Brain Implants Show Promise for People With Traumatic Brain Injuries in Small Study

Electrodes placed in the brains of five patients led to "profound" improvements in cognitive function, even years after their injuries | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

South American Bird Makes Rare Appearance in Texas, Thousands of Miles From Home

Birders are driving hours to Corpus Christi for a chance to spot the cattle tyrant, which has never been observed in the United States before | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

Jane Austen's Annotated Copy of 'Curiosities of Literature' Is For Sale

The novelist used a pencil to underline roughly 15 passages from the text by Isaac D'Israeli | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

The World Is Running to Catch Up With Simone Leigh

The celebrated artist’s crusading works, now on view at the Hirshhorn Museum, upend the stereotypes too often foisted on Black women | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2023

Take a trip without leaving home with these adventurous reads from this year | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

‘Rizz’ Is Oxford’s 2023 Word of the Year

The word means “style, charm or attractiveness” or “the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner" | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

Unraveling Ulysses S. Grant's Complex Relationship With Slavery

The Union general directly benefited from the brutal institution before and during the Civil War | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

Here's What Can Cause Itchiness, According to New Research

Scientists discovered a connection between a bacteria linked to eczema and an itch-causing enzyme in a study of mice | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

Mysterious Creatures With Bird-Like Feet Made These Tracks Long Before Birds Evolved

The footprints pre-date the earliest known fossils of avian ancestors by roughly 60 million years, per a new study | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

Scientists Uncover a Golden Mole Species Thought to Be 'Possibly Extinct'

A scent-detecting dog led the team to the discovery in South Africa, and traces of mole DNA helped confirm it | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

Astronomers Discover Rare Solar System Where Planets Orbit in Mathematical Harmony

The "resonant" planets could provide insight about how such systems form and evolve—and why our own solar system is not synced up | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

See the Newest Underwater Sculptures Residing on the Floor of the Caribbean

Originally created in 2006, the Molinière Underwater Sculpture Park recently added 31 new pieces off the coast of the island of Grenada | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

The 'Comet of the Century' Failed to Impress, but It Wasn't Such a Disaster After All

Highly anticipated before its arrival in late 1973, Kohoutek became an interplanetary punchline. But astronomers may have gotten the last laugh | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 months ago

Bottlenose Dolphins May Have an Electric Sense, Study Finds

Dimples called vibrissal pits on the beaks of the mammals can perceive electricity and might help with hunting and navigation | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Restored Music Composed by Prisoners at Auschwitz Played Publicly for the First Time

Leo Geyer’s “The Orchestras of Auschwitz” weaves remnants of musical scores written by those at the camp into a piece honoring the Holocaust’s victims | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

See a 17th-Century Portrait Restored to Its Original Appearance, Minus Lip Fillers and Other Touch-Ups

Conservators removed cosmetic changes made to a painting of English aristocrat Diana Cecil, likely to match 19th-century beauty standards | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

How to Watch the Geminid Meteor Shower This Month

The celestial spectacle will peak on December 13 and 14, lighting up the night sky with as many as 120 shooting stars per hour | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

How Sandra Day O’Connor Brought Compromise to the Supreme Court

The first woman justice to serve on the nation's highest court died on Friday at age 93 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

These 15 Photos Capture the Beauty of the Northern Lights

Spiking solar activity could mean more chances to see the awesome aurora borealis | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

The Best Books of 2023

Whether you are looking for some gift ideas or a great read to enjoy on the plane or cozied up over the holidays, consider our carefully curated lists | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

The Ten Best Photography Books of 2023

Our favorite titles this year will make readers feel the power of visual storytelling | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Banksy's Brexit Mural in Dover Has Been Demolished

Contractors are working to determine whether restoration of the piece's remains is possible | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

See the Rediscovered Still Life by Forgotten 17th-Century Master Clara Peeters

The painting by the influential Flemish artist could sell for as much as $883,000 at auction | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Wolverines Receive Federal Protection as a Threatened Species in the Lower 48 States

The carnivorous mammals will increasingly face habitat loss and fragmentation because of climate change, according to scientists | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Is This an Early Draft of the 'Mona Lisa'?

