Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Articles

In 1954, John Kirklin of the Mayo Clinic created the Mayo-Gibbon heart-lung machine when he modified a design pioneered by John Gibbon. The machine is now in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

This 1950s Heart-Lung Machine Revolutionized Cardiac Surgery

Open-heart procedures evolved rapidly once Mayo Clinic surgeon John Kirklin made his improvements to an earlier invention

As the 2017 North American total solar eclipse comes to an end, the famous "diamond ring" becomes visible. The sun's corona is also visible, with the star Regulus to the left.

A Total Solar Eclipse 100 Years Ago Proved Einstein’s General Relativity

Two teams of astronomers voyaged to Africa and Brazil to observe the most famous eclipse in science

Dermacentor marginatus, female, on stomach and on back

More Than One Million Ticks Make Up This Cringe-Worthy Collection in Georgia

The U.S. National Tick Collection is the largest continuously curated collection of ticks in the world

Do fungi like this Penicillium mold, which produces the the antibiotic penicillin, trace their origins to an ancestor that lived a billion years ago?

Fossil Discovery Pushes Back the Origin of Fungi by Half a Billion Years

Ancient fungus helps rewrite what we know about evolution and the tree of life

Anirudh Sharma and his team have developed a device that can capture air pollution at its source; once collected, they turn the soot into ink.

This Ink Is Made From Air Pollution

About 45 minutes of diesel car pollution reaps 30 milliliters of AIR-INK, now on display at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

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

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

Meet Instrument Designer John Vassos, Who Gave the Hohner Harmonica a Sleek New Look

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

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

Page 256 of 1322