Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Stories from Meilan Solly

The NYPL's Insta Novels are available via Instagram.

Fall Down the Rabbit Hole With the New York Public Library’s Instagram Version of Classic Tales

Featured texts include ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,’ ‘The Metamorphosis’ and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’

The tiny arm or leg fragment belonged to Denisova 11, a 13-year-old hybrid hominin

Meet Denisova 11: First Known Hybrid Hominin

The 13-year-old girl’s mother was a Neanderthal while her father was a Denisovan

Archaeologists unearthed the rotting teeth during construction of a new metro line in Melbourne, Australia

Archaeological Dig at Australian Metro Station Unearths 1,000 Human Teeth

A local dentist probably flushed the molars down the toilet or discarded them with his trash

Upturned under mysterious circumstances, the flagship vessel sank to its undersea grave with roughly 500 innocents—and one ship dog, a mutt dubbed Hatch—trapped within

New Nanotech Returns Henry VIII’s Favorite Warship to Its Former Glory

Researchers used tiny magnetic particles to remove the iron ions responsible for the wooden vessel’s decay

Obvious' "Portrait of Edmond Belamy" exceeded expectations at Thursday's sale

Christie’s Will Be the First Auction House to Sell Art Made by Artificial Intelligence

Christie’s will sell the work from Paris-based art collective Obvious, which created ‘Portrait of Edmond Belamy’ with the machine-learning algorithm GAN

If you stick to a diet of kale, brussels sprouts and similarly leafy greens, your salivary proteins will eventually adapt to their bitter taste

There’s a Scientific Explanation for Why Adults Are More Likely to Tolerate Leafy Greens

Just eat your veggies: Salivary proteins adapt to bitter tastes, making them more palatable over time

The restored horse head is on view for the first time since its discovery in 2009

A 2,000-Year-Old Golden Horse Head Suggests Romans Actually Got Along Wth German ‘Barbarians’

The sculpture fragment suggests Romans lived peacefully alongside Germans until a decisive defeat at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest

In August 2016, a lightning strike killed more than 300 reindeers. Now, their decaying carcasses are spurring the landscape's revitalization

What the Deaths of More Than 300 Reindeer Teach Us About the Circle of Life

In an isolated corner of Norwegian plateau, carcasses of reindeer felled by lightning are spawning new plant life

An artist's rendition of Sheffield Castle

Archaeologists Are Excavating Sheffield Castle, One-Time Prison of Mary, Queen of Scots

The Scottish queen spent 14 years imprisoned at the medieval stronghold

Michaelina Wautier, "The Triumph of Bacchus," ca. 1643-59

‘Baroque’s Leading Lady’ Artist Michaelina Wautier Finally Gets Retrospective

The 17th-century painter mastered an array of genres at a time when most female artists were consigned to painting flowers

Slow-moving clumps of bacteria form the darker regions of the portrait, while fast-moving, spaced-out bacteria form the lighter regions

Light-Reactive Bacteria Create Miniature ‘Mona Lisa’ Replica

Researchers transformed swimming bacteria into replica of the da Vinci masterpiece, morphing likenesses of Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin

Child participants doubted themselves and looked to their robot counterparts for guidance

Children Are Susceptible to Robot Peer Pressure, Study Suggests

When robots provided incorrect answers in social conformity test, children tended to follow their lead

The Whitechapel fatberg is a massive clump of congealed fat, wet wipes, diapers and miscellaneous waste

You Can Now Watch the Whitechapel Fatberg’s Decay on Livestream

The toxic clump of sewage oil and waste housed at the Museum of London has, so far, changed colors, ‘sweated,’ hatched flies and grown yellow pustules

It’s often difficult to tell “where the art ends and the building begins”

Swiss Institute Reimagines Duchamp’s Readymades for the Modern World

The exhibition asks visitors to revisit the objects in their daily life that are often taken for granted

Study suggests that early humans had opposable, ape-like big toes built for grasping

Researchers Suggest Big Toe Was Last Part of Foot to Evolve

Early hominins’ big toes were equipped for life on the ground and in the trees

Extreme weather events likely had severe consequences, depleting harvests and weakening humans and livestock alike

Animal Fat Found in Clay Pottery Reveals How Ancient People Adapted to Drought

Neolithic farmers switched from cattle to goat herding, abandoned communal dwellings for smaller households to adjust to new climate

Charles II attempted to ban public coffeehouses, which he viewed as hotbeds of "fake news" and seditious murmurings

Missouri Exhibition Explores the Centuries-Old Specter of ‘Fake News’

Curator considers three categories of ‘fake news’: error, hoax and truths deemed false

Early humans made stone tools out of whichever rocks happened to be lying nearby, ignoring quality in favor of convenience

Laziness May Have Contributed to the Decline of Homo Erectus

Researchers suggest early humans pursued “least-effort strategies” when crafting tools, collecting resources

In addition to the graduate program, ASU and the WWII Museum will offer a series of non-credit courses designed for those seeking a less rigorous academic experience

First US-Based World War II Master’s Degree Program Will Launch in January

The online graduate program is a collaboration between Arizona State University and the National World War II Museum in New Orleans

Circumstantial evidence links Rita and Jerry Alter to the 1985 heist.

Did This Couple Steal a $160 Million de Kooning?

The Thanksgiving snapshot places Jerry and Rita Alter in Tucson, Arizona, just a day before the 1985 heist

Page 43 of 49