Skip to main content

Around two million graduating high school students in the United States—more than half—take the SAT each year.

100 Years Ago, Students Across the U.S. Took the First SAT. Today, Relatively Few Colleges Require the Test. Where Is It Headed?

The standardized exam has evolved over the past century, all in the name of testing for college readiness. Now, it has become a symbol of the American higher education system

McKenzie Prillaman

Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins live in the tropical waters of the Indian and western Pacific oceans.

Female Dolphins Seem to Remember Which Males Were Aggressive During Mating Season—and May Try to Avoid Them

June 23, 2026 10:00 a.m.

Smart News

This Magical Curse Written in Greek on a Small Lead Tablet Was Meant to Punish Enemies Nearly 2,000 Years Ago

June 23, 2026 4:21 p.m.

This Giant, Seven-Story Picnic Basket, Once Home to an Iconic American Brand, Could Be Yours for $8.5 Million

June 23, 2026 3:20 p.m.

These Butterflies Can Live 25 Times Longer Than Their Relatives. They Might Provide Insights Into Healthy Aging in Humans

June 23, 2026 11:47 a.m.

Female Dolphins Seem to Remember Which Males Were Aggressive During Mating Season—and May Try to Avoid Them

June 23, 2026 10:00 a.m.

Scientists May Have Discovered the Origins of the Euphrates River, Which Helped Nurture Some of the Earliest Known Civilizations

June 22, 2026 4:51 p.m.

More Smart News

Latest Features

Around two million graduating high school students in the United States—more than half—take the SAT each year.

100 Years Ago, Students Across the U.S. Took the First SAT. Today, Relatively Few Colleges Require the Test. Where Is It Headed?

June 23, 2026 12:16 p.m.

A painting of the Hannah, a Continental schooner that captured a British vessel in September 1775

How Angry, Out-of-Work Fishermen Saved the Patriots During the American Revolution

June 22, 2026

A male red fox (silver morph) with a playful kit on San Juan Island in Washington State, May 17, 2024

At the Smithsonian

These Devoted Dads Across the Animal Kingdom Will Warm Your Heart This Father’s Day

June 18, 2026

Two fossils of juvenile embolomeres—crocodile-like creatures, illustrated here—suggest that they did not undergo metamorphosis to become adults and that the ancestors of today’s birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians might not have had a tadpole life phase.

A Vietnam Veteran Collected Fossils for 66 Years. One, Mislabeled ‘Baby Lamprey,’ Made Paleontologists Reconsider How Vertebrates Moved From Water to Land

June 18, 2026

Benitoite mineral from California

At the Smithsonian

What Natural History Objects Represent Your State? You Can Find Out in This New Exhibition of More Than 600 Specimens and Artifacts

June 18, 2026

With a full-size basketball court, and conspicuously without any presidential paper documents, the center, in many ways, is a departure from presidential institutions that came before.

Here’s How the Obama Presidential Center Is Different From Other Presidents’ Museums

June 18, 2026

Uncovering the past. Understanding the present. Informing the future.

Give a Gift Renew

Smithsonian magazine Summer 2026 issue cover

Summer 2026

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

More from the Current Issue

image

image

Most Popular

‘Ugliest Shark on the Planet’: See the Elusive Goblin Shark, Filmed for the First Time in Its Deep-Sea Habitat

Archaeologists Discover Evidence a Wooden Prototype for Stonehenge May Have Aligned With the Solstice 500 Years Before the Stone Circle

America’s 150th Birthday Celebration Was Deemed the Nation’s ‘Greatest Flop.’ What Went Wrong With the Sesquicentennial?

At the Smithsonian

These Devoted Dads Across the Animal Kingdom Will Warm Your Heart This Father’s Day

A Vietnam Veteran Collected Fossils for 66 Years. One, Mislabeled ‘Baby Lamprey,’ Made Paleontologists Reconsider How Vertebrates Moved From Water to Land

Special Report

None

America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

A Smithsonian magazine special issue in celebration of the nation's 250th

View Full Report

Featured Stories

Georgia O’Keeffe Ignored Advice to Mimic Great European Masters. Her Goal Instead Was to Be a Great American Painter

O’Keeffe’s New Mexico studio Ghost Ranch. Opposite, a 1918 photo portrait by future husband Alfred Stieglitz.

Born in 1810, Margaret Fuller Was Labeled a Child Prodigy. She Later Used Her Intellect to Ask Important Questions About Women’s Role in America

A portrait of Fuller, inspired by her 1845 Woman in the Nineteenth Century, which argued for equality of the sexes. The book’s opening illustration featured mystical symbols of harmonizing opposites, including the Ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail.

