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Articles

Colors in nature can be produced by both pigments that absorb some light and microscopic structures that change the wavelength of light.

How Do Scientists Know What Colors Prehistoric Animals Were?

Fossil expert Maria McNamara explains how paleontologists are starting to investigate the hues of the past

Roxie Laybourne's work changed the role of museums in public life by turning the Smithsonian’s collection of thousands of birds into an applied science tool.

Meet Roxie Laybourne, the Feather Detective Who Changed Aviation

A new Sidedoor episode tells the story of Roxy Laybourne, a Smithsonian scientist who pioneered the field of forensic ornithology

Jennifer Levasseur from the National Air and Space Museum notes that the museum’s supply of popular astronaut foods is less comprehensive than its collection of rejects. “We only get what they didn’t eat (above: Apollo 17's spiced fruit cereal is now in the collections)."

Rita Rapp Fed America’s Space Travelers

NASA’s food packages now in the collections of the Air and Space Museum tell the story of how a physiologist brought better eating to outer space

An artist's concept of the Axel rover rappelling into a lunar pit.

NASA Considers a Rover Mission to Go Cave Diving on the Moon

The deep caverns and pits that dot the lunar surface could hold clues to the moon’s history and perhaps provide shelter for future human exploration

The Emily Howland photo album containing the portrait of Tubman, (above: detail, ca. 1868) was unveiled this week at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

A Previously Unknown Portrait of a Young Harriet Tubman Goes on View

“I was stunned,” says director Lonnie Bunch; historic Emily Howland photo album contains dozens of other abolitionists and leaders who took an active role

Queen Liliʻuokalani (above in Honolulu in 1917) “was one of the most successful composers . . . so much so that her repertoire remains at the forefront of those performed by Hawaiian musicians today,” says the Smithsonian's John Troutman

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

How the Music of Hawaiʻi’s Last Ruler Guided the Island’s People Through Crisis

A prolific composer, Queen Liliʻuokalani created some of the most popular Hawaiian tunes and compositions of all time

River basin map of the contiguous United States

Art Meets Science

These Beautiful Maps Capture the Rivers That Pulse Through Our World

Cartographer Robert Szucs creates colorful maps of the watersheds that creep across states, countries, continents and the globe

Dumbo prepares to fly.

The Original ‘Dumbo’ Story Would Have Had More Twists and Turns

Before soaring into theaters, Disney’s flying elephant was about to be published as a scrolling children’s book

A portrait (detail, above) of Mary Church Terrell, a prominent D.C. activist and suffragist. The image is just one of dozens of turn-of-the-century photographs featured in "Pictures with Purpose"

For Turn-of-the-Century African-Americans, the Camera Was a Tool for Empowerment

A new installment in the Smithsonian’s “Double Exposure” photo book series depicts black Americans championing their lives through photography

One way of distinguishing these zebras from one another? Their stripes

The High-Tech, Humane Ways Biologists Can Identify Individual Animals

Humans have driver’s licenses and fingerprints, but cows have nose-prints and zebras have “StripeCodes”

Judges Brandon Maxwell, Elaine Welteroth, Nina Garcia, and host Karlie Kloss deliberate

Pop History

What ‘Project Runway’ Can Teach Us About the Creative Process

Seventeen seasons in, the show continues to demystify what it takes to ‘make it work’

Keepers suspect that the mother might already be pregnant with a second.

Is That Wallaby Sprouting a Second Head?

Last week, the first baby wallaby to be born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in three decades poked its head out of its mother’s pouch

The Cambrian Period was a time of remarkable diversification of life when many of the animal groups that exist today first appear in the fossil record.

Fossil Treasure Trove of Ancient Animals Unearthed in China

The fossils from the Cambrian Period include dozens of new species and provide a window into life more than 500 million years ago

Despite statistical methods that help sports fans improve their brackets, the probability of a perfect bracket remains something of a mystery in mathematics.

The Mathematical Madness Behind a Perfect N.C.A.A. Basketball Bracket

Picking a perfect bracket is so unlikely that it will almost certainly never occur, even if March Madness continues for billions of years

Daesha Devón Harris Combines Oral History and Antique Portraits to Tell a Story of Loss and Hope

These layered works testify to African-American history

During Holi, people crowd the streets and splash brilliantly colored dyes on anyone walking by.

The Meaning Behind the Many Colors of India’s Holi Festival

From red to green to indigo, each color provides festival-goers with a sense of beauty, ritual and tradition

Dragons in Chinese art represent the emperor.

What Do Dragons Symbolize and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Middletown, Pennsylvania in 1979 in the wake of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident

Witness

For Those Living Nearby, the Memory of the Three Mile Island Accident Has a Long Half-Life

Robert Reid, then the mayor of nearby Middletown, recalls the partial meltdown of the nuclear reactor more than 40 years ago

On the lid of the two-ounce can of Madam C. J. Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower, her top-selling product, appears an African-American woman with thick, flowing hair. That woman was Walker herself.

Ingenious Women

How Business Executive Madam C. J. Walker Became a Powerful Influencer of the Early 20th Century

A tin of hair conditioner in the Smithsonian collections reveals a story of the entrepreneurial and philanthropic success of a former washerwoman

In a feat of surgical skill, Denton Cooley attached the temporary artificial heart device in only 47 minutes.

The Rivalry Between Two Doctors to Implant the First Artificial Heart

Featuring titans of Texas medicine, the race was on to develop the cutting-edge technology

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