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Women were involved with the computing field from its earliest days.

Women Who Shaped History

The Gendered History of Human Computers

It’s ironic that women today must fight for equality in Silicon Valley. After all, their math skills helped launch the digital age

T. rex moves in for the kill on a doomed Triceratops—an herbivore that existed mainly on a diet of palm fronds.

Beyond Dinosaurs: The Secrets of Earth's Past

The ‘Nation’s T. Rex’ Prepares to Make Its Smithsonian Debut

In a new exhibit about “deep time” at the National Museum of Natural History, T. rex is still the king

Artist Gary Staab assembles the massive megalodon. A scale model at the bottom right shows what the finished creature will look like.

Beyond Dinosaurs: The Secrets of Earth's Past

Reimagining the Megalodon, the World’s Most Terrifying Sea Creature

The ancient beast of the oceans comes to life in a new display at the National Museum of Natural History

A volcano can provide a great deal of geothermal energy

Could Yellowstone’s Volcanoes Provide Geothermal Power and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

The descendants of Cudjo Lewis and Abache (above) heard stories of the ship that tore their ancestors from their homeland and now the wreck of the Clotilda has been confirmed to be found in Alabama's Mobile River.

The ‘Clotilda,’ the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is Found

The discovery carries intense personal meaning for an Alabama community of descendants of the ship’s survivors

Planktonic foraminifera assemblage from Caribbean sediments that provide an accurate picture of the species community before human influence. Each shell is less than one millimeter in size.

Plankton Haven’t Been the Same Since the Industrial Revolution

Changes in plankton populations over the past centuries correlate with rising sea temperatures

Family photo of Elsye Mitchell

In 1945, a Japanese Balloon Bomb Killed Six Americans, Five of Them Children, in Oregon

The military kept the true story of their deaths, the only civilians to die at enemy hands on the U.S. mainland, under wraps

Expanding access to the deep ocean will spark interest in exploration, Rush believes: Getting underwater is “such an amazing emotional experience.”

A Deep Dive Into the Plans to Take Tourists to the ‘Titanic’

For a handsome price, a daredevil inventor will bring you aboard his groundbreaking submarine to put eyes on most famous shipwreck of all

S.T.A.R. (2012) by Tuesday Smillie. Watercolor collage on board.

LGBTQ+ Pride

New Brooklyn Museum Exhibit Explores the Cultural Memory of Stonewall

Artists born after the galvanizing moment in gay rights history, which took place 50 years ago, present their interpretations

Blue Hole Regional Park, just south of Austin, Texas, is sought after for its canopy of bald cypress trees and its two rope swings.

America's Waterways: The Past, Present and Future

The Sublime Sensation of the Swimming Hole

Kick off your shoes and jump into summer’s most refreshing tradition on a lazy afternoon

“As the times have become increasingly more political, people have begun projecting more politicalness into the work,” notes artist Jeffrey Gibson, who is a featured artist this week at the National Portrait Gallery's "Identify" program.

Artist Jeffrey Gibson’s Artwork Activates Overlooked Histories and Marginalized Identities

The National Portrait Gallery’s “Identify” performance showcases the multimedia artist’s masterful 50-person drumming event

There’s still plenty of reason to know how to use this Morse telegraph key.

Morse Code Celebrates 175 Years and Counting

The elegantly simple code works whether flashing a spotlight or blinking your eyes—or even tapping on a smartphone touchscreen

Until engineers constructed the temporary dam in 1969, no one had seen the bare rock face of American Falls since March 30, 1848, when an ice jam from Lake Erie stopped the Niagara River.

When Niagara Falls Ran Dry

While seemingly a natural wonder of the world, the destination on the U.S./Canada border has been subject to human meddling for years

Reconstructed color patterns of Sinosauropteryx based on the pigmentation of fossil plumage. The dinosaur is portrayed in the predicted open habitat in which it lived around the Jehol lakes, preying on the lizard Dalinghosaurus.

The Colors of Dinosaurs Open a New Window to Study the Past

Old fossils and new technology are coloring in life’s prehistoric palette

This lunar extravehicular visor assembly, photographed by Cade Martin at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar- Hazy Center, was worn by Neil Armstrong on the Moon in July 1969. Armstrong’s helmet visors were designed to protect against hazards, from micrometeoroids to infrared light.

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

What You Didn’t Know About the Apollo 11 Mission

From JFK’s real motives to the Soviets’ secret plot to land on the Moon at the same time, a new behind-the-scenes view of an unlikely triumph 50 years ago

Nazi officials use calipers to measure an ethnic German's nose on January 1, 1941. The Nazis developed a pseudoscientific system of facial measurement that was supposedly a way of determining racial descent.

Race in America

The Disturbing Resilience of Scientific Racism

A new book explores how racist biases continue to maintain a foothold in research today

Scientists bioengineer living plants to emit light.

These Glowing Plants Could One Day Light Our Homes

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum gives us a glimpse into a world where we read by a natural greenish glow

The Smithsonian has completed its multi-year conservation project of the Neil Armstrong spacesuit, digitizing the historic Apollo artifact so that soon authentically realized duplicates can be downloaded for study and appreciation.

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

In Celebration of 50 Years Since the Moon Landing, Neil Armstrong’s Spacesuit Set to Return to Public View

Duplicates of the 3D scanned historic Apollo artifact will also tour Major League ballparks this summer

P-R-Z-E-... aw, forget it. P-horse!

Didn’t Make the National Spelling Bee? Play the Smithsonian Spelling Bee

We present a list of some of the toughest words to spell, pulled straight from the collections

The Apollo 10 Command Module, "Charlie Brown," as seen from the detached Lunar Module, "Snoopy."

A Smithsonian Curator Reflects on Apollo 10, the Mission That Made Landing on the Moon Possible

Fifty years ago, the astronauts who crewed the “dress rehearsal” for Apollo 11 paved the way for history to be made just a couple months later

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