A Time Capsule Opened Live on Stage Was Empty. Later, Treasures Emerged From the Silt

Found at West Point, the 200-year-old box concealed six silver coins and a medal | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Hackers Target Telescopes, Forcing Them to Pause Operations

Two major telescopes in Hawaii and Chile and a handful of smaller observatories have been offline for weeks following an apparent cyberattack | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Black Bears Move Into Abandoned Canada Town Evacuated Due to Wildfires

Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, has been largely empty for the last two weeks amid Canada's worst fire season on record | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

The U.S. Government Is Trying to Stop an Upcoming Titanic Expedition

A company is planning a mission to recover artifacts, including the famed Marconi wireless telegraph, in 2024 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Efforts to Bring Back the Caribbean Reef Shark May Become a Conservation Success Story

The endangered creature is a target for fishing off the coast of the Bahamas—and a magnet for ecotourists who just might save it | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Boy Playing in Sandbox Finds 1,800-Year-Old Roman Coin

The rare silver denarius was minted during the rule of Marcus Aurelius (161-180 C.E.) | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Could Humans Survive Unprotected Outside of Earth's Atmosphere for Even Ten Seconds?

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


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

The Locations of These Shipwrecks Are No Longer a Secret

A marine sanctuary is letting fishers know where previously hidden wrecks can be found | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Celebrating a Hidden Artistic Visionary of the American West

Charlotte Butler Skinner spent decades chronicling glorious mountains and deserts, in the company of Dorothea Lange and other influential friends | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

15 Scenes of Americans at Work

These highlights from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest commemorate Labor Day | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Drought Reveals 113-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Tracks in Texas

The footprints are normally submerged under the water and silt of the Paluxy River, part of which has dried up this summer | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

A Lost N.C. Wyeth, Bought for $4, Could Sell for $250,000

The owner had no idea the painting was an original when she found it in a New Hampshire thrift store | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Teenager Helps Uncover 34-Million-Year-Old Whale Skull in Alabama

Working with one of her teachers, the 16-year-old student found the fossil, which may represent a new species, on her family’s property | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Genetics Suggest Our Human Ancestors Very Nearly Went Extinct 900,000 Years Ago

A study proposes that the population that gave rise to modern humans may have been reduced to roughly 1,300 reproducing individuals | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

London Zoo Weighs All 14,000 of Its Animals, 'From the Tallest Giraffe to the Tiniest Tadpole'

The annual measurements help zookeepers track each animal's health over time | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Why 'Hot Springs' Draw the World's Largest Gathering of Deep-Sea Octopuses

Some 20,000 octopuses congregate near an inactive underwater volcano off California's coast, using heat from thermal springs to hatch their eggs faster | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Video Artists Set the American Experience to Music

The Smithsonian American Art Museum brings its latest time-based media art to the widest possible audience, including the deaf and hearing impaired | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

The Nectar of the Gods Is Coming to a Bar Near You

How mead, one of the world’s oldest alcoholic beverages, could become the drink of the future | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

The Baseball Player-Turned-Spy Who Went Undercover to Assassinate the Nazis' Top Nuclear Scientist

During World War II, the OSS sent Moe Berg to Europe, where he gathered intel on Germany's efforts to build an atomic bomb | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Ruins of 2,000-Year-Old Roman Walls Unearthed in Swiss Alps

Archaeologists found the stone structures—along with a rich collection of artifacts—in a gravel quarry | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Hurricane Idalia Hits Florida Amid Projected 'Above-Normal' Storm Season

The hurricane is the strongest to strike the state’s Big Bend area in about 125 years | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

New Legal Challenge Reignites Battle Over Tunnel Near Stonehenge

The plan could threaten the landmark's status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Paleontologists Discover Mummified Bees Preserved in Their Cocoons for 3,000 Years

Some kind of "catastrophic" event, such as a sudden freeze or flood, likely killed all the young adult bees at once, according to a new study | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

These Malaysian Cave Drawings Reflect Colonial-Era Conflicts

A new study reveals that some of the charcoal drawings date to between 1670 and 1830 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Scientists Cryopreserve and Revive Coral Fragments in a World First for Conservation

