Women's History Month | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Stone Age People Survived a Supervolcano Eruption by Adapting to Dry Periods, Archaeologists Suggest

Humans living in northwest Ethiopia around 74,000 years ago switched to eating more fish following the eruption, a behavior that might have enabled migration out of Africa | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Mysterious World War II Plane Propeller Found in Scottish Peat Bog

The object likely broke off a doomed plane during a crash on the isle of Arran | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Dogs Can Understand the Words for Several Objects, Such as Toys and Leashes, Study Finds

Your dog may know the word "ball" is associated with their favorite round squishy toy, according to new research that measured brain waves | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Mathematician Who Made Sense of the Universe's Randomness Wins Math's Top Prize

Michel Talagrand took home the 2024 Abel Prize for his work on stochastic systems, randomness and a proof of a physics reaction that many experts thought was unsolvable | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

See the Faces of Four Scots Across Thousands of Years of History, Brought to Life Using A.I.

The Perth Museum in Scotland is unveiling digital reconstructions of men and women who lived in the region from the Bronze Age through the 16th century | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Titan's Massive Dunes May Be a Comet and Moon Graveyard From the Early Solar System

A new modeling study suggests the dark dunes on Saturn's largest moon are made of tiny particles created by crashing comets and moonlets billions of years ago | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

The All-Woman Secret Society That Paved the Way for Modern Feminism

Based in Greenwich Village, Heterodoxy had just one requirement for membership: An applicant must "not be orthodox in her opinion" | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Doctors Take Another Step Toward Animal-to-Human Organ Transplants With the First Pig Kidney Transplant

The experimental procedure was done on a man experiencing end-stage kidney failure last week who had been on the transplant waiting list for two years | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

Metal Detectorist Discovers 300-Year-Old Silver Thimble Engraved With a Romantic Inscription

The artifact, which features the words "like enduringly, love forever," had been declared a treasure by officials in Wales | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago

These Are the Most Polluted National Parks

Five California sites made the top ten list for unhealthiest air, according to a new report | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 months ago