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Catch Bill Weir's new show, The Road to Change: America's Climate Crisis, Saturday April 25, 2020 on CNN at 10PM ET.

Smithsonian Voices

CNN’s Bill Weir Offers Solutions for How to Talk Climate Change in a Contentious World

Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism Summit features CNN’s Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir

A distribution of essential supplies from the Navajo government to residents in the Jeddito, Arizona area.

Covid-19

How the Pandemic Is Affecting the Navajo Nation

A conversation about the challenges facing—and the resilience of—the largest reservation in the country, which has become a COVID-19 hotspot

This week's selections include The Women With Silver Wings, Tombstone and The Restaurant.

Books of the Month

A 2,000-Year History of Restaurants and Other New Books to Read

The fifth installment in our weekly series spotlights titles that may have been lost in the news amid the COVID-19 crisis

"Our planet faces the challenge of a lifetime," says Bunch. "Let’s work together to imbue our future with all the hope and healing we have to offer.

Planet Positive

In a World Facing Grim Challenges, Hope Still Reigns Supreme

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III says: ‘It’s time to put our heads down, and work’

Worshippers, some of them wearing protective masks, take part in the Friday prayers at Mecca's Grand Mosque on March 6, 2020, a day after Saudi authorities emptied Islam's holiest site for sterilization.

Covid-19

This Pandemic Isn’t the First Time the Hajj Has Been Disrupted for Muslims

Plague, war and politics have altered the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca throughout history

Mangroves line a channel connecting the Belize River to the coastal lagoon system. These trees are hundreds of years old and provide important habitat to both terrestrial and marine species.

Smithsonian Voices

Here’s How Local Communities Can Help Save Mangroves

The Global Mangrove Alliance has a goal of increasing the world’s mangrove cover by 20 percent over the next decade

A street art piece by artist Pony Wave depicts two people kissing while wearing face masks on Venice Beach in Venice, California.

Virtual Travel

How Street Artists Around the World Are Reacting to Life With COVID-19

Graffiti artists and muralists are sending messages of hope and despair with coronavirus public art

Stream live or watch repeated broadcast overnight.

Planet Positive

LIVE NOW: Watch the Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism Digital Summit

The two-day virtual event will bring scientists and many other experts to highlight success stories in conservation

A policeman stands over a graffiti drawn to bring awareness to social distancing as a preventive measure against COVID-19 in Chennai, India, on April 9, 2020

Covid-19

How ‘Social Distancing’ Can Get Lost in Translation

Governments around the world grapple with how to deliver important guidelines on minimizing the spread of COVID-19

A nurse (left) operates a robot used to interact remotely with coronavirus patients while a physician looks on.

Covid-19

How Robots Are on the Front Lines in the Battle Against COVID-19

Helping health care workers treat patients and public safety officials contain the pandemic, these robots offer lessons for future disasters

Kilauea fissure 8 lava fountains reached as high as about 50 m (164 ft) on June 20, 2018

Could Rainfall Have Triggered the 2018 Eruption of Hawaiian Volcano Kīlauea?

A new study posits that groundwater pressure might have been a tipping point for the magma system near the eruption

Nick Pyenson and his colleagues next to fossil whales from Cerro Ballena, a site in the Atacama of Chile.

Smithsonian Voices

Digging Into the Past to Find Optimism for the Future

The story of what will happen in the coming decades and centuries is written in the geologic past

The list covers findings in biology, justice and human rights, the environment, and more.

Planet Positive

Fifty Things We’ve Learned About the Earth Since the First Earth Day

On April 22, 1970, Americans pledged environmental action for the planet. Here’s what scientists and we, the global community, have done since

The first physician to definitively distinguish typhus and typhoid was American doctor William Wood Gerhard.

Covid-19

What an 1836 Typhus Outbreak Taught the Medical World About Epidemics

An American doctor operating out of Philadelphia made clinical observations that where patients lived, not how they lived, was at the root of the problem

Reconstruction of Palaeochiropteryx

Why Bats Are One of Evolution’s Greatest Puzzles

Paleontologists seek the ancestors that could explain how bats became the only flying mammals.

Research suggests humans can occasionally pass the new coronavirus to cats. But felines are very unlikely to be a source of transmission back to humans.

Covid-19

Why the New Coronavirus Affects Some Animals, but Not Others

While the virus seems capable of infecting some pets and wild animals, these cases probably aren’t occurring often

The list includes Sagrada, Pandemic, Settlers of Catan, Wingspan and Dune.

Education During Coronavirus

Twelve Board Games You Can Play With Friends From Afar

These virtual versions of classic and lesser-known games are ideal for social distancing

Soldiers assigned to the 531st Hospital Center build shelving at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, where a temporary medical station has been constructed to aid efforts combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Covid-19

How COVID-19 Could Inform the Future of Hospital Design

Modified hospital designs have become necessary as the first wave of the pandemic tears through U.S. communities

This week's selections include The Betrayal of the Duchess, Anonymous Is a Woman and Nerve.

Books of the Month

The Science of Fear, the Royal Scandal That Made France Modern and Other New Books to Read

The fourth installment in our weekly series spotlights titles that may have been lost in the news amid the COVID-19 crisis

In 2018, more than 40 million Americans traveled overseas.

Covid-19

What American Travel Looked Like Before COVID-19

Despite historic setbacks similar to today’s, Americans have become more dedicated travelers

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