Hostile Lioness Withholds Food From Hungry Orphaned Cubs

A group of orphaned lion cubs are facing an uncertain future. If they're to survive into adulthood, they will have to convince their reluctant aunt to share her kill with them. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

How Italy Used Human Torpedoes to Attack British Ships

On December 16, 1941, the Italian navy launched a daring attack on three British ships outside Alexandria harbor. At the heart of the operation was a unique weapon: a human torpedo. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Innacurate Images of Colonial America Made by European Printmakers

To satisfy customers hungry for visions of the British colonies, these artists created wildly imaginative and inaccurate scenes | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

How Doughnut-Loving Cops Became a Stereotype

A sugar-sweet symbol for beat cops around the country | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Driverless Car Technology Could Help Find Unmarked Graves

The same LIDAR technology that lets driverless cars | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The Botulism Outbreak That Gave Rise to America’s Food Safety System

In late 1919 and early 1920, scientists and canners worked with the government to protect the public from the deadly toxin | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Behind the Scenes With the Spacecraft That Will Soar Through the Sun's Atmosphere

The probe, which launches Sunday, will attempt to solve enduring mysteries about the sun | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The First Academy Awards Had Its Own Version of the "Popular" Oscar

The ceremony itself was rooted in union-busting, laying the basis for the art vs. mass acclaim debate we see play out today | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Remains of Tuskegee Airman Found in Austria

Researchers and archaeologists have recovered the remains of distinguished flyer Lawrence E. Dickson whose plane crashed during a mission in 1944 | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Dads Pass on More Than Genetics in Their Sperm

Seminal research reveals that sperm change their cargo as they travel the reproductive tract—and the differences can have consequences for fertility | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Scientists Give New Particle Accelerator the Thumbs Up

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine endorses the $1 billion Electron-Ion Collider | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Maldivian Government Destroys World's First Intertidal Art Gallery

Before President Abdulla Yasmeen lost the country's election, his government ordered the demolition of the conservation-minded underwater sculpture garden | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

How Enslaved Chefs Helped Shape American Cuisine

Black cooks created the feasts that gave the South its reputation for hospitality | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Into the Cave of Chile’s Witches

Did members of a powerful society of warlocks actually murder their enemies and kidnap children? | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Urine (Not Chlorine) Causes Red Eyes in Pools (2015)

CDC spreads the word about the peril of pee in pools | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

What Knitting Can Teach You About Math

In this professor's class, there are no calculators. Instead, students learn advanced math by drawing pictures, playing with beach balls—and knitting | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Buried by the Ash of Vesuvius, Scrolls Are Being Read for the First Time

A revolutionary American scientist is using subatomic physics to decipher 2,000-year-old texts from the early days of Western civilization | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

What Knitting Can Teach You About Math

In this professor's class, there are no calculators. Instead, students learn advanced math by drawing pictures, playing with beach balls—and knitting | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

When Mammals Ate Dinosaurs

Our ancestors and cousins didn't all live in the shadows of the Mesozoic world—some were burly carnivores | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Ptolemaic-Era Black Granite Sarcophagus Discovered in Alexandria

The tomb, which was found at a building site, measure 8.5 feet long and 5 feet wide | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

How Noisy Males Control the Gnu's Cycle

New research shows that ovulation in Serengeti wildebeests is accelerated and synchronized by the yammering of eager males | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

European Dogs Devastated Indigenous American Pup Populations

Disease, cultural change wiped out pre-contact populations, leaving no trace of ancient dogs’ DNA in modern counterparts | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Artificial Ovaries Could Expand Fertility Options for Chemo Patients

Scientists have taken the next steps toward creating an alternative fertility preservation method using modified ovarian tissue | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Why Do Mosquitoes Bite Some People More Than Others?

Blood type, metabolism, exercise, shirt color and even drinking beer can make individuals especially delicious to mosquitoes | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Personal Flying Machines of the Future Won’t Look Much Like Jet Packs

Judging from the GoFly competition, they're much more likely to resemble flying motorbikes | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Her escape at age eight inspired the film “Rabbit Proof Fence”

Kadibil, who died at the age of 95, had her incredible odyssey recounted in the acclaimed 2002 film ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’ | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The Battle Over the Memory of the Spanish Civil War

How Spain chooses to memorialize Francisco Franco and the victims of his authoritarian regime is tearing the nation apart | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Today's Whales Are Huge, But Why Aren't They Huger?

Most giant cetaceans only got giant in the past 4.5 million years, suggesting they could have room to grow | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

How Jupiter May Have Gifted Early Earth with Water

A new model of the solar system suggest we have gas giants to thank for our watery world | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Can Artificial Intelligence Help Stop School Shootings?

Some researchers believe it could help predict student violence. Others worry about unintended consequences | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The Neuroscientist in the Art Museum

At Massachusetts's Peabody Essex Museum, Tedi Asher is using neuroscience research to create impactful art experiences | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The U.S. Military Has Been in Space From the Beginning

While the proposed branch of the armed forces may be controversial, the history of the so-called | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

100 Years Ago This Week American Socialist Jailed for Anti-World War Speech

After winning 6 percent of the vote in the 1912 presidential election, Eugene Debs ran afoul of the nation's new anti-sedition laws | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Why We Should Teach Music History Backwards

Rock fans do their own investigative work to understand their favorite groups’ influences. So why can’t the rest of us get with the program? | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Historic California Ghost Town Is Up for Sale

Cerro Gordo was once a lively mining town | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

You'll Soon Be Able to Stay in This Historic California Ghost Town

Cerro Gordo was once a lively mining town. Now its new owners have plans to refurbish it in hopes of attracting visitors to the relic of the Wild West | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Astronauts’ Footprints May Have Warmed the Moon

Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Greek Lawmakers Approve Macedonia's New Name

The decision brings an end to a 27-year-old conflict and paves the way for the Republic of North Macedonia to join the NATO alliance | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Snails’ Teeth Beats Spider Silk as Nature’s Strongest Material

The discovery makes sense: Mollusks use these teeth to excavate rocks while they feed | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Bees May Understand Zero, a Concept That Took Humans Millennia to Grasp

If the finding is true, they'd be the first invertebrates to join an elite club that includes primates, dolphins and parrots | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

How Ketchup Revolutionized How Food Is Grown, Processed and Regulated

The condiment really is the perfect complement to the American diet | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Texas Has the Power to Secede from Itself

A quirk of a 19th-century Congressional resolution could allow Texas to split up into five states | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Ten Other Men Left Genetic Legacies So Huge They Rival Genghis Khan's (2015)

A new study shows that 10 other men founded large Y-chromosome lineages | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

A Brief History of America’s Appetite for Macaroni and Cheese

Popularized by Thomas Jefferson, this versatile dish fulfills our nation's quest for the 'cheapest protein possible' | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The Only Time in History When Men on Horseback Captured a Fleet of Ships

A Dutch fleet stuck in the ice. A group of French soldiers sent to capture it. What could go wrong? | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Scientist Build the World's Smallest House

Even a mite wouldn’t fit inside this itty-bitty structure | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

The 18th-Century Lady Mathematician Who Loved Calculus and God

After writing a groundbreaking math textbook, Maria Agnesi quit math for good | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago

Mice with 3D-Printed Ovaries Successfully Give Birth

The gelatin-scaffold ovary could one day help restore endocrine function in young cancer patients and treat infertility | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 5 years ago