Articles

Partaking in an old but ambiguous rite, blue "devils" (in Paramin, with mouths colored by dyed bubble gum) offer spectators a deal: pay, or get rubbed with body paint.

Up Close at Trinidad's Carnival

What’s behind the raucous pre-Lenten rite? An intrepid scholar hits the streets of Trinidad to find out

Higham (at Ban Non Wat) says villagers "don't relate to the bones they find."

Bodies of Evidence in Southeast Asia

Excavations at a cemetery in a Thai village reveal a 4,000-year-old indigenous culture

Charles Darwin

Evolution and Equality

What do Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, and the Freedom Riders have in common with each other?

The Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln's Contested Legacy

Great Emancipator or unreconstructed racist? Each generation evokes a different Lincoln. But who was our sixteenth president?

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February Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

After a mob attacked a bus with protesters in Alabama in 1961, hundreds more joined the cause.

The Freedom Riders, Then and Now

Fighting racial segregation in the South, these activists were beaten and arrested. Where are they now, nearly fifty years later?

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin helped shape the modern world.

How Lincoln and Darwin Shaped the Modern World

Born on the same day, Lincoln and Darwin would forever influence how people think about the modern world

Once loathed as a "beast of waste," the gray wolf (in Yellowstone) is beloved by some as a symbol of unadulterated nature.

Wolves and the Balance of Nature in the Rockies

After years as an endangered species, the wolves are thriving again in the West, but they're also reigniting a fierce controversy

Bar pilots risk life and limb to guide ships across the "Graveyard of the Pacific."

Steering Ships Through a Treacherous Waterway

Braving storms with high seas a group of elite ship pilots steers tankers and freighters through the Columbia River

"Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history," Darwin (c.1880) said of a future in which his hard-won findings would be tested.

What Darwin Didn't Know

Today's scientists marvel that the 19th-century naturalist's grand vision of evolution is still the key to life

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Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Honeyeater birds, sea slugs, tree frogs, and more

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Weekend Events: African Pearls, Another Inaugural Ball, and a String Quartet

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Hot and Cold Running Dinosaurs

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Hey! DC—and the Smithsonian—Are Too Cool

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Picture of the Week — Emperor Penguins

Can cuteness save the Emperor penguin?

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Wing Shortage Looms On Eve of Super Bowl

About 5 percent of the nation's chicken wings are eaten on that day - the product of a staggering 300 million chickens

The Galapagos is no place for a mammal. But it's a great place to be a reptile. Land animals had to make the trip here via rafts of vegetation that broke loose from the mainland, which isn't so bad if you have scaly skin, are cold-blooded and can go for a long time without fresh water. A few rodents managed to colonize the islands, and there are some native bats, but reptiles rule. One of the weirdest reptiles is the marine iguana, the world's only seagoing lizard. It basks on lava rocks to warm up in the morning, then swims around in the surf eating seaweed. They get to be four feet long or more and look for all the world like Godzilla. Like other Galapagos creatures, they aren't particularly bothered by humans gawking at them.

A Naturalist's Pilgrimage to the Galapagos

Smithsonian's Laura Helmuth vacationed in the Galapagos Islands and returned with even more respect for Charles Darwin

Domestic cats are the most popular pet in America, numbering some 80 million.

Cats as Pets and Predators

Jake Page explores the evolution and enigmatic ways of the most popular pet in America -- the house cat

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Orchids Star In Darwin's Garden

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Crabs Nab Grand Prize in Art Competition

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