What Would Signal Life on Another Planet?

Astronomers have long debated what kind of chemistry might serve as a bona fide alien biosignature | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 51 minutes ago

Revisit 51 Years of Giant Pandas at the National Zoo, From Beloved Babies to Fun in the Snow

The Panda House's eight occupants have played a key role in conservation efforts over the decades | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 hour ago

Celebrate World Gorilla Day With 15 Primate Pictures

These highlights from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest feature our close “cousins” | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 hour ago

San Diego Closes Popular Beach for Seven Years to Protect Sea Lions

Visitors have been getting too close to the marine mammals—taking selfies and even harassing them—as they rear their pups | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 16 hours ago

Hong Kong Student Jailed Over Tiananmen Square Protest Banner

Zeng Yuxuan, 23, was sentenced to six months in prison on charges of sedition | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 16 hours ago

Methuselah, the World's Oldest Living Aquarium Fish, Could Be More Than 100

Using a new and noninvasive technique, researchers analyzed the DNA of 33 lungfish in institutions across the U.S. and Australia to determine their ages | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 17 hours ago

New Exhibition Examines the Many Converging Histories of Minnesota's Fort Snelling

The site was the backdrop for critical moments in Native American, African American and Japanese American history | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 19 hours ago

Little Luxuries Made With Captured Pollution Hint at Big Frontiers in Climate Science

Entrepreneurs are using jewelry, fragrances and clothing to demonstrate what’s possible with repurposed carbon—and environmentalists have questions | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 19 hours ago

Scientists Search for Near-Death Experiences of Cardiac Arrest Patients

Through survivor interviews and brain scans during CPR, researchers looked for evidence of awareness when people's hearts had stopped | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 21 hours ago

New Research Reveals How the Nazis Targeted Transgender People

Last year, a German court officially recognized the persecution of trans people by Adolf Hitler's regime | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 23 hours ago

Eat Your Way Through the Idaho Potato Trail

The new trail, which winds through Boise, celebrates the top spud-growing state in the nation | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 23 hours ago

Are Wild Animals Really Just Like Us?

A summer full of news reports about orca, otter and bird “attacks” has the public wondering if trying to understand animal behavior in human terms may be t | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

High Blood Pressure Is a 'Silent Killer' That Affects One in Three People, WHO Says

But nearly half of those living with the condition don't know they have it, according to the organization's first report on hypertension | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Geologists Unravel the Mysteries of Australia's Rare Pink Diamonds

The dazzling, blush-colored gems likely emerged from Earth's mantle some 1.3 billion years ago, when a supercontinent named Nuna broke up, study suggests | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Australian Museum Will Return Prized 2,500-Year-Old Vase to Italy

The institution will also repatriate two additional looted items discovered during investigations | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Four Amazing Impacts of This A.I.-Powered Bird Migration Tracker

A reimagined tool called BirdCast is helping birders, scientists and even farmers | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Bob Ross' Very First On-Air Painting Is for Sale

Priced at nearly $10 million, "A Walk in the Woods" was the subject of the artist's 1983 television premiere | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Human Cells Display a Mathematical Pattern That Repeats in Nature and Language

New research suggests adult humans have between 28 trillion and 36 trillion cells, which follow a commonly seen distribution of size and mass | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

'The World’s UnFair,' a New Exhibition Calling for the Return of Indigenous Land, Comes to Queens

Located on an empty lot, the immersive art show has a simple message: "Give it back" | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Why the National Zoo Is Saying Goodbye to Its Giant Pandas

Staff remain hopeful that members of the threatened species will be back in Washington in the near future | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Manet's 'Olympia' Comes to America for the Very First Time

The painting scandalized 19th-century viewers and heralded the dawn of modern art | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Songbirds That Learn to Make New Sounds Are the Best Problem-Solvers

Birds—and humans—are vocal learners, meaning they can imitate new vocalizations and use them to communicate | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Girl Celebrating 7th Birthday Finds 2.95-Carat Diamond

Aspen Brown stumbled upon the pea-sized, golden-brown gem while visiting an Arizona park | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Stone Age Engravings of Animal Tracks Reveal New Details in Namibia

Indigenous tracking experts determined the species, sex, age group and leg of depicted animals in hundreds of carvings of footprints | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

UNESCO Adds Sites in Kyiv and Lviv to List of World Heritage in Danger

The agency has been trying to protect Ukraine's historic sites since the beginning of the war with Russia | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

