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Smithsonian Voices

How the Geologic History of the Earth Provides Clues for Our Future

For Earth Day, Smithsonian paleobiologist Scott Wing reminds us that we can look to the fossil record to better understand human-caused global changes

With the snap of his fingers, Thanos wiped out half the life in the universe.

If Thanos Actually Wiped Out Half of All Life, How Would Earth Fare in the Aftermath?

The aftereffects of such a mass extinction don’t require a supervillain’s intelligence to understand

Police move in behind students blocking entrance to the Santa Barbara wharf on the first anniversary of the Santa Barbara oil spill on January 29, 1970 in Santa Barbara, California.

How an Oil Spill Inspired the First Earth Day

Before Earth Day made a name for the environmental movement, a massive oil spill put a spotlight on the dangers of pollution

Solar has had an average annual growth rate of 50 percent in the last 10 years.

A Brief History of Solar Panels

Inventors have been advancing solar technology for more than a century and a half, and improvements in efficiency and aesthetics keep on coming

Transparent wood becomes cloudier as it cools.

This Transparent Wood Could Be an Energy-Saver in Green Buildings

Researchers in Sweden have developed a material, able to store and release heat, that could potentially be used in windows

Close-up of a wildebeest, also called gnus or wildebai, in the grasslands of the Masai Mara in Kenya, August 2018.

Twelve Epic Migratory Journeys Animals Take Every Spring

As temperatures rise and foliage blooms in the north, creatures from insects to whales set out for long treks across the planet

Suranne Jones stars as Anne Lister in "Gentleman Jack."

Women Who Shaped History

The 19th-Century Lesbian Landowner Who Set Out to Find a Wife

A new HBO series explores the remarkable life of Anne Lister, based on her voluminous and intimate diaries

A German artillery shell hits the cathedral

History of Now

The Debate Over Rebuilding That Ensued When a Beloved French Cathedral Was Shelled During WWI

After the Notre-Dame de Reims sustained heavy damage, it took years for the country to decide how to repair the destruction

The National Museum of American History has in its collection this Autoped motor scooter from 1918.

Pop History

The Motorized Scooter Boom That Hit a Century Before Dockless Scooters

Launched in 1915, the Autoped had wide appeal, with everyone from suffragettes to postmen giving it a try

An image of a lion, like the designs on Lydian coins during the Iron Age

What Was the World’s First Currency and More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions, we’ve got experts

This artist's-concept illustration depicts the spacecraft of NASA's Psyche mission near the mission's target, the metal asteroid Psyche.

Future of Space Exploration

NASA Prepares to Build Spacecraft Bound for a Metal Asteroid

The Psyche spacecraft, headed to an asteroid with the same name, will explore a metal world thought to be the leftover core of a destroyed planet

Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS) provides the public with an extensive selection of birds as part of its collection of items that are available for circulation.

This Library in Anchorage Lends Out Taxidermic Specimens

All you need to check out a snowy owl or a mounted rockfish is a library card

The childhood game of "cooties" has endured among schoolchildren.

A Brief History of Cooties

Why a 100-year-old game is still spreading across our playgrounds

Qumangapik, age 16, hunts seals near Thule. Inuit were exempted from the 2010 European Union law banning the trade of seal products.

At the Edge of the Ice

Deep inside the Arctic Circle, Inuit hunters embrace modern technology but preserve a traditional way of life

"Super tomatoes" or regular tomatoes?

How Scientists Are Recapturing the Magic of a Beloved, Long-Lost Tomato

Wiped out by disease and market demands, the Rutgers tomato may be making a comeback

Featuring a small plastic hinge binding both pieces together, this clever container became the perfect way to conceal treats from prying eyes.

Thank One of America’s Most Prolific Inventors for the Hinged Plastic Easter Egg

Donald Weder holds some 1,400 U.S. patents for inventions, including the ubiquitous egg and a process for making plastic Easter grass

A rendering of the lobby of the Statue of Liberty Museum, featuring the statue's original torch

A New Museum Sheds Light on the Statue of Liberty

The revamped building will open in May

Smithsonian Voices

A Smithsonian Art Historian Reflects on American Artists and Their Fascination With Notre-Dame

Senior curator Eleanor Harvey on why the cathedral has been beloved by American artists for years

Almost all of Cannon’s large paintings (above: Three Ghost Figures, 1970), are portraits, often in electric shades of orange, purple and brilliant blue. Many vividly depict Native Americans as living, sometimes flawed individuals.

How T.C. Cannon and His Contemporaries Changed Native American Art

In the 1960s, a group of young art students upended tradition and vowed to show their real life instead

Volunteers in southwest Germany are using ninth-century techniques to construct the medieval monastery.

The World’s Weirdest Architectural Feat Involves Building a Cathedral With Ninth-Century Tools

In a German forest, artisans fleeing modernity build a time machine to the medieval age

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