Get the latest from Smithsonian magazine in your inbox every weekday.

By checking this box, I agree to receive other information from the Smithsonian, including relevant content and programming, news about Smithsonian events, trips and offers, and museum updates. Click to visit our Privacy Statement.
Easy unsubscribe links are provided in every email.

Latest Features

In 2024, engineers used a fluorescent protein found in some jellyfish to create a non-toxic spray that highlights fingerprints at a crime scene.

INNOVATION

Seven Scientific Discoveries From 2024 That Could Lead to New Inventions

In Still Life With Brioche, c. 1890, Victoria Dubourg Fantin-Latour captures the buttery crust of a signature pastry. Known for her tablescapes, she met her artist husband Henri when both were copying the same painting at the Louvre.

ARTS & CULTURE

Feast Your Eyes on These Paintings From the Impressionist Era

Loaded with leather and sheepskins, Salvatore Gungui tightens his headscarf. Although only men dress as Mamuthones, the scarf adds a feminine element.

TRAVEL

See the Mysterious Winter Parade That Brings Tourists to the Remote Island of Sardinia

Find your nearest dark-sky site and mark your calendars for these stunning astronomical spectacles in 2025.

SMART NEWS

11 Dazzling Celestial Events to See in 2025, From a Total Lunar Eclipse to Rare Planetary Alignments

A 1951 ad. The FDA informed Kraft in 2002 it could no longer market Velveeta as a cheese. 

ARTS & CULTURE

The Gooey Goodness of Velveeta Was a Smash Hit From Its Very Cheesy Start

Martin Van Buren in 1860. 

HISTORY

Martin Van Buren Created America's Partisan Political System. We're Still Recovering

Works entering the public domain include The Sound and the Fury, the first recordings of Rhapsody in Blue, Popeye, Tintin and The Broadway Melody.

SMART NEWS

Happy Public Domain Day! Popeye, 'Rhapsody in Blue,' 'The Sound and the Fury' and Thousands of Other Captivating Creations Are Finally Free for Everyone to Use

James Earl Carter, Jr. by Robert Clark Templeton, 1980

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

The Lasting Legacy of Jimmy Carter, Dead at 100

Current Issue

Smithsonian magazine December 2024 issue cover

Most Popular

1.

Smart News

On This Day in 1951, Four Illuminated Lightbulbs in Idaho Were Evidence of the First Time a Nuclear Power Plant Generated Electricity

Although it was just a byproduct of developing a new type of reactor, the generation of electricity from nuclear energy signaled a bright future ahead

2.

Smart News

How to Watch the Quadrantid Meteor Shower, an Intense Spectacle With a Short but Strong Peak

The skyward show will produce many shooting stars from the evening of January 2 into the early morning hours of January 3—here’s how to make the most of the fleeting celestial event

3.

Smart News

Happy Public Domain Day! Popeye, 'Rhapsody in Blue,' 'The Sound and the Fury' and Thousands of Other Captivating Creations Are Finally Free for Everyone to Use

On January 1, 2025, copyrights will expire for books, films, comic strips, musical compositions and other creative works from 1929, as well as sound recordings from 1924

4.

Smart News

You Can Spend the Night on a Fully Restored World War II Submarine

The Wisconsin Maritime Museum is home to the USS "Cobia," a 312-foot-long vessel that completed six war patrols during World War II

5.

Innovation

How an Experiment to Amplify Light in Hospital Operating Rooms Led to the Accidental Invention of the Snow Globe

The origins of the decoration lie in Vienna’s 17th district, where the inventor’s descendants are still making them for collectors around the world

Smithsonian Voices
National Museum of American History

Jimmy Carter Transformed More Than the Presidency

Office of the Secretary of the Smithsonian

At the Smithsonian's National Design Museum, a Home Is What You Make of It

Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery

After Hurricane Helene, Survivors Have Been in a Race Against Time to Protect Family Heirlooms, Photographs and Keepsakes

Smithsonian Associates

Earn a Smithsonian World Art History Certificate Online in 2025

National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Read Some of the Most Exciting Stories From the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in 2024

National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Read Some of the National Zoo’s Most Amazing Animal Stories of 2024

See All

Special Report
None

Our Sustainable Future

A hub dedicated to the latest on how global change affects life on Earth today and on what solutions scientists, including those at the Smithsonian, are researching to build a more sustainable planet

View Full Report

Featured Stories

In Miami, the Nation’s First Chief Heat Officer Charts a Course for Surviving on a Warming Planet

Inside the Effort to Save Earth's Biocrusts

Can the Noise in Sports Arenas Be Turned Into Electricity?

  image   image

Smithsonian Videos

Preview thumbnail for video '10 Fun Facts About Jellyfish

10 Fun Facts About Jellyfish

Play
Preview thumbnail for video 'The Ultimate Skywatching Guide for Every Season

The Ultimate Skywatching Guide for Every Season

Preview thumbnail for video '10 Enchanting Butterfly Facts Revealed!