The "Isleworth Mona Lisa" is now on view in Turin—but many experts aren't convinced it's the work of Leonardo da Vinci | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Chinstrap Penguins Sleep Over 10,000 Times a Day—for Just Four Seconds at a Time

The amazing microsleep strategy may be an adaptation to group living and lurking predators in a harsh Antarctic environment | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

The Formerly Enslaved Black Bordello Queen Who Built a Notorious Business Empire

In 19th-century St. Louis, Madam Priscilla Henry earned a life-changing fortune—and scores of enemies vying for her crown | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Scientists Mystified by Rare, High-Energy Cosmic Ray, the Most Powerful Since 1991

Researchers have been unable to locate an obvious source for the particle—it seems to have traveled from an empty spot in space | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

A LeBron James Museum Is Now Open in Akron, Ohio

Museum-goers follow the star from his childhood apartment to his expansive NBA career | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Readers Respond to the November 2023 Issue

Your feedback on Vietnam veterans, the value of stagecraft and one very adventurous anthropologist | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Why America Is Just Now Learning to Love Thaddeus Stevens, the 'Best-Hated Man' in U.S. History

The Pennsylvanian was one of America’s greatest heroes. Why hasn’t he gotten his due? | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Can Robots Replace Michelangelo?

In the birthplace of Italian sculpture, a powerful automated machine tries its hand at an ancient craft | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Why Wildfires Are Burning Hotter and Longer

As conflagrations become more difficult to contain, a citizen movement to try to manage them through “prescribed burns” is growing | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

First Boeing 787 Dreamliner Lands on Icy Runway in Antarctica

The large plane, which can accommodate roughly 300 passengers, delivered 45 scientists and 12 tons of equipment to a research station in Queen Maud Land | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

See the First-Ever Photographs of a Rare Giant Rat That Lives Only on One Pacific Island

The elusive and critically endangered Vangunu giant rats are at least twice the size of common rats | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Merriam-Webster's 2023 Word of the Year Is 'Authentic'

As technology's ability to manipulate reality improves, we're all searching for the truth | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

African Penguins Tell Each Other Apart by Their Polka Dot Patterns

New research suggests the birds may find their mates in crowded colonies by looking at their chest plumage | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Expansive Alexander Calder Exhibition Opens in Seattle

"Calder: In Motion" celebrates the iconic artist’s innovative mobiles, sculptures and other works | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

The World’s Smallest Reindeer Get Their Day in the Sun

On Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, a rare animal is thriving—for now | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Ukraine Planned an Ambitious Memorial at the Site of a Holocaust Massacre. Then War Came to Kyiv.

The Nazis and Soviets sought to erase the mass killing of 33,000 Jews at Babyn Yar, but a new effort seeks to remember the dead even as Russia attacks | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Bluefin Tuna Get Busy Off North Carolina

The extremely valuable fish likely spawn in a patch of the Atlantic Ocean called the Slope Sea | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

A New Drug That Could Extend Dogs' Lives Inches Closer to Approval

For the first time, the FDA has indicated a willingness to endorse a longevity drug | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Hundreds of Crimean Treasures Return to Ukraine After Long Legal Battle

When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the artifacts were on loan to a museum in the Netherlands | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Meet Ferrisburgh, a Rescued Kestrel Who Started Painting After a Wing Injury

The Vermont raptor can no longer fly, but he is helping educators teach the public about his species through art | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

The World's Largest Iceberg Is Drifting Three Miles Into the Ocean Each Day

The iceberg, which naturally broke off Antarctica in 1986, had remained grounded for decades before moving again in recent years | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Princess Diana's Engagement Portrait Blouse Is for Sale

Diana wore the garment for a portrait that officially announced her engagement in 1981 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

This 3,000-Year-Old Stone Slab Found in Spain Is Upending Ideas About Ancient Gender Roles

The newly discovered stela depicts a figure with a headdress, a necklace, swords and male genitalia | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago

Smithsonian Scholars Recommend Their Favorite Books of 2023

Curators and staffers satisfied their endless curiosity with novels, short stories, biographies, art collections and journalistic reporting | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 months ago