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Olympus Mons on Mars, the solar system's tallest mountain, as seen from the Viking orbiter

Mars Had Landslide-Powered Tsunamis That Put Earth’s Mega-Waves to Shame

A huge mass of material fell down a mountain and into the Red Planet’s ancient ocean.

FARMstead ED pairs visitors with onsite and educational hands-on farm experiences throughout California's San Luis Obispo County.

Covid-19

Small Farms Find Creative Ways to Attract Visitors During the Coronavirus Pandemic

From curbside produce pickup to reservation-only classes, farms are adapting to make ends meet

Word Puzzles

Play the Smithsonian Magazine Crossword: July/August Issue

Test your mettle with this puzzle created exclusively for ‘Smithsonian’ readers

People protest against the name of the Washington, D.C., NFL team before a game between Washington and the Minnesota Vikings. Minneapolis, November 2, 2014.

Smithsonian Voices

Ending the Use of Racist Mascots and Images

The appropriation of Native language and imagery perpetuates racism and legitimizes racist acts, says the director of the American Indian Museum

Mars (photographed here by the European Mars Express orbiter) has a thin atmosphere--useful for landers parachuting down to the surface, and the subject of interest for orbiters like the UAE's Hope spacecraft.

What to Know About the Three Mars Missions Launching in July

Three different countries are about to send landers and orbiters to the Red Planet

As protesters citing Louis IX’s history as a crusader call for the statue’s removal, counter-protesters ardently protect it.

History of Now

In St. Louis, History and Nostalgia Battle It Out

The city’s Catholic community faces off against protesters over a statue honoring the city’s namesake

Sunrise at the Tongariki site on Easter Island

Native Americans and Polynesians Met Around 1200 A.D.

Genetic analysis of their modern descendants shows that people from the Pacific Islands and South America interacted long before Europeans arrived

After George Floyd’s death, Jason Allende, 13, and his family joined protesters in Junction City, Kansas, on May 29, 2020.

Secretary Lonnie Bunch: Learning From Americans’ Past Ordeals

Looking to history can help find healing and hope

In Africa, ivory has been a status symbol because it comes from elephants, a highly respected animal, and because it is fairly easy to carve into works of art.

Why Is Ivory So Precious? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

Poles like these at a Boston fire station are no longer used universally, but they remain emblematic of the profession.

How an Ingenious Fireman Brought a Pole Into the Firehouse

More than a century ago, David Kenyon of Chicago discovered the fastest way to the ground floor

The sequencer on the 808, a row of 16 color-coded buttons, offered artists a way to store beats they programmed.

The TR-808 Drum Machine Changed the Sound of Pop Music Forever

Sometimes, technology has more impact after it’s obsolete

When I felt strong enough to go out for a walk, out of desperation from being locked up in the flat, I would walk along the Thames on the large promenade that borders the river. It was a cool night in April, and the sun had left a searing purple and pink horizon line on the city. It is rare to see such colors linger at dusk and I had with me my Polaroid camera. I took a few shots and remember how silent and eerie the city felt. A ghost town is truly what it was. This image was taken home and washed with water, sprayed with a foamy bleach and then doused with liquid hand sanitizer in the patches of foam.

Covid-19

Start With a Polaroid, Then Add Disinfectant. Here’s the Result

A quarantined photographer makes the most of the harsh materials at hand to create a fragile portrait of life in a pandemic

Sunset Drive In, San Luis Obispo 7/25/1981 "Let's hope young people today can get fascinated by the aura of that time," Kappeler says.

A Snapshot of Life in America in 1981

The magic of a young artist’s carefree trip across the country four decades ago

The third president evidently had a love of vanilla ice cream.

Make Thomas Jefferson’s Recipe for Ice Cream

The co-author of the Declaration of Independence also drafted a radical recipe

As innovations go, the ice cream truck might seem merely nutty. But summer would never be the same.

How the Ice Cream Truck Made Summer Cool

As innovations go, the Good Humor vehicle is as sweet as it gets

The Chaco Canyon chocolate-drinking jars have a distinct shape, with connections to similarly shaped Mayan vessels. After testing distinguishable jar fragments from an excavated trash pile in in the canyon, archaeologists determined all of the drinking jars were used to consume cacao.

Smithsonian Voices

What Today’s Indigenous Potters Are Learning from Ancient Chocolate-Drinking Jars

Cacao harvested from Mesoamerican forests was traded through a massive network to reach people in the Southwest

The global health pandemic has challenged the most visited museum in the world to draft new visitor guidelines that meet health and safety requirements.

Covid-19

How the Pandemic Is Giving the Louvre Back to Parisians

With a steep drop in international tourists and new COVID-19 safety measures in place, the most visited museum in the world reopened yesterday

A home burns as the Camp Fire moves through the area on November 8, 2018 in Paradise, California.

Covid-19

How COVID-19 Will Change the Way We Fight Wildfires

Prepare for the return of the Smokey Bear method as social distancing prevents firefighters from using more modern strategies

As the South rewrote of the history of the war and reaffirmed a dormant white supremacist ideology, the North’s printmakers, publishers and image makers operated right beside them.

How Northern Publishers Cashed In on Fundraising for Confederate Monuments

In the years after the Civil War, printmakers in New York and elsewhere abetted the Lost Cause movement by selling images of false idols

Kanzi, 39, has used lexigrams to communicate with researchers since age 2.

What Can Bonobos Teach Us About the Nature of Language?

A famed researcher’s daring investigation into ape communication—and the backlash it has caused

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