10 Enchanting Butterfly Facts Revealed!

Photo of the day

Small cafe on Town Hall Square in Tallinn. New Year's Eve in Tallinn

History

Our most-read stories of the year featured photographer Vivian Maier, underwater caves in the Yucatán Peninsula, auroras and more.

Ten Top Smithsonian Stories of 2024, From a Mysterious Underground Chamber to Dazzling Auroras

The magazine's most-read articles of the year included a close-up look at the adorable yet venomous pygmy slow loris, a profile of a little-known 20th-century street photographer and a majestic journey with divers into Mexico’s underwater caves

Charles de Gaulle talking to reporters in 1945

A Forgotten Collection of Charles de Gaulle's Personal Letters, Speeches and Manuscripts Has Been Discovered in a Safe

An 1812 illustration of a private from the Fifth West India Regiment. In the 1790s, the remaining members of the Carolina Corps became part of the newly established First West India Regiment.

These Black Soldiers Fought for the British During the American Revolution in Exchange for Freedom From Slavery

Science

A view of the soft-bottomed Los Angeles River below the 400-foot-long Taylor Yard Bridge in Elysian Valley. The newest Taylor Yard parcel, currently fenced off as it undergoes toxic remediation, can be seen on the far right.

How the Arrival of an Endangered Bird Indicates What’s Possible for the L.A. River

Could the waterway that the city was built around make a comeback?

By examining the fossils of ancient creatures, scientists are able to see the origins of features that make mammals different from other animals.

How to Make a Mammal in Nine Evolutionary Steps

A photo of Neptune, taken by the Voyager 2 probe, with the colors rebalanced to represent its truest appearance

The Six Most Amazing Discoveries We’ve Made About Neptune

Innovation

Air Ring 48 attaches to the base of a construction helmet, providing crucial airflow to the sweatiest areas of the head and neck.

Could This New Wearable Device Reduce Heat Stress in Construction Workers?

Architecture students at the University of Hong Kong invented a cooling apparatus that attaches to a construction helmet

The products range from programmable rovers to books that introduce the terminology of robotics and circuitry to childen.

Engineers Choose the Ten Best STEM Toys to Gift in 2024

The plant-based egg substitutes available today are less than perfect. Food scientists are working hard to improve them — and, maybe, make them better tasting and more nutritious than the real thing.

Scientists Are Trying to Crack the Recipe for the Perfect Plant-Based Eggs

Travel

None

The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2024

These top titles of the year whisk readers away on adventures and remind us of the many wonders in this world

On the weekend when Catholics celebrate St. Martin’s Day, the beginning of the “reveling season” of winter, Mirano’s central square is completely transformed into a giant, 16th-century board game.

The Italian Town That Becomes a Giant, Goose-Themed Board Game Each Fall

Top: Rubble inside Notre-Dame Cathedral in 2019. Bottom: The cathedral's renovated interior (including the tabernacle designed by French artist Guillaume Bardet) in 2024

See Inside Notre-Dame Cathedral in These Breathtaking Images of Its Newly Unveiled Interior

Arts & Culture

The theme of this year's creepy doll contest at the History Center of Olmsted County is "Circus After Dark."

The Creepy Doll Contest Is Back—and It's Time to Cast Your Vote for the Most Terrifying Toy

Step right up and see the spooky circus dolls—from creepy clowns to frightening fortune-tellers—in a Minnesota museum's vintage toy collection

Mask, Jackson Pollock, 1941

Before He Created His Vibrant Drip Paintings, Jackson Pollock Took Inspiration From Pablo Picasso

The Ofaerufoss waterfall is part of the Nyrdri-Ofaera River, meaning the “impassable northern river.” The river flows into Eldgja, or the “Canyon of Fire.”  

Go Chasing Waterfalls With These 15 Awe-Inspiring Images

At the Smithsonian

Pages from the diary of Yitskhok Rudashevski

The Discovery of a Jewish Teenager’s Holocaust Diary Reveals How Songs, Jokes and Stories Served as Cultural Resistance

Yitskhok Rudashevski documented his life while hiding from Nazis, as well as folklore told in his community that “must be collected and preserved as a treasure for the future”

This year's list includes Clouds in Space, The Manicurist's Daughter and The Ministry of Time.

The Best Books of 2024, as Chosen by Smithsonian Scholars

A sculptor's rendering of "Lucy," Australopithecus afarensis, at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on August 28, 2007, in Houston, Texas.

What 'Lucy,' One of the World's Most Important Fossils, Has Taught Scientists in the 50 Years Since Her Discovery