The 15 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2022

From the alleged birthplace of Paul Bunyan to the original gateway to Yellowstone, these towns are buzzing with activity | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

To Be or Not to Be Shakespeare (2006)

While skeptics continue to question the authorship of his plays, a new exhibition raises doubts about the authenticity of his portraits | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Unvarnished Photos of Georgia O'Keeffe Show the Elusive Painter in Her Element

Never-before-published photographs offer an intimate look at the iconic artist | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Some Allergies Associated With Lower Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

An NIH study found that food allergies reduced risk of infection by 50 percent | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Images of Elizabeth II Graced Stonehenge This Week—and Pagans Aren't Happy

Projections on the Neolithic stones have proven controversial before | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Why Neptune Appears Bluer Than Its Cousin Uranus

Though the solar system’s two outermost planets are very similar, their color is a puzzling difference | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Is a KAWS Celeb Sighting Cause for Speculation?

The ex-street artist turned art-world sensation receives a warm reception and an award from the Hirshhorn | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Archaeologists Discover 134 Ancient Settlements North of Hadrian’s Wall

LiDAR helped researchers find sites once inhabited by those who lived outside Rome’s rule of Britain | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Why Did It Take 35 Years to Get a Malaria Vaccine?

The parasite’s complex biology played a role in the delay, but experts say there was also a lack of urgency and funding | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Construction Crew Stumbles on 1,400-Year-Old Ruins of Maya City

Researchers say the pre-Hispanic metropolis they call Xiol was once home to some 4,000 people | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Scientists Are Using YouTube to Understand How Elephants Mourn Their Dead

The research is part of a growing trend of using crowdsourced videos to learn about elusive or hard-to-study animals | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Great White Sharks May Have Driven Megalodons into Extinction

Scientists analyzed zinc isotopes in fossilized teeth and found both sharks may have competed for the same food | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Should Parents Worry About New Research Linking Kids’ Mental Health and Individual Sports?

According to the study, children who played team sports had fewer mental health difficulties than those who didn’t play sports | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Thieves Took a $2-Million Tabernacle From a Brooklyn Church

Sacred objects can tempt would-be burglars | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Archaeologists Uncover Hundreds of Colorful Sarcophagi at Saqqara—and They're Not Done Yet

The 2,500-year-old coffins are the latest in the site’s seemingly endless parade of ancient treasures | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Is Fishing With a Drone the Way of the Future?

Not everyone is on board. The technology is dividing the fishing community and drawing the ire of some politicians and scientists | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

The Scientist Behind Some of Our Favorite Junk Foods

William A. Mitchell invented Cool Whip, Pop Rocks, Tang and other 20th-century treats | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Disguised Protester Smears Cake on High-Tech Glass Protecting the 'Mona Lisa'

It’s the latest in a long string of attempts to vandalize the world’s most famous painting | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

A New Candidate for Oldest Tree in the World Is Discovered in Chile

Environmental scientists used unorthodox methods for calculating Alerce Milenario’s age | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

For the First Time, a Hindi Author Has Won the International Booker Prize

A novel about borders garnered Geetanjali Shree the prestigious award | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Though Cute as Pets, Goldfish Are Highly Invasive Once in the Wild

The animal’s insatiable appetites, bold behaviors and adaptability make them harmful to new environments | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Texas Artists Are Taking Over—and Transforming—a Former KKK Building

Those once terrorized by the Klan will decide on the center's events and programming | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

New Fossil Finds Track When Armored Dinosaurs Spread Around the World

Discoveries in Asia and Africa are rewriting the backstory of dinosaurs like Stegosaurus | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

The Woman Who Fought to End the 'Pernicious' Scourge of Kissing

New understandings of how disease spread informed Imogene Rechtin's ill-fated 1910 campaign to ban a universal human practice | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Human Skull Found by Minnesota Kayakers Dates Back 8,000 Years

