When photographer Elliot McGucken heard about a possible superbloom in Death Valley this spring, he drove around 1,000 miles from Montana to California.

Vibrant Wildflowers Are Blanketing Death Valley National Park, Resulting in the Most Breathtaking Bloom in a Decade

Parts of the park are awash in wildflowers, from the cheery yellow blooms of desert gold to the bright purple clusters of sand verbena, along with many other species

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Manuel Díaz Cárdenas harvests the tender tips of his Salicornia plants.

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As the Planet Warms, a Humble Sea Bean Is Proving to Be a Promising Superfood

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See How Scientists Reconstructed the Face of Little Foot, a Human Ancestor Who Lived 3.67 Million Years Ago

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NASA’s Asteroid-Smashing DART Mission Changed a Space Rock’s Orbit Around the Sun, Marking a First for Humanity

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Vibrant Wildflowers Are Blanketing Death Valley National Park, Resulting in the Most Breathtaking Bloom in a Decade

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Some People Keep Razor-Sharp Minds Into Their 80s and Beyond. A New Study Reveals Their Secrets

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These Koalas Bounced Back From the Brink of Local Extinction Extremely Fast. Surprisingly, So Did Their Genetic Resilience

March 9, 2026 3:53 p.m.

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Swimmable Cities is a global alliance of local government officials, experts and advocates working to make urban waterways clean enough to swim in.

Science

Would You Jump Into Your Local River? Swimmable Cities May Be Within Reach as Once-Polluted Waterways Are Restored

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These recently discovered portrait miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard are believed to depict Elizabeth Knollys, Lady Leighton, and Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton.

History

Tudor Courtiers Exchanged Portrait Miniatures as Love Tokens. Centuries Later, New Research Is Unlocking the Secrets of These Intimate Artworks

March 9, 2026

Smithsonian magazine's picks for the best books to complement this year's Oscar-nominated films include Sing, Unburied, Sing, Frankenstein and The Vegetarian.

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The Ten Best Books to Complement Your Viewing of This Year’s Oscar-Nominated Movies

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A perch from the high plateaus surrounding Bryce Canyon offers a beautiful, tunnel-vision view of the national park’s wintry peaks.

Travel

Grab Your Hot Cocoa and Enjoy These 20 Gorgeous Images of Snowy Landscapes

Updated: March 6, 2026
Originally Published: December 2023

The Asama Maru, a Japanese ship that transported Allied civilians to the east coast of Africa, where they were traded for Japanese civilians from North and South America during World War II

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After Pearl Harbor, Americans Living in Japan Endured Imprisonment, Torture and a Lengthy Battle to Return Home

March 5, 2026

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March 2026

OPENER - The Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve, in eastern Chad, encompasses 19,300 square miles of a vast sandstone plateau.

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Petroglyphs on sandstone at a national park in Chad bear witness to wildlife that once roamed the area before the continent’s water largely receded 6,000 years ago. Could it return?

OPENER - Xin Ying, principal dancer with Martha Graham Dance Company, wears a costume from the 1948 ballet Diversion of Angels. Graham designed the dress, inspired by a splash of color in a Wassily Kandinsky painting.

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As “Vicky With Three Kisses,” she strategically sweet-talked and sang to German troops over the airwaves of Europe. But Agnes Bernauer didn’t mean anything she was saying

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Like an ‘Eight-Ton Chicken,’ Tyrannosaurus Rex May Have Run on Its Tiptoes to Catch Speedy Prey

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Tudor Courtiers Exchanged Portrait Miniatures as Love Tokens. Centuries Later, New Research Is Unlocking the Secrets of These Intimate Artworks

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They Joked About Discovering a Forgotten Masterpiece. Now, Experts Say They’re the Unwitting Owners of an Original Rembrandt

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Scientists Thought These Marsupials Went Extinct 6,000 Years Ago. They Just Found the Animals Alive

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Can Venice’s Iconic Crab Dish Survive Climate Change?

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Go Behind the Scenes at an Iconic Irish Library as Staff Move 700,000 Historical Treasures Into Storage

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See Greece in All Its Gorgeous Glory

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Photo of the Day

Gwalia is a former gold-mining town located Western Australia's Great Victoria Desert. Established in 1897 with a mining find at what became the Sons of Gwalia. Overseen by the London-based Bewick, Moreing & Co. The company sent a young American geologist to the area to develop the find into a working concern. Herbert Hoover, who later become President of the United States, traveled to Gwalia from Coolgardie by camel and became manager of the new mine. Among his suggestions for cutting labour costs was to hire mostly Italian labourers. As a result, the town's population was made up mostly of Italian immigrants, as well as other Europeans, who sought riches in Australia's newest gold rush. Today Gwalia is a ghost town having been largely deserted since the mine closed in 1963.

Windmill, Gwalia, Western Australia, 2023

By Brett Leigh Dicks

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