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With Eco Purge, Arya Satheesh won the European category of the 2026 Earth Prize, the largest environmental competition in the world for young students. She was awarded $12,500 to continue to develop her prototype.

Innovation

This High Schooler Invented a Plant-Based Plastic That Removes Microplastics From the Environment as It Biodegrades

Eighteen-year-old Arya Satheesh created her award-winning Eco Purge to help address the global problem of plastic pollution

Ramsha Waseem

Andy Crammond and Alan Daniels discovered the three gold armbands while surveying a field near the Scottish-English border.

Smart News

Metal Detectorists Thought They’d Hit the Jackpot When They Discovered a Gold Bracelet Dating to the Bronze Age. Then They Dug Up Two More

Smart News

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Smithsonian magazine Summer 2026 issue cover
The “Ether Dome” at Massachusetts General Hospital is now a National Historic Landmark.
Science Theater of Relief
Medical procedures used to be a scream-filled endurance test until doctors at this Boston institution learned to tame the pain of patients
The view from Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, New York.
Travel Rediscovering America’s Original Grand Tour
Follow along as we retrace the route one journalist laid out in “The Fashionable Tour,” from New York City to Niagara Falls, when memories of the fight for independence were still fresh
Missing Caption
History How to Build a Character
Silence Dogood. Richard Saunders. Benevolus. Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim. All were pen names that allowed Franklin to say things he couldn’t have otherwise said
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Voices

An Oyster With Teeth Reveals When Mollusks Covered the Chesapeake Bay

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Innovation

This High Schooler Invented a Plant-Based Plastic That Removes Microplastics From the Environment as It Biodegrades

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Voices

Discover the Story of Gertrude Ederle, an Olympic Gold Medalist and World Record Setter Who Made Waves as the First Woman to Successfully Swim the English Channel

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Science

A New Study Points to Two Origins of Life on Earth by Tracing Early Chemical Reactions in Single-Celled Organisms

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Smart News

Notorious Feral Cat That Feasted on Rare New Zealand Ducks Captured After Three-Year Hunt

Photo of the Day

A sacred baobab rises above a deforested landscape in Madagascar. This drone view shows one of the few remaining trees in a region where surrounding forest has been cleared for fuel and agriculture.

Sacred Baobab

By Wiktoria West

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Preview thumbnail for video 'The Remarkable, Amazing Stories of Route 66 Reflect the Twists and Turns of 100 Years of Americana

The Remarkable, Amazing Stories of Route 66 Reflect the Twists and Turns of 100 Years of Americana

Preview thumbnail for video 'A Photographer's Glimpse Into the Dwindling World of the Cascade Red Fox

A Photographer’s Glimpse Into the Dwindling World of the Cascade Red Fox

Preview thumbnail for video 'The Real Story Behind Abigail Adams' 'Remember the Ladies' Letter

The Real Story Behind Abigail Adams’ ‘Remember the Ladies’ Letter

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The Remarkable, Amazing Stories of Route 66 Reflect the Twists and Turns of 100 Years of Americana

April 23, 2026 | 34 minutes

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A Photographer’s Glimpse Into the Dwindling World of the Cascade Red Fox

April 9, 2026 | 32 minutes

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The Real Story Behind Abigail Adams’ ‘Remember the Ladies’ Letter

March 26, 2026 | 31 minutes

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Venomous Snakes Represent a Serious Public Health Problem. Scientists Are Biting Back With a Groundbreaking Antidote

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History

Andy Crammond and Alan Daniels discovered the three gold armbands while surveying a field near the Scottish-English border.

Metal Detectorists Thought They’d Hit the Jackpot When They Discovered a Gold Bracelet Dating to the Bronze Age. Then They Dug Up Two More

At first, Andy Crammond thought the object was a bull’s nose ring. Other artifacts unearthed nearby include a Viking brooch, a Roman coin hoard and a Bronze Age ax head

Why Has History Forgotten World War II’s Largest Prison Break, Which Claimed the Lives of More Than 200 Japanese POWs?

A Serpentine Sculpture Inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s ‘Join, or Die’ Call for Unity Is Taking Shape—Segment by Segment—in Philadelphia

More History

Science

A surfer rides a wave during a competition in the Ngor district of Dakar, Senegal, the most westerly point of mainland Africa.

Big Waves Meet Biodiversity: Why Surfing Paradises Could Offer a Key Opportunity for Marine Conservation

A recent mapping study examines places in northwestern Africa where coastal ecosystems overlap with surf breaks, highlighting areas that could support recreation, the environment and local economies, if protected

A New Study Points to Two Origins of Life on Earth by Tracing Early Chemical Reactions in Single-Celled Organisms

Yellowstone Is Among the World’s Best Places to See Wild Wolves. Here’s the Story of the Animal Called Both ‘Public Enemy’ and Cultural Icon

More Science

Innovation

Of the estimated 899 species of ticks worldwide, about 90 are found in the continental U.S.; however, only four species are responsible for most of the infections found in the U.S. today.

The First At-Home Test for Infected Ticks Could Improve Lyme Disease Diagnosis

LymeAlert will hit the market in August. The latest tool against the tick-borne illness could become a medicine cabinet staple

A Brief History of Hold Music, From Early Patents to the Soundtrack of Customer-Service Purgatory

How A.I. Will Reshape Radiology—Without Replacing Radiologists

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Travel

At Nona Manis, dining guests can enjoy a prix-fixe menu that may include any of these dishes: ikan pindang patin (braised fish), steak semur (steak with kecap manis sauce), laksa (seafood curry soup), oyster sambal matah and oyster gulai Aceh (oyster on the half shell with Balinese sambal and Aceh curry).

A New Generation of Chefs Reimagines Indonesian Cuisine in the Netherlands to Tell the Stories of Its Origins

The shift reflects a larger cultural moment, with chefs asking whether the cuisine should remain tied to colonial nostalgia or evolve into a reflection of modern Indonesian identity

Before Cultural and Natural Wonders Earn UNESCO World Heritage Status, They Are Put on a ‘Tentative’ List. Here Are Five Nominees Worth Visiting Now

For Three Hours Every Day, Open Ocean Transforms Into Australia’s ‘Ghost’ Reef

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Arts & Culture

When did summer "beach reads" become a part of our culture? Book historian Donna Harrington-Lueker takes us back to mid-19th-century leisure.

The History of the Beach Read, From 19th-Century ‘Moral Debasement’ to BookTok

The still-popular genre got its start 150 years ago, when publishers profited off the rise of travel in the United States during an otherwise slow publishing season

How Artist Nick Cave Memorializes His Ancestors Through ‘Mammoth’ Work

Fires and Financial Trouble Leave the Fate of Two Arts Institutions Uncertain in This Scottish City—Including a Century-Old Masterpiece

More Arts & Culture

At the Smithsonian

A blacktip shark, above, looks and behaves like a spinner shark. Scientists are tracking spinner sharks to get a clearer idea of the species' whereabouts.

These Shark Look-Alikes Have Long Confounded Fishers and Scientists on the East Coast. Tracking Where They Migrate Could Help Clear the Confusion

Researchers are tagging and tracking spinner sharks to map out their geographic distribution, because they’ve seen that the range of the very similar blacktip shark has shifted

How Artist Nick Cave Memorializes His Ancestors Through ‘Mammoth’ Work

A Little-Known Photographer Captured the First Clear Image of a Total Solar Eclipse 175 Years Ago. Today, These Celestial Events Still Reveal the Mysteries of the Sun

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