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A $3.5 million renovation at the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum includes an outdoor multi-functional plaza and community garden. The museum will reopen in mid-October.

Anacostia Community Museum to Close for Renovations, but Will Tour Its Current Show With Pop Ups Across the City

D.C. Public Library will partner with the museum to bring you “A Right to the City,” which takes a deep look at gentrification and its impact

DeepASL's camera

Sign Language Translating Devices Are Cool. But Are They Useful?

Michigan State University researchers are developing a small tool, with a motion capture system, that translates ASL into English

Bonneville Seabase is located 40 miles from Salt Lake City, Utah.

Why Utah Might Be Your Next Favorite Snorkeling Destination

Stocked with saltwater fish from around the world, Bonneville Seabase is an ocean in the middle of the state

Grand Canyon National Park

The Decades-Long Political Fight to Save the Grand Canyon

Americans had long known about the wonders of the southwestern landmark, but it wouldn’t be until 1919 that it would gain full federal protection

Plastic debris is providing a new vessel for potentially invasive species to cross large distances.

Sea Creatures Still Arriving in the U.S. on Plastic Debris From the Japanese Tsunami Eight Years Ago

Marine biologists don’t know how long different species can survive adrift in the open ocean, and some may become invasive when they reach new shores

The lowland streaked tenrec (Hemicentetes semispinosus) in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, Madagascar.

Defensive Spines on Tenrecs Could Come at a Cost to Brain Size

The little mammals of Madagascar appear to have undergone an evolutionary tradeoff between brain size and defensive armor

The gift’s promise lies not just in its scale and Lichtenstein’s outsize place in 20th-century art, but in the fact that much of the materials will be searchable together online.

The Stories of Poets, Artists and Cartoon Characters Are All Waiting to Be Discovered in Roy Lichtenstein’s Personal Papers

The Pop artist’s archives, recently donated to the Smithsonian, are soon to be digitized

The three-time winning Meryl Streep (above at the 2017 Academy Awards) with 21 nominations under her belt appears to be a rare exception to the Oscar Jinx.

A Smithsonian Folklorist Delves Into the Rituals and Rewards at the Academy Awards

Folk belief holds that if you have won one Oscar, your odds of ever winning a second are greatly diminished by the dreaded “Oscar Jinx”

Zissou Tasseff-Elenkoff's "Power to the People" is dedicated to civil rights for every human regardless of race, color or religion.

What Should a Contemporary Monument Look Like?

A new multi-city art exhibition called “New Monuments for New Cities” tackles this question head on

American artist Georgia O'Keeffe poses outdoors beside an easel with a canvas from her series, 'Pelvis Series Red With Yellow,' Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1960.

Why Are Georgia O’Keeffe’s Paintings Breaking Out in Pimples?

A new handheld tool lets scientists diagnose the chemical reaction behind “art acne”—and learn how it can be prevented

An artist's concept of the Beresheet lunar lander on the moon.

Israel’s Private Lunar Lander Blasts Off for the Moon

The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet will gradually raise its orbit to reach the moon, landing after about a month and a half of flight

Will A.I. Ever Be Smarter Than a Four-Year-Old?

Looking at how children process information may give programmers useful hints about directions for computer learning

Women have graced coinage since the third century B.C.

Who Was the First Woman Depicted on Currency and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Botanist George Washington Carver, seen here in a 1940 photo, donated $33,000 in cash to the Tuskegee Institute to establish a fund to carry on the agricultural and chemical work he began.

In Search of George Washington Carver’s True Legacy

The famed agriculturalist deserves to be known for much more than peanuts

Computer technician Joyce Cade works on a UNIVAC computer at a United States Census Bureau installation in Maryland which was used to tabulate the results of the 1954 Census of Business.

Women’s Contributions to Early Genetics Studies Were Relegated to the Footnotes

While women scientists were frequently “acknowledged programmers” in population genetics research, few of them received full authorship

Pop History

Why Is the Genie in ‘Aladdin’ Blue?

There’s a simple answer and a colonialist legacy for why the genie looks the way it does

Giddens with her beloved cherry, maple and rosewood minstrel banjo, a replica of a design by the 19th-century Baltimore luthier Levi Brown.

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

Rhiannon Giddens’ 21st-Century Sound Has a Long History

Inspired by long-lost folk melodies, gospel, opera and bluegrass, the electrifying singer and banjo player gives fresh voice to old American traditions

Dugger makes a stylish statement by superimposing vibrant images of women jumping and twirling over photographs of patterned mats common in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, the Veil Is a Fashion Statement

Artist Medina Dugger finds joy in a colorful yet complicated symbol of faith

Lake Malawi formed in a valley where the African tectonic plate is the process of splitting in two.

The Fishy Mystery of Lake Malawi

In the second-largest lake in Africa, fish evolution is taking place at an explosive rate. Why? Scientists are diving into the question

The long-lived soap opera "All My Children" began its over-40-year run in 1970.

For 70 Years, the Soap Opera Has Shaped American Pop Culture

The much-maligned genre has been resurrected as prestige TV

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