How an Ohio Cow Pasture Gave Rise to a Monument to Aviation History

The National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, celebrates 100 years | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

How Pterosaurs Might Inform the Next Generation of Flight

After paleontologists cracked the secrets of the ancient flying reptiles, researchers are thinking about how to harness their methods | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

Mysterious 3,800-Year-Old Canaanite Arch and Stairway Unearthed in Israel

Researchers don't know the purpose of the brick arch, which leads to a set of stairs descending deeper underground | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

X-Wing Model From Original 'Star Wars' Movie Found in a Garage

The 20-inch miniature is going to auction, where bidding starts at $200,000 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

MDMA Moves Closer to Approval for PTSD Treatment After New Clinical Trial

If endorsed by the FDA, the drug would become the first psychedelic approved for mental health treatment in the United States | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

Why the Pulitzer Prizes Are Expanding Eligibility to Non-U.S. Citizens

The prestigious awards will soon be open to permanent residents and those who call the U.S. their "longtime primary home" | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

The Borscht Belt Was a Haven for Generations of Jewish Americans

A new exhibition examines the more than 1,000 resorts and hotels that dotted New York's Catskills Mountains and provided relaxation, dancing and laughs | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

Humans Have Exceeded Six of the Nine Boundaries Keeping Earth Habitable

Scientists find we are “well outside the safe operating space for humanity” in a new study meant to assess the health of our planet | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

How One Robber Baron's Gamble on Railroads Brought Down His Bank and Plunged the U.S. Into the First Great Depression

In 1873, greed, speculation and overinvestment in railroads sparked a financial crisis that sank the U.S. into more than five years of misery | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 days ago

NASA Report Finds No Evidence of Extraterrestrial Origin for UFO Sightings

However, no explanation can be ruled out, per the agency, which also appointed its first director of research into the subject | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 days ago

These 15 Photos Explore the Diversity and Rich Culture of Latino Americans

For Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs through October 15, enjoy these highlights from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 days ago

Found in an Attic, Princess Diana's Iconic 'Black Sheep' Sweater Sells for $1.1 Million

The red jumper’s design came to symbolize the princess' relationship with the royal family | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 days ago

Smart Toilets and Licking Rocks: Ig Nobel Prizes Celebrate Strange Scientific Achievements

Winning research projects reanimated dead spiders and examined how anchovy sexual activity influences ocean mixing | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 days ago

Divers Recover Remains of WWII Pilot, 80 Years After He Crashed in the Mediterranean

Underwater archeologists in Malta worked with the U.S. government to identify the airman, a 22-year-old from California | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 days ago

'Spectacular' Polar Ring Galaxies May Be More Common Than Thought, Study Suggests

Astronomers have found two candidates for this rare type of galaxy, surrounded by a halo of hydrogen gas—and they could provide insights about dark matter | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 days ago

Where Can You Find the Oldest Cat Door on Earth?

The little opening for felines has a surprisingly long history | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 6 days ago

Alleged Alien Corpses Displayed to Mexican Congress Did Not Convince Scientists

Self-described UFO expert Jaime Maussan, whose claims of extraterrestrials have been debunked in the past, said the specimens were "non-human" | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

Archaeologists Discover More Than 100 Ancient Drawings in a Spanish Cave

Many of the works, estimated to be at least 24,000 years old, employ a rare clay painting technique | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

Lab-Grown Meat Can Be Kosher or Halal, According to Religious Authorities

The approvals bring cultivated meat one step closer to becoming a feasible alternative to traditional meat for a wider audience | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

Stolen van Gogh Painting Worth Millions Returned in an Ikea Bag

Arthur Brand, the "Indiana Jones of the art world," negotiated the recovery of an 1884 canvas taken from a Dutch museum in March 2020 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

One of Europe’s Most Endangered Birds Is Bouncing Back

Twenty years of habitat restoration has helped the once critically endangered Azores bullfinch | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 7 days ago

When the Nazis Massacred Greek Civilians to Send a Warning to Those Who Resisted

Eighty years ago, German soldiers killed an estimated 500 Cretans in Viannos and Ierapetra in retaliation for an attack by local partisans | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 days ago

Leading Decongestant in Cold and Flu Medicines Doesn't Work, FDA Advisory Panel Says

Phenylephrine, a popular ingredient in over-the-counter remedies, is no better than a placebo, per the panel | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 8 days ago