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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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See 14 of the National Zoo’s Most Adorable Giant Panda Photos From 2025
These snapshots of Bao Li and Qing Bao capture the pair's cutest moments, from playing in the snow to celebrating their 4th birthdays
Smart News
Could These 400,000-Year-Old Rock Fragments Be the Oldest Known Evidence of Human Fire-Making?
Watch These Orcas Follow Dolphins to Snag a Salmon Feast. It Might Be the First Evidence of These Species Working Together
Notre-Dame Cathedral’s Controversial New Stained-Glass Window Designs Go on Display
Before the First Brilliantly Colored Flowers Bloomed, Dinosaur-Era Plants Emitted Heat to Attract Pollinators
More Than 2,000 Golden Retrievers Gather in an Argentina Park in an Attempt to Break a World Record
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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Most Popular
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Special Report
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America’s 250th Anniversary
To mark the 250th anniversary of America’s founding on July 4, 1776, Smithsonian magazine is highlighting the people, places and events that shaped the United States’ fight for independence from Great Britain
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Photo of the Day
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To Be Young
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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
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How a Near-Shipwreck on a Luxury Ocean Liner Inspired ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ and a Decade of Disaster Movies
Paul Gallico was on board the RMS “Queen Mary” when it almost capsized in 1937. The haunting experience shaped his best-selling 1969 novel and its 1972 film adaptation
Science
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Stream the Beautiful Highs and Violent Lows of Albatross Life With This New 24-Hour Camera on Midway Atoll
You can see the large white seabirds dancing, preening, feeding and raising young—though the live feed might show a dark side of island living, too, with potential predation from invasive mice
Innovation
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Two College Students Are Building a Robot to Replant Burned Forests
Marta Bernardino and Sebastião Mendonça invented Trovador, a four-legged, A.I.-powered robot that can plant trees in hard-to-reach, wildfire-damaged terrain
Travel
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Meet the Daredevils Chasing Down Speed Records at the Bonneville Salt Flats
Race officials, tinkerers and competitors converge in Utah every fall to test both metal and mettle
Arts & Culture
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A Famed Street Photographer Chronicled What Christmas Looks Like Across America Over the Course of Decades
Lee Friedlander’s new book, “Christmas,” collects his work from all over the country on the topic of our sentimental and materialistic connection to the holiday
At the Smithsonian
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Sixty Years Ago, When Instruments Were Played in Space for the First Time, It Was ‘Jingle Bells’ All the Way
Astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra delighted mission control with their rendition of the Christmas classic