The American Revolution’s Overlooked Influence? Physics. How ‘Common Sense’ Spelled Out Astronomical Expectations for a New Nation

After Isaac Newton, above, revolutionized celestial mechanics, admirers such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Paine, left, saw in Newton’s natural laws a model for democratic self-government.

Photo of the Day

While walking through the serene paths of Descanso Gardens, I came across a small garden where a single, unbloomed flower stood alone. Its quiet presence drew me in—twisted at the top, gently cradling a droplet of water. There was something powerful in its solitude. A quiet beauty. A sense of becoming. Peaceful, yet commanding.

Quiet Beauty of An Unbloomed Flower

By Brandon Wion

Get the Photo of the Day directly to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter.

Smithsonian Videos

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

Podcast artwork

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

April 23, 2026 | 34 minutes

Podcast artwork

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

April 9, 2026 | 32 minutes

Podcast artwork

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

March 26, 2026 | 31 minutes

Podcast artwork

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

March 12, 2026 | 28 minutes

History

Aerial view of excavations at the newly discovered villa in Castel di Guido

Authorities Investigated Reports of an Illegal Excavation in Rome. Then, They Stumbled Upon an Ancient Villa Adorned With Mosaics

In the second century C.E., Roman emperors such as Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus Pius frequented the area where the residence was found

June 22, 2026

A 6-Year-Old Boy Spotted Something Sticking Out of the Ground in a Field. It Turned Out to Be a Viking Sword

June 18, 2026

America’s 150th Birthday Celebration Was Deemed the Nation’s ‘Greatest Flop.’ What Went Wrong With the Sesquicentennial?

June 16, 2026

Science

Lightning strikes in Peckham, Oklahoma.

When a Team of Meteorologists and Combat Pilots Set Out to Understand Thunderstorms, They Made Flying Safer for Everyone

The sky was a very dangerous place in the early days of commercial aviation. By flying into storms to learn how they worked, these experts made air travel and weather forecasting much more predictable

Summer 2026

The Operating Room Where Anesthesia Was First Demonstrated Is Now a Landmark. But for the Men Who Claimed Credit, There Was Much Misery

Summer 2026

‘Stupid Hot’: Heat Waves Muddle the Minds of Animals and Humans as Confusion and Aggression Seem to Rise With the Temperature

June 5, 2026

Innovation

None

Because of a Mathematician From Rural Virginia’s Work on Global Positioning, You Have No Excuse for Getting Lost

Gladys West had an “insatiable thirst for knowledge.” She used computers, radars and satellites to make calculations that led to the GPS technology that allows us to pinpoint any spot on the globe

Summer 2026

This Playful Interactive Reveals the Medical Advances That Have Made Life Better … and Sometimes Longer

Summer 2026

The Gin and Tonic Is a Cocktail With a Storied History. Don’t Overlook Scotland’s Connection to the Classic

June 2, 2026

More Innovation

Travel

With a full-size basketball court, and conspicuously without any presidential paper documents, the center, in many ways, is a departure from presidential institutions that came before.

Here’s How the Obama Presidential Center Is Different From Other Presidents’ Museums

More than a library and archives, the new Chicago institution is a place for the community to gather, talk and play together

June 18, 2026

How Tanjia, a Meat Stew Slow-Cooked in Bathhouses, Shaped Marrakesh’s Social Life

June 10, 2026

To See the Magnificence and Majesty of Machu Picchu Without the Hike, Check Out These Amazing Images

June 17, 2026

Arts & Culture

Museumgoers can read the labels on the backs of the paintings, which may provide clues about each work's provenance.

Who Are the Owners of These Nazi-Looted Masterpieces—and Could Displaying Them at One of France’s Most Popular Museums Help Track Them Down?

A new permanent display at the Musée d’Orsay showcases artworks that may have been stolen or sold under suspicious circumstances during World War II. Officials are still hoping to find the families of their rightful owners

May 21, 2026

The Real Winnie-the-Pooh Lives at the New York Public Library. When Queen Camilla Visited the Bear, She Reunited Him With a Dear Friend

May 1, 2026

How the Classic American Game of Twister Went From Risqué to Record-Breaking

May 1, 2026

More Arts & Culture

At the Smithsonian

Benitoite mineral from California

What Natural History Objects Represent Your State? You Can Find Out in This New Exhibition of More Than 600 Specimens and Artifacts

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History celebrates America’s 250th anniversary by spotlighting fascinating items from across the nation

June 18, 2026

Ants Can Get Distracted by Cookies, Chips and Other Junk Food. Here’s Why That Could Be a Problem for the Environment

June 16, 2026

Young Blue Crabs Have Been Mysteriously Dwindling in the Chesapeake Bay for Years. This Winter, They Saw a Boost in Numbers. What’s Driving These Trends?

May 28, 2026

More At the Smithsonian