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Alec Baldwin as Moses Randolph and Edward Norton as Lionel Essrog in Motherless Brooklyn.

Edward Norton on Why He Placed ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ in Robert Moses’ New York

The actor, director and screenwriter brings Jonathan Lethem’s acclaimed novel to the screen—with a few unsubtle changes

Collections at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History are filled with all sorts of eerie specimens.

Smithsonian Voices

Six Bewitching Smithsonian Specimens to Get You Ready for Halloween

Check out some of the spookiest (read: coolest) items in the National Museum of Natural History’s collections.

Rockall, in the North Atlantic, is a small islet of large significance.

This Tiny, Uninhabitable Islet in the North Atlantic Has Attracted Fishermen and Adventurers for Decades

Rockall, a rocky outcrop claimed by the United Kingdom, has become an unlikely battleground in the fight for fishing rights

The laboratory where Frankenstein's monster is created in the 1931 film.

Science in the Movies

The Science Behind Hollywood’s Movie Monsters

Massive hits at the time, the films that brought Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy and more to life also tapped into societal fears and traumas

The exterior of the Vinoy Renaissance Resort in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Five Hotels That Were Occupied by the Military During World War II

For a brief time in their history, these resorts served as hospitals, training grounds and operations bases

The Inuit drum-dance group Pamyua will perform in Washington, D.C. and New York City.

Smithsonian Voices

New Music and Dance Fusions Kick Off Native American Heritage Month

The National Museum of the American Indian is webcasting many of these public programs live, then archiving them online

For the past 99 years, Anoka, Minnesota, has been celebrating Halloween like no other city in the world.

What Makes This Minnesota Town the Halloween Capital of the World?

For nearly a century, Anoka has been celebrating this spooky holiday like no other city

A Portrait of Berenice Sarmiento Chávez

This Year’s Outwin Winners Challenge the Norms of Portraiture

First prize recipient is Hugo Crosthwaite for his stop-motion animation portraying migrant Berenice Sarmiento Chávez

Understanding plankton is essential to studying how ocean life is sustained.

This Device Has Been Measuring the Ocean’s Plankton Since the 1930s

Largely unchanged since it was invented, the Continuous Plankton Recorder collects plankton as it is towed behind a ship

By genetically modifying a patient's own immune cells to target and kill cancer cells, CAR-T therapy offers a whole new way to fight cancer.

The Possibilities and Risks of Genetically Altering Immune Cells to Fight Cancer

Of the ten or so patients I’ve treated with CAR-T, over half developed strange neurologic side effects ranging from headaches to seizures

CGI rendering of ancient Loxolophus mammal taken from the PBS NOVA special, Rise of the Mammals. In this recreation, Loxolophus scavenges for food in the palm dominated forests found within the first 300,000 years after the dinosaur extinction.

Fossil Site Reveals How Mammals Thrived After the Death of the Dinosaurs

Recent discoveries highlight how mammals lived before and after the asteroid impact that triggered the world’s fifth mass extinction

Maria Oakey Dewing, "Garden in May," 1895,

Smithsonian Voices

Why the Rare Works of Maria Oakey Dewing Are Worthy of a Reconsideration

Smithsonian Provost John Davis takes a closer look at the painter, who described herself as a “garden-thirsty soul.”

Since the 1940s, years spent dating and living together before marriage has increased, while meeting online has become the dominant real-life "meet-cute" story.

New Research Offers Insights Into How American Couples Meet

A history of getting hitched reveals the only thing that people are not in a hurry to do

Diane Meyer walked the entire 96-mile perimeter of the former wall to take pictures for her hand-sewn photograph series “Berlin.” Above, Brandenburg Gate, 2015.

Where the Berlin Wall Once Stood

Even after a terrible barrier comes down, an artist conjures its haunting presence

Ernesto Guevara cruises by an image of his father on a building in Havana's Plaza of the Revolution, one of the larges public squares in the world.

Tony Perrottet's Cuba

Roaring Through Cuba With Che Guevara’s Son

What’s Ernesto Guevara, son of the world’s most recognizable revolutionary, doing on a Harley Davidson? Leading a whirlwind tour around his native island

Men feed blocks of ice into a snow machine in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1938.

How Artificial Snow Was Invented

You don’t have to ski on cornflakes because Hollywood’s quest for authenticity on-screen triggered an avalanche of frozen innovation

The excavation of the whale specimen from the “slime pit” in Florida.

Smithsonian Voices

Saving This Rare Whale Skeleton Was a Dirty Job

The Smithsonian welcomes a rare whale skeleton that was found dead on an island in the Florida Everglades

The Battle Over the Memory of the Spanish Civil War

How Spain chooses to memorialize Francisco Franco and the victims of his authoritarian regime is tearing the nation apart

Dancers from Spain’s Ballet Teatro Español de Rafael Aguilar perform flamenco during a rehearsal at the National Theater in Taipei, Taiwan, in 2006.

The Complicated History of Flamenco in Spain

The music, born of gypsies in the country’s southern regions, was embraced by foreigners long before it became a national symbol

The Wright brothers' 1903 flight made history, regardless of other claims about earlier flights.

Ask Smithsonian

Was Jakob Brodbeck First in Flight? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions, we’ve got experts

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