The new freezing technique could reinvigorate corals suffering from warming oceans—or even preserve human organs in the future | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

From Fabled Palaces to Ancient Medinas, a Journey Through Spain's Islamic History

Amid snowcapped mountains, sandy dunes, a wild seacoast and more, the legacy of the country's Moorish past can still be explored across the peninsula | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Before Lady Liberty, There Was Lady Columbia, America's First National Mascot

The forgotten figure symbolized the hopes—and myths—of the early United States | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

You Can Rent an Entire Baseball Stadium on Airbnb

Travelers can use the field, clubhouse and batting cages of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

How One Forensic Artist Brings the Dead to Life

Using DNA analysis and historic records, his work allows us to look ancient humans in the eye | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Farmers Are Breeding Cows to Withstand Heat Waves

A gene that occurs naturally in some cow breeds may be the key to helping cattle thrive as temperatures rise because of climate change | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

The Harlem Renaissance Is Coming to the Met

A new exhibition will be the first survey of the cultural movement in New York City since 1987 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

What Made Bob Barker the Perfect Host for 'The Price Is Right'

The television personality, who died last week at 99, was part of a match that made game show history | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Doctors Pulled a Wriggling, Three-Inch Worm From a Woman's Brain

The incident in Australia is the first known occurrence of the roundworm—typically found in snakes—infecting the brain of a mammal | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Drought in Texas Reveals World War I Shipwreck

A local man happened upon the wreckage while jet skiing earlier this month | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Turtle Shells Keep a Record of Humans' Nuclear History

Scientists can measure uranium isotopes in tortoise and turtle shells to understand the environmental impact of past nuclear events, a new study reports | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

How a Victorian Dinosaur Park Became a Time Capsule of Early Paleontology

A new sculpture and an upcoming restoration are breathing life into the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, one of 19th-century Britain’s most curious creations | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

A Century Ago, Glenn Curtiss Was the 'Fastest Man on Earth'

Before he changed aviation forever, the daredevil achieved an unparalleled speed record on land | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Amid the Horrors of the Holocaust, Jewish Musicians Composed Songs of Survival

At the Terezin concentration camp, some of Europe's top artists found solace in creating new work. Today one musician is determined to give them an encore | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

The Pumpkin Spice Latte Turns 20

Since its launch in 2003, the seasonal drink has helped spawn a cultural phenomenon | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Henry VIII’s Book of Psalms Reflects His Quest for Legitimacy—and His Fear of Death

Handwritten annotations in the Tudor king's psalter show how he looked to scripture to justify his break from Rome and the annulment of his first marriage | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Forgotten Winnie-the-Pooh Sketch Found Wrapped in an Old Tea Towel

A rediscovered drawing of the iconic children's book character and his friend Piglet could sell for thousands at auction | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Watch Adult Wolves Bring 'Toys' to Their Teething Pups at Yellowstone

When they can't bring food back to the den, the animals retrieve bones, sticks and antlers for their young to chew on—and biologists captured it on video | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Watch the Trailer for 'Rustin,' Which Spotlights the Man Behind the 1963 March on Washington

The new film dramatizes Bayard Rustin's efforts to pull off an event of unprecedented scale | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

To Mark the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' Speech Goes on Display

The draft on view at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture was produced a few hours before King took to the podium | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Woman With Paralysis Can Speak By Thinking With a Brain Implant and A.I.

The experimental interface allows the patient to communicate through a digital avatar, and it's faster than her current system | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Scientists Look to Ancient Hawaiian Reefs for Clues About Future Sea-Level Rise

Researchers search the shores of Molokai for fossils to help predict the impact of melting ice sheets on our oceans | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

A Lost Edith Wharton Play Debuts on Stage for the First Time

After more than 100 years, the renowned writer's script resurfaced in a Texas archive | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Enslaved Individuals Slept in This Bedroom, Untouched Since Mount Vesuvius' Eruption 2,000 Years Ago

The small room with two beds—but only one mattress—sheds new light on slavery in a Roman villa near Pompeii | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago