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Science
Gimme Shelter
Best Friends Animal Society has a sprawling campus in the canyons of Utah, but its influence has grown to reach almost every shelter in the country
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Two College Students Are Building a Robot to Replant Burned Forests
Marta Bernardino and Sebastião Mendonça invented Trovador, a six-legged, A.I.-powered robot that can plant trees in hard-to-reach, wildfire-damaged terrain
Smart News
Archaeologists in Wisconsin Unearth an Ancient ‘Parking Lot’ With 16 Dugout Canoes—Including One That’s 5,200 Years Old
Mysterious Viking Age Woman Found Buried With Scallop Shells Covering Her Mouth
Will This Newly Approved Crash Test Dummy Make Car Accidents Less Deadly for Women?
A Planet Slammed Into Earth 4.5 Billion Years Ago, Forming the Moon. The Projectile May Have Been Our Neighbor
Ethiopian Volcano Erupts for the First Time in Nearly 12,000 Years of Scientific Records
Latest Features
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History
The Lost City of the Silk Road
Researchers are uncovering what they think is the metropolis of Marsmanda, an iron-making city that could rewrite the history of the famed trade route
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History
A Grand New Design
A train wreck that caused the death of more than a dozen commuters near the turn of the 20th century was the impetus behind a monumental project that changed the urban landscape
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Most Popular
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Special Report
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America’s 250th Anniversary
To mark the 250th anniversary of America’s founding on July 4, 1776, Smithsonian magazine is highlighting the people, places and events that shaped the United States’ fight for independence from Great Britain
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Photo of the Day
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Under the Pier
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Podcast
Smithsonian Podcast: There’s More to That
Smithsonian magazine covers history, science and culture in the way only it can — through a lens on the world that is insightful and grounded in richly reported stories. In There’s More to That, meet the magazine’s journalists and hear how they discover the forces behind the biggest issues of our time.
Latest Episodes
The ‘Edmund Fitzgerald’ Sank Half a Century Ago. We’re Still Fascinated.
November 6, 2025 | 28 minutes
History
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The Ten Best History Books of 2025
Our favorite titles of the year resurrect overlooked histories and examine how the United States ended up where it is today
Science
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Medical Students Are Learning Anatomy From Digital Cadavers. Can Technology Ever Replace Real Human Bodies?
From interactive diagrams to A.I. assistants, virtual tools are beginning to supplant physical dissections in some classrooms
Innovation
Two College Students Are Building a Robot to Replant Burned Forests
Marta Bernardino and Sebastião Mendonça invented Trovador, a six-legged, A.I.-powered robot that can plant trees in hard-to-reach, wildfire-damaged terrain
Travel
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Meet the Daredevils Chasing Down Speed Records at the Bonneville Salt Flats
Race officials, tinkerers and competitors converge in Utah every fall to test both metal and mettle
Arts & Culture
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A Famed Street Photographer Chronicled What Christmas Looks Like Across America Over the Course of Decades
Lee Friedlander’s new book, “Christmas,” collects his work from all over the country on the topic of our sentimental and materialistic connection to the holiday
At the Smithsonian
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See Amazing Images That Reveal the Strange, Otherworldly Beauty Hidden in American Factories
Photographer Christopher Payne provides a peek into the surreal aesthetics of industry in the United States