During World War II, This Farmer Risked Everything to Help His Japanese American Neighbors

When the U.S. government sent the Tsukamoto family to an incarceration camp in 1942, one neighbor stepped up to save the farms they left behind, giving them something to come home to | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 10 hours ago

This Surrealist Masterpiece by René Magritte Sold for Over $120 Million

The artist's “L’empire des lumières” sold for a massive $121 million, and experts hope the large number could be a sign of renewal for a struggling art market | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 11 hours ago

Scientists Finally Identified This Glowing, Transparent 'Mystery Mollusk' After Nearly 25 Years of Puzzling

The newly described species of sea slug dwells in darkness in the ocean’s midnight zone, using a hood to capture prey with a Venus flytrap-like technique | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 12 hours ago

Fat Cells Retain a 'Memory' of Obesity, Making It Hard to Lose Weight and Keep It Off, Study Suggests

Obesity leads to DNA alterations that affect gene activity and linger after weight loss, a finding that researchers say could help reduce stigma around the disease | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 13 hours ago

A Rare Atlas of Astronomy From the Dutch Golden Age Goes on Display in England

The copy of "Harmonia Macrocosmica" dates back to the 17th century and includes ancient theories of the universe | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 13 hours ago

From Jealous Spouses to Paranoid Bosses, Pedometers Quantified Suspicion in the 19th Century

The devices were used to track movement and measure productivity—an insightful foreshadowing of our current preoccupation with personal data | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 15 hours ago

Italian Hiker Discovers Animal Tracks From a Time Before Dinosaurs, Hinting at a Prehistoric Ecosystem

Revealed by melting snow in the Alps, the imprints in rock were left by reptiles and amphibians during the Permian period, which ended with the world’s largest mass extinction | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 15 hours ago

A Curious Industry Once Gave Anyone With a Song in Their Heart a (Long) Shot at Stardom

How the dubious tradition of song-sharking led to a strangely beautiful repository of folk art | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 16 hours ago

Vincent van Gogh's Brilliant Blue 'Irises' Were Originally Purple, New Research Reveals

An exhibition at the Getty Center shows that the painting's pigment faded over many years, creating the hue that art lovers are familiar with today | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 17 hours ago

The Hero Who Convinced His Fellow Ornithologists of the Obvious: Stop Shooting Birds and Watch Them Instead

Too late to save the ivory-billed woodpecker, Arthur Allen changed science forever with his seemingly simple idea | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 17 hours ago

How Mistletoe Became a Christmas Kissing Tradition

The thorny origins of the yuletide canoodling ritual | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 17 hours ago

Discover the Fresh and Unexpected Flavors of Slovenia, a Secret European Delight

In the young, tiny nation, inventive chefs are putting their own twists on classic regional dishes, using river trout, berries and other locally sourced delicacies to create some of the hautest cuisine around | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 18 hours ago

Inside the Terrifying True Story of the Sperm Whale That Sank the Whale-Ship ‘Essex’ and Inspired Herman Melville’s ‘Moby-Dick’

Survivors of the whale attack drifted at sea for months, succumbing to starvation, dehydration—and even cannibalism | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 21 hours ago

New Exhibition Unravels Sigmund Freud's Complex Relationship With the Women in His Life and Work

"Women & Freud: Patients, Pioneers, Artists" spotlights the women who influenced the Austrian neurologist—and the field of psychoanalysis more broadly | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

See Every Nook and Cranny of St. Peter's Basilica With This New, Stunningly Accurate 3D Replica

Microsoft and the Vatican used artificial intelligence to virtually recreate the historic Vatican City church | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

New 3D Bioprinter Could Build Replicas of Human Organs, Offering a Boost for Drug Discovery

The invention uses light, sound and bubbles to quickly create copies of soft tissue that might one day support testing individualized therapies for cancer and other diseases | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

An Ancient Tablet Inscribed With Nine of the Ten Commandments From the Book of Exodus Is for Sale

The marble slab, which dates to between 300 and 500 C.E., is the oldest-known stone tablet inscribed with the Commandments. Nobody recognized its significance until decades after its discovery | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

How the Arrival of an Endangered Bird Indicates What’s Possible for the L.A. River

Could the waterway that the city was built around make a comeback? | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

How Fallingwater Gave Frank Lloyd Wright a Second Wind

The architectural wonder re-established the designer as a titan of his generation and shifted the public's view of Modernism from a foreign movement to a part of the American character | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

See the Dazzling Diamond Necklace With Possible Ties to Marie Antoinette That Just Sold for $4.8 Million

Some of the gems may have featured in a royal scandal known as the "affair of the diamond necklace" that damaged the French queen’s reputation in 1785 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

The Hidden History of Bermuda Is Reshaping the Way We Think About Colonial America

New archaeological finds on the islands have revealed secrets about one of Britain’s first settlements in the Americas—and the surprising ways it changed the New World | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

How an Interracial Marriage Sparked One of the Most Scandalous Trials of the Roaring Twenties

Under pressure from his wealthy family, real estate heir Leonard "Kip" Rhinelander claimed that his new wife, Alice Beatrice Jones, had tricked him into believing she was white | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Abraham Lincoln's Legendary Gettysburg Address Promised 'Government of the People, by the People, for the People'

The president's humble speech, delivered on this day in 1863, was filled with profound reverence for the Union's ideals—and the men who died fighting for them | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 day ago

Endangered Sierra Nevada Yellow-Legged Frogs Are Making a Comeback

Scientists are celebrating the recovery of the species in Yosemite National Park, where they were decimated by the introduction of non-native fish and the deadly amphibian chytrid fungus | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

