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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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Why the Computer Scientist Behind the World’s First Chatbot Dedicated His Life to Publicizing the Threat Posed by A.I.
Joseph Weizenbaum realized that programs like his Eliza chatbot could "induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people"
Smart News
Queen Bumblebees’ Tongues Aren’t Built for Slurping Nectar—Which Might Keep the Royals Homebound
Can’t Get Started on a Daunting Task? This Brain Circuit That Slams the Brakes on Motivation Might Be to Blame
Months Before Rosa Parks Made Headlines, Claudette Colvin Refused to Give Up Her Seat for a White Woman on a Segregated Bus
See a 157-Year-Old Great Lakes Shipwreck in Stunning Detail With This New 3D Scan
This Mysterious Gas Cloud Spotted Around a Dead Star Is Beautiful—but Astronomers Say It Shouldn’t Be There
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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Special Report
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Coastal Cities of Europe
Explore the history, culture and natural wonders of the continent's most celebrated ports
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Photo of the Day
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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
Why the Computer Scientist Behind the World’s First Chatbot Dedicated His Life to Publicizing the Threat Posed by A.I.
Joseph Weizenbaum realized that programs like his Eliza chatbot could “induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people”
Science
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Naked Mole-Rats Prefer Low-Oxygen Air That Would Kill Most Mammals, Adding to Their List of Death-Defying Superpowers
These underground rodents are the first mammals found to actively choose air with lower-than-normal oxygen levels. Their remarkable ability to survive these conditions could offer a key model for researchers studying new treatments for stroke or lung diseases in humans
Innovation
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Seven Fascinating Inventions Unveiled at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show
A smart wheelchair, an A.I.-powered tennis ball launcher, a mirror that reports on your health and more were on display at the annual Las Vegas trade show
Travel
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Can Venice’s Iconic Crab Dish Survive Climate Change?
For more than 300 years, Italians have fried soft-shell green crabs, called moeche. But the culinary tradition is under threat
Arts & Culture
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Newly Digitized Records Reveal How Indigenous People Shared Their Knowledge of New Zealand’s Plants With Captain Cook’s Crew
Long-overlooked documents housed at London’s Natural History Museum testify to the exchange of information between 18th-century European botanists and their Indigenous counterparts
At the Smithsonian
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These 15 Stunning Microscopic Snowflake Images Helped Change the Way We See the World
Farmer Wilson Bentley was the first to photograph the tiny snow crystals individually, and his collection reveals that each has its own pattern