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Editors' Picks

Smithsonian's 2012 American Ingenuity Award Winners

Meet the nine winners, recognized for their groundbreaking achievements in science, technology, art and scholarship

Jack Andraka, the Teen Prodigy of Pancreatic Cancer

A high school sophomore won the youth achievement Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for inventing a new method to detect a lethal cancer

Welcome to Seoul, the City of the Future

The once poor South Korean city has bloomed into a cultural capital with high-profile architecture, top museums and an influential arts scene

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Play the addictive number placement puzzle

What Traditional Societies Can Teach You About Life

A new book from best-selling author Jared Diamond tells us how we can learn a lot from people who live like most of us did 11,000 years ago
December 26, 2012 | By Amy Crawford

Page 1 of 27

A Look Into Brazil’s Makeover of Rio’s Slums

The Brazilian government’s bold efforts to clean up the city’s notoriously dangerous favelas is giving hope to people who live there
January 2013 | By Joshua Hammer

Sebastion Thrun

How Artificial Intelligence Can Change Higher Education

Sebastian Thrun, winner of the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for education takes is redefining the modern classroom
December 2012 | By Tom Vanderbilt

Why Mass Incarceration Defines Us As a Society

Bryan Stevenson, the winner of the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in social justice, has taken his fight all the way to the Supreme Court
December 2012 | By Chris Hedges

Malibu

Malibu’s Epic Battle of Surfers Vs. Environmentalists

Local politics take a dramatic turn in southern California over a plan to clean up an iconic American playground
November 2012 | By Claire Martin

X ray

PHOTOS: The Distressing Worldwide Boom in Cosmetic Surgery

Photographer Zed Nelson traveled the world documenting how body improvement has practically become a new religion
October 2012 | By Joseph Stromberg

How a Missile Silo Became the Most Difficult Interior Decorating Job Ever

A relic from the Cold War, this instrument of death gets a new life … and a new look
October 15, 2012 | By Lisa Bramen

Moon Festival

The Mooncake: A Treat, a Bribe or a Tradition Whose Time Has Passed?

Is the mooncake just going through a phase or are these new variations on the Chinese treat here to stay?
October 02, 2012 | By Mike Ives

Why School Should Be More Like Summer Camp

Salman Khan, a rising star in the education world, has a vision for a new kind of classroom
October 01, 2012 | By Megan Gambino

Aung San Suu Kyi, photographed in June 2012

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Revolutionary Leader

The Nobel Peace Prize winner talks about the secret weapon in her decades of struggle—the power of Buddhism
September 2012 | By Joshua Hammer

Kyrgyz horesemen play the national game Kok-boru

Kok-Boru, the Horse Game You Won’t See at the Olympics

In Kyrgyzstan, traditional horse games offer a glimpse into Central Asia’s nomadic past
August 09, 2012 | By Mike Ives

Russian Orthodox Chapel

When Russia Colonized California: Celebrating 200 Years of Fort Ross

A piece of history on the Pacific Coast was almost lost to budget cuts, until a Russian billionaire stepped in to save the endangered state park
July 06, 2012 | By Amy Crawford

Gold nugget

There's a New Breed of Forty-Niners Rushing to the Pacific

Lured by the soaring price of the precious metal, prospectors are heading for the California hills like it's 1849 all over again
July 2012 | By Abigail Tucker

Hope Solo

Hope Solo Drops Her Guard

As her controversial new memoir will show, the leader of the U.S. women’s soccer team has always defended her turf
July 2012 | By Nancy Hass

Help the Homeless? There's an App for That

Two doctors in Boston may have found a way to identify which homeless people are most in need of urgent medical care
May 17, 2012 | By Abigail Tucker

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Protecting Women From Militant Islam

Even in democratic nations, mothers and daughters are held back from basic freedoms
May 15, 2012 | By Kathleen Burke

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Why America is the World's Shelter

The renowned author of the memoir Infidel found refuge here from persecution abroad
June 2012 | By Ayaan Hirsi Ali

typical family in a bomb shelter

The New Hot Item on the Housing Market: Bomb Shelters

The cold war may be over, but sales of a new breed of bomb shelter are on the rise. Prepare to survive Armageddon in style
June 2012 | By Abigail Tucker

homeless

Inside the Plan to Get 100,000 Homeless Off the Streets

A new campaign has enjoyed stunning success in lowering the number of chronically homeless in the United States
June 2012 | By Abigail Tucker

Cpl Nicholas G Xiarhos bedroom

Gripping Photos of Fallen Soldiers’ Bedrooms

A photographer's images of domestic tranquility pay tribute to U.S. service members
May 2012 | By T.A. Frail

Kalinka Bamberski

What Happened to Kalinka Bamberski?

In an exclusive excerpt, read about the mysterious death of a young teenager that inspired a complicated web of European intrigue
April 12, 2012 | By Joshua Hammer

Sausalito house boat community

Livin' on the Dock of the Bay

From the Beats to CEOs, the residents of Sausalito’s houseboat community cherish their history and their neighbors
April 04, 2012 | By Jeff Greenwald

Women rally in Tripoli

Women: The Libyan Rebellion's Secret Weapon

They helped overthrow Qaddafi by smuggling arms and spying on the government. Now the women of Libya are fighting for a greater voice in society
April 2012 | By Joshua Hammer

The Ryugyong Hotel

A Fabulous New Luxury Hotel—In North Korea?

The 1,080-foot-high Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, opening in April, has also been labeled the "Hotel of Doom"
March 2012 | By Mark Strauss

Wampus

Words from the Dictionary of American Regional English

After half a century of studying jib-jabbing, linguists have just finished the nation's most ambitious dictionary of regional dialects
March 2012 | By Abigail Tucker

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