New Statue Honoring Civil Rights Activist John Lewis Unveiled in His Home State of Alabama

The life-sized bronze sculpture of the congressman joins statues of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks in the Equal Justice Initiative's Legacy Plaza in Montgomery | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

The Far Side of the Moon Was Volcanically Active, New Studies Confirm

Scientists analyzed the first and only rock samples from the region, which were brought back to Earth as part of a recent Chinese mission | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

A Federal Agent’s Laptop Held the Keys to Seize $3.6 Billion in Stolen Bitcoin. Here’s How it Ended Up at the Smithsonian

Soon to be on display at the National Museum of American History, the laptop is the centerpiece of a criminal case that shows an evolving understanding of cryptocurrency | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

A 35,000-Year-Old Saber-Toothed Cub Was Unearthed in Siberia—and It Still Had Its Whiskers and Claws

The frozen kitten, discovered in 2020, has stunned scientists with its remarkably well-preserved body | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Ancient Roman Gladiators Were Huge Celebrities Who Even Had Their Own Merch

A tiny gladiator figurine was used as a handle on a 2,000-year-old copper folding knife found in an English river, suggesting that popular fascination with the ancient fighters reached the edges of the empire | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

These Historic Sites in the U.S. Were Once Endangered. Now They're Thriving

Since 1988, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has been naming America’s most endangered historic places, attracting much-needed awareness and funding | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

This Forgotten Sculpture Was Used as a Doorstop in a Scotland Shed. It Turned Out to Be a Masterpiece Worth Millions

The marble bust was made by the celebrated sculptor Edmé Bouchardon nearly 300 years ago. After a small town purchased it in the 1930s, it was lost for decades | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

Australian Zoo Asks Residents to Capture the World’s Most Venomous Spider: the Deadly Sydney Funnel-Web

The Australian Reptile Park’s annual callout is crucial to creating life-saving antivenom | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

The Andes’ Translucent Glass Frogs Need to Be Seen to Be Saved

The amphibians are at the mercy of mining operations that are destroying their ecosystems, but local communities throughout South America are fighting back | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

The Feminist Who Inspired the Witches of Oz

The untold story of suffragist Matilda Gage, the woman behind the curtain whose life story captivated her son-in-law L. Frank Baum as he wrote his classic novel | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

The ‘Penicillin Girls’ Made One of the World’s Most Life-Saving Discoveries Possible

The true, forgotten and sometimes-stinky history of the cohort who took Alexander Fleming's innovation and forever changed the face of modern medicine | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

When Susan B. Anthony and 14 Other Women Were Arrested for Voting Illegally in a Presidential Election

After her detainment on this day in in 1872, Anthony was found guilty by a federal court. She refused to pay her "unjust" $100 fine | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 2 days ago

How the Groundbreaking Suez Canal Forever Transformed the World's Shipping Routes

The massive global shortcut linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas took ten years to dig through the Isthmus of Suez and was built on the path of an ancient canal | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 3 days ago

Discover the Origins of a Psychedelic Drug Synthesized by a Swiss Chemist Who Claimed It 'Found and Called Me'

Five years after he created LSD in a lab on this day in 1938, Albert Hofmann accidentally underwent the first acid trip in human history, experiencing a kaleidoscope of colors and images in a sleepy Swiss city | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 4 days ago

ChatGPT or Shakespeare? Readers Couldn't Tell the Difference—and Even Preferred A.I.-Generated Verse

A new study suggests people might like chatbot-produced poems for their simple and straightforward images, emotions and themes | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

Before the Titanic Sank, a Cheerful Passenger Wrote in a Postcard That He Was 'Leaving for the Land of Stars and Stripes'

A handwritten note by Richard William Smith, a British businessman who perished in the disaster, is heading to the auction block, where it could sell for up to $12,600 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

NASA Addresses Rumors About Health of Starliner Astronaut on the International Space Station—Again

The space agency’s chief health and medical officer refutes claims that Suni Williams, who is on the unexpectedly extended Boeing Starliner mission, appears unhealthily thin | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

These Mysterious 12,000-Year-Old Pebbles May Be Early Evidence of Wheel-Like Tools, Archaeologists Say

Researchers in Israel suggest the roughly donut-shaped artifacts could be spindle whorls, representing one of the oldest examples of rotational technology | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

Pompeii Introduces New Limits on Daily Visitors to Protect the Ancient City From Overtourism

A maximum of 20,000 people will be allowed to enter each day in an effort to protect the historic site in Italy, where misbehaving tourists are becoming a persistent problem | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

These Fossil Teeth From an 11-Year-Old Reveal Clues to Why Humans Developed an Unusually Long Childhood

Roughly 1.77-million-year-old teeth show that slow development in hominids may have had an earlier start than previously thought, according to a new study | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

See 15 Stunning Photos of California That Showcase the Golden State's Majestic Beauty

California offers lovely beaches, forests, deserts, mountains and more! | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

Historians Thought This Was a Medieval Site Linked to King Arthur. It Turned Out to Be a Mysterious Monument Built 4,000 Years Earlier

Researchers have excavated King Arthur's Hall, a rectangular enclosure in southwest England, and determined that it dates to at least 3000 B.C.E. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

How British College Students Convinced Authorities That Flying Saucers Were Invading the U.K.

To raise awareness for a charity event, aspiring engineers planted six UFOs across southern England on a single day in 1967 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago

Discover the Remarkable Paintings of Three Japanese Americans Whose Life Stories Are Told Through Their Work

A new exhibition spotlights a trio who pushed the boundaries of American art and illustrated the experiences of World War II incarceration | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 days ago