The skull fragment will be turned over to Upper Sioux Community tribal officials | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Scientists Moved Hummingbirds to High Elevations to See How Climate Change Might Affect Them

Artificial migrations to colder environments altered the small bird's metabolism and ability to fly | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

This Man Was Encased in Volcanic Ash in Pompeii. Here’s What His DNA Reveals

The adult man’s genome is the first to be fully sequenced from remains found in the ancient city | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

A Vase Kept in an Ordinary Kitchen Turned Out to Be a Qing-Dynasty Artwork Worth Millions

The rare, blue-and-gold vessel was crafted in 18th-century China | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Scientists Map Yellowstone’s Underground ‘Plumbing’

The new survey could be useful for everything from microbiology to thermal energy | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

This Museum Is Asking People to Remake Famous Artworks With Cake

Through its annual bake-off, the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, provides a fun way for the public to engage with its collections | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

NOAA Predicts Another Busy Hurricane Season This Year

2022 will likely be the seventh consecutive year of above-average hurricane activity | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Climate Change Threatens Important African Coastal Sites

Dozens of important cultural, social, and ecological places are already at risk from climate hazards. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Climate Change Threatens Important African Coastal Sites

Dozens of important cultural, social, and ecological places are already at risk from climate hazards. | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

A Century Ago, the Lincoln Memorial's Dedication Underscored the Nation's Racial Divide

Seating was segregated, and the ceremony's only Black speaker was forced to drastically revise his speech to avoid spreading "propaganda" | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Blue bee feared to be extinct is found in Florida (2020)

First discovered in 2011, the rare species reappeared recently after nearly a decade of eluding scientists' watch | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

NASA’s New Solar Sail Could Soon Navigate in Space

Scientists say the flashy tech could help them study the sun’s polar regions | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Nine Army Bases Honoring Confederate Leaders Could Soon Have New Names

Proposed by a government panel, the suggested title changes honor several women and people of color | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Exhibition Explores the Art and Science of Cancer—and the Hope of a Future Without It

The Science Museum in London explores the past and future of the disease, and the resilience of its survivors | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

She Was One of Britain's First Professional Female Portraitists. Why Isn't Joan Carlile Better Known?

Though only ten of her works have been identified, the painter's influence endures | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Dusty InSight Mars Lander Takes Its Final Selfie

The Red Planet probe will likely stop operating sometime later this year | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Temple Restoration Reveals Vibrant Art of Vulture-Like Egyptian Goddesses

Millennia of grime, soot and bird poop had covered up—and preserved—the archaeological treasure | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

How the Voyage of the Kon-Tiki Misled the World About Navigating the Pacific

Smithsonian geographer Doug Herman explains the traditional science of traversing the ocean seas | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

'Top Gun' Is Back. But Is the Elite Navy Fighter Pilot School Really Like the Movies?

The Smithsonian’s Chris Browne flew the much-feared F-14, and as a former TOPGUN student, knows well the power of a Navy-trained fighter pilot | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Can the World's Oldest Mummies Survive Climate Change and Other Threats in the Coming Decades?

Up to 7,000 years old, the mummified remains are treasured by local residents | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Field Museum Confronts Its Outdated, Insensitive Native American Exhibition

Co-created with Indigenous partners, the new permanent installation reckons with past harm | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

What Did the Suffragists Really Think About Abortion?

Contrary to contemporary claims, Susan B. Anthony and her peers rarely discussed abortion, which only emerged as a key political issue in the 1960s | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

Paleontologists Find Biggest Pterosaur Species Ever Unearthed in South America

The ancient fossils with wingspans the size of school buses are estimated to be 86 million years old | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago

NASA Snaps Photos of Underwater 'Sharkcano' Erupting

Kavachi, a submarine volcano in the southwest Pacific Ocean, is home to several species of sharks and fish that can withstand the extreme environment | Continue reading


@smithsonianmag.com | 1 year ago