Articles: News & Features | Smithsonian Magazine

Amelia Joe-Chandler, Hogan Teapot, 2013. Hammered copper and cast silver. 7.5 x 11 x 9cm. National Museum of the American Indian, 26/9781.

Learn the Powerful Story Behind This Handcrafted Diné (Navajo) Teapot

From the storage vaults of the National Museum of the American Indian, a small, copper sculpture points to a different sense of place

February 4, 2021

Zebrafish are classic study animals for understanding genetics and development.

A Single Altered Gene Can Make Fish Fins More Like Limbs

Researchers find a mutation that offers clues to the ancient sea-to-land transition of vertebrates

February 4, 2021

Taken in 1922, the ship Jose Gaspar passes the Lafayette Street Bridge in Tampa during the Gasparilla Festival

The True History and Swashbuckling Myth Behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Namesake

Pirates did roam the Gulf Coast, but more myths than facts have inspired the regional folklore

February 4, 2021

Archaeologists exploring the submerged landscapes of Australia, often called sea country, recently found ancient sites underwater.

The Search for Aboriginal History Off the Coast of Australia

Archaeologists exploring the waters near Western Australia’s Murujuga are finding ancient sites a short dive below the sea’s surface

February 3, 2021

Admas. From left, clockwise: Abegasu Shiota, Henock Temesgen, Tewodros Aklilu, and Yousef Tesfaye.

Smithsonian Voices

Why the Newly Released 1980s Album ‘Sons of Ethiopia,’ by the Ethiopian D.C. Band Admas, Is Going Viral

Admas draws from and rearranges “golden era” Ethiopian music with then-fairly-new synthesizer and drum-machine rhythms.

February 3, 2021

Alan Shepard, who was both an astronaut and a golf lover, said he got the idea while training for his Apollo 14 mission. “I thought: What a neat place to whack a golf ball.”

When Astronaut Alan Shepard Hit the Golf Shot Heard ‘Round the World

“The Moon is one big sand trap,” the astronaut said after he brought the game to a new frontier

February 3, 2021

A patient holds a sample test tube for Chlamydia testing.

Covid-19

How Covid-19 Has Hurt the Effort to Track STDs

As gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia have hit their highest marks in decades, many STD contact tracers have shifted to work on the pandemic

February 3, 2021

This is a giant spindle magnetofossil, created by a mysterious creature over 50 million years ago. So far, the iron fossils have only been found during two periods of intense global warming.

Smithsonian Voices

New Way to Study Magnetic Fossils Could Help Unearth Their Origins

Now that scientists can detect these fossils in geologic materials faster, they will be able to look for past evidence of the fossils more efficiently

February 2, 2021

The Dollar lift was 2,360 feet long and rose 634 feet in elevation.

How a Railroad Engineer From Nebraska Invented the World’s First Ski Chairlift

The device was part of an elaborate plan on behalf of Union Pacific to boost passenger rail travel in the American West

February 2, 2021

These five skulls, which range from an approximately 2.5-million-year-old Australopithecus africanus on the left to an approximately 4,800-year-old Homo sapiens on the right, show changes in the size of the braincase, slope of the face and shape of the brow ridges over just less than half of human evolutionary history.

An Evolutionary Timeline of Homo Sapiens

Scientists share the findings that helped them pinpoint key moments in the rise of our species

February 2, 2021

Giant panda cub Xiao Qi Ji experiences snow for the first time just beyond his indoor exhibit on Sunday. Though he did not venture further, his parents Mei Xiang and Tian Tian played around outside.

Watch Giant Pandas and Other Zoo Animals Frolic in the Snow

The weekend’s winter snowfall in Washington, D.C. delighted the giant pandas, red pandas, Andean bears and other critters at the National Zoo

February 1, 2021

An artist's rendering of the five-planet system that orbits star HD 108236, or TOI-1233. In the foreground is a hot, rocky planet that resembles Earth.

Balancing Homework and A.P. Classes, These High Schoolers Discovered Four Exoplanets

Thanks to a Harvard-Smithsonian mentoring program, high school students Kartik Pinglé and Jasmine Wright helped discover new worlds

February 1, 2021

A group of freed African American men along a wharf during the Civil War.

How to Tell 400 Years of Black History in One Book

From 1619 to 2019, this collection of essays, edited by two of the nation’s preeminent scholars, shows the depth and breadth of African American history

February 1, 2021

Matthew McConaughey joins Gayle King for a Smithsonian Asssociates Streaming event on February 10 to discuss his new memoir.

Smithsonian Voices

An Evening With Matthew McConaughey and 26 Other Virtual Smithsonian Events in February

An evening with Matthew McConaughey, multi-part courses, studio arts classes and virtual study tours

February 1, 2021

Quarterback Trent Edwards of the Buffalo Bills suffers a concussion after getting hit during the first half of an NFL game.

How a Damaged Drainage System May Lead to More Severe Concussions

Emerging research suggests that even mild hits to the head may damage tiny lymphatic vessels that clear toxic chemicals and cellular debris from the brain

February 1, 2021