Articles

A robot and human interacting.

A New Study Finds People Prefer Robots That Explain Themselves

Engineers at UCLA explain how A.I. systems should be designed to both perform a task and win the trust of humans

Vegas Vicky, Las Vegas, Nevada

Virtual Travel

A Vibrant Tour of America's Neon Signs

In his upcoming book ‘Neon Road Trip,’ photographer John Barnes captures a luminous part of advertising history

An autonomous float is lowered into the waters of Southern Ocean. Part of the SOCCOM project, floats like this measure a variety of parameters that allow scientists to determine whether the waters are absorbing or releasing carbon dioxide.

The World's Best Natural Defense Against Climate Change May Soon Make Things Worse

As extreme weather rocks the Southern Ocean, a tumultuous mix of carbon dioxide, winds and warming waters could reach an environmental tipping point

The Moore home after the bomb explosion

The Unsolved Murder of Civil Rights Activist Harry Moore

An organizer who campaigned for justice in 1940s Florida, Moore was among the first martyrs to the cause

The Smithsonian's “Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World” exhibition is joining other efforts to combat misinformation about COVID-19 on multiple fronts. Volunteers, public programs and forthcoming content updates are providing visitors with access to credible and relevant information.

Covid-19

How Museums Can Help the Public Make Sense of Pandemics

We can’t let fear overrun science, says Sabrina Sholts, the Smithsonian’s curator of biological anthropology

Mo‘omomi Preserve on the north coast of the Hawaiian island of Moloka‘i protects a dune ecosystem that boasts rare coastal species.

Hawai‘i's Last Dunes Are Home to Species Found Nowhere Else on the Planet

A nature preserve on Moloka‘i reveals rare life forms—some ancient and others just newly established

Vivid colors and images splash across a five-panel screen, bringing Joseph Banks and James Cook's voyage to life

250 Years Ago, Joseph Banks Documented Australia's Glorious Botanical Bounty

A film on view at the Natural History Museum showcases the diversity of flora and fauna at the time of European arrival

This detail of a map, one of many in the collection of cartographic enthusiast George III, shows the Saint Lawrence River and Quebec during the French and Indian War in 1759, the year before George became King of England (and its American colonies).

These Newly Digitized Military Maps Explore the World of George III

The last British monarch to reign over the American colonies had a collection of more than 55,000 maps, each with their own story to tell

Big Snow American Dream in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is North America’s first indoor ski resort.

Eight of the World's Coolest Indoor Snow Parks

When the ski slopes are melting, head to these climate-controlled resorts with predictable conditions

Author-illustrator duo Jon Scieszka and Steven Weinberg debut How to Make a Collagasaurus, a how-to booklet inviting kids to transform the Smithsonian collections into zany new art forms.

Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Images Into Public Domain

The launch of a new open access platform ushers in a new era of accessibility for the Institution

Graphic illustrating the MAVEN spacecraft encountering plasma layers at Mars.

Ten Trends That Will Shape Science in the Decade Ahead

Medicine gets trippy, solar takes over, and humanity—finally, maybe—goes back to the moon

Could New York be the Gotham we prize without the Guggenheim?

How New York Made Frank Lloyd Wright a Starchitect

The Wisconsin-born architect's buildings helped turn the city he once called an 'inglorious mantrap' into the center of the world

The first two cheetah cubs born via embryo transfer

In a First, Cheetah Cubs Born Through Surrogacy at the Columbus Zoo

Zookeepers and Smithsonian scientists successfully transferred cheetah embryos, marking a major conservation milestone for the vulnerable species

Drone image above the wreck of HMS Erebus

Divers Recover More Than 350 Artifacts From the HMS 'Erebus' Shipwreck

The treasure trove could help answer questions about what happened during the disastrous Franklin Expedition

Winston Churchill visits bomb-damaged Birmingham, England, during the Blitz.

How Winston Churchill Endured the Blitz—and Taught the People of England to Do the Same

In a new book, best-selling author Erik Larson examines the determination of the ‘British Bulldog’ during England’s darkest hour

By late December 1941, the initial contingents of diplomats arrived at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

When the Greenbrier and Other Appalachian Resorts Became Prisons for Axis Diplomats

During World War II, the U.S. government detained hundreds of German, Italian and Japanese diplomats in luxury internment camps

“New Paths to Change: Undocumented Immigrant Activism, 2000 to the Present” is an curatorial effort to collect the stories community organizers across the nation (above: a 2017 immigration rally in San Francisco).

How the Smithsonian Is Documenting the Work of Immigrant Rights Activists

A new collecting initiative will tell the stories of the undocumented and their political organizing movements

The History of the Hard Hat

With some canvas, leather, shelac and black paint, inventor Edward Bullard helped America usher in a new era of workplace safety

Angkor Wat in Cambodia

Angkor Wat May Owe Its Existence to an Engineering Catastrophe

The collapse of a reservoir in a remote and mysterious city could have helped Angkor gain supremacy

A female wolverine roams the Arctic tundra at the edge of the Brooks Range, on Alaska’s North Slope. 

Why Wolverines Are the Arctic Animal We Love to Hate

Scientists brave the deep snows and frigid cold of Arctic Alaska to study one of its most furtive and ferocious denizens

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