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The courtyard at Mexico City's Museo Nacional de Antropología could be a good model for a socially distant lobby space in future museums.

Covid-19

How Will Covid-19 Change the Way Museums Are Built?

The global pandemic will have long-lasting effects on the form and function of future museums

Picture of the top and bottom sides of the chips with integrated microfluidic cooling, next to the miniaturized power converter

A New System for Cooling Down Computers Could Revolutionize the Pace of Innovation

A Swiss team has created tiny, fluid-filled channels in microchips to spirit away heat and save energy

Poultney Bigelow. Sketch by Poultney Bigelow for Edith Weir (detail), 1884 April 18. Weir family papers.

Smithsonian Voices

Important Hudson River School Archive Is Now Fully Digitized

Prominent artists like Edwin Austin Abbey, Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Eastman Johnson are featured in the Weir Family Papers

Letters are a key part of Jane Austen's novels

A New Edition of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ Crosses Its T’s and Dots Its I’s

Barbara Heller used period handwriting—and new material—to bring the novel’s colorful letters to life

In Boston's Mattapan on August 15, 2020, protesters march from Jubilee Christian Church to protest police brutality, systemic racism and other oppressive systems unfavorable to Black and Brown people.

Why Black, Indigenous and Other People of Color Experience Greater Harm During the Pandemic

Scholars take a deep dive into how structural racism intersects with public health

A great spotted woodpecker eats a hazelnut. Bird beaks may have allowed the animals to eat seeds and nuts after an asteroid hit the earth, wiping out many forms of life.

Why Birds Survived, and Dinosaurs Went Extinct, After an Asteroid Hit Earth

Paleontologists think that beaks may have given birds an advantage over other creatures

3D-printed masks made for a New Hampshire hospital amid PPE shortages in March.

Covid-19

Covid-19 Has Designers Reimagining Personal Protective Equipment

The global pandemic has led to a surge in demand for PPE. Inventors have responded—with mixed results.

Denzel Washington won an Oscar for his role as one of the soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts.

Based on a True Story

Why ‘Glory’ Still Resonates More Than Three Decades Later

Newly added to Netflix, the Civil War movie reminds the nation that black Americans fought for their own emancipation

Spindly legs and thick, red fur have earned maned wolves the nickname “foxes on stilts,” but the animal is neither fox nor wolf.

Smithsonian Voices

What the Rhythm of a Maned Wolf’s Heart Reveals

Smithsonian researchers are monitoring stress rates of this keystone species for better ways to manage them

Heian Period Cats

Japan’s Love-Hate Relationship With Cats

From shapeshifters to demonic corpse eaters, supernatural cats have roamed for centuries in the country’s folklore

A doctor checks the temperature of a child at a mobile clinic.

Covid-19

What Happens When Children’s Covid-19 Symptoms Won’t Go Away

Some parents say their kids have been sick for months, and experts aren’t sure what’s going on

Remains of the archaeological crypt of Ile de la Cité

The Notre-Dame Crypt Reopens for the First Time Since the Fire

To mark the occasion, a new exhibition in the area under the cathedral’s courtyard honors novelist Victor Hugo and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc

The International Space Station in 2018, as photographed by crew members from a Soyuz spacecraft

How Cold War Politics Shaped the International Space Station

A brief history detailing how the United States and Russia led the effort to create the technical marvel

The island of Smøla, Norway, is thought by many to be ultima Thule, first described by the Greek explorer Pytheas.

This Norwegian Island Claims to Be the Fabled Land of Thule

Residents of Smøla believe they live in the northernmost location mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature. Other contenders say not so fast.

Patricia Roberts Harris, Vivian Malone and Zephyr Wright were among those in attendance at the March 1965 signing of the Voting Rights Act.

100 Years of Women at the Ballot Box

For Generations, Black Women Have Envisioned a Better, Fairer American Politics

A new book details the 200-plus years of trenchant activism, from anti-slavery in the earliest days of the U.S. to 21st-century voting rights

The National Zoo shares favorite moments as curators and keepers train their expert eyes on the Giant Panda Cam, monitoring the young cub's first weeks.

Pandamonium

Top 10 Giant Panda Cub Cam Moments

Two National Zoo curators and the panda keeper journal their favorite moments of the new cub’s first days

Thomas Jefferson, who had suffered great criticism for his religious beliefs, once said that the care he had taken to reduce the Gospels to their core message should prove that he was in fact, a “real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.”

Why Thomas Jefferson Created His Own Bible

In a new book, Smithsonian curator of religion Peter Manseau tells of how The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth first sparked hot controversy

Patrick Francis Healy, depicted here in front of Healy Hall, served as Georgetown University's president between 1874 and 1882.

Born Enslaved, Patrick Francis Healy ‘Passed’ His Way to Lead Georgetown University

Because the 19th-century college president appeared white, he was able to climb the ladder of the Jesuit community

Photograph of Chiura Obata teaching a children's art class at Tanforan Art School, 1942 / unidentified photographer.

Smithsonian Voices

The Papers of Artist Chiura Obata Chronicle Life Inside World War II Incarceration Camps

At the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, the artist’s story is one of resilience amidst the upheaval

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