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Ingenious Minds

Could 3-D Printing Save Music Education?

D.C. chef Erik Bruner-Yang interviews Jill-of-all-trades Kaitlyn Hova about her plan to infuse STEM education with open source, 3-D printable instruments

In the five generations since the treaty was signed and broken, the Sioux Nations have steadily lost reservation lands to white development.

In 1868, Two Nations Made a Treaty. The U.S. Broke It, and Plains Indian Tribes Are Still Seeking Justice

The American Indian Museum puts the 150-year-old Fort Laramie Treaty on view in its “Nation to Nation” exhibition

Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Kyoto during the autumn season at dusk,

Forget Cherry Blossoms — Why Fall May Be the Best Time to Visit Japan

From mid-October to early December, Japan’s gorgeous gardens burst with color

Pulse Tank by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, 2008

This Art Show Is Taking the Literal Pulse of America

Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer uses biometrics to make breathtaking spectacle

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Ingenious Minds

Restaurateur José Andrés Dreams of Milking the Clouds

In a conversation with architect David Rockwell, the philanthropic chef urges an invested effort in technology that could collect water from the clouds

Renia in Skole in the 1930s

The Unforgotten: New Voices of the Holocaust

Learn About Renia Spiegel, the Author of an Unforgettable Holocaust Diary, by Hearing From Her Family Who Survived

In an event held at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., Elizabeth Bellak recalls the remarkable story of her sister

Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus.

History of Now

Lessons in the Decline of Democracy From the Ruined Roman Republic

A new book argues that violent rhetoric and disregard for political norms was the beginning of Rome’s end

Zelia Nuttall, who began an academic career in archaeology after she divorced her archaeologist husband in 1888, is best known for her work on ancient Mexican manuscripts.

Women Who Shaped History

The Archaeologist Who Helped Mexico Find Glory in Its Indigenous Past

Disrupting a stereotype of Mesoamerican savagery, Zelia Nuttall brought the ingenuity of Aztec civilization to the fore

The new research is geared to helping clinicians, not replacing them.

Can Artificial Intelligence Detect Depression in a Person’s Voice?

MIT scientists have trained an AI model to spot the condition through how people speak rather than what they tell a doctor

From left to right: Sgt. Harold J. Higginbottom, Brigadier General Amos A. Fries, 2nd Lt. Thomas Jabine

World War I: 100 Years Later

How Three Doughboys Experienced the Last Days of World War I

The end of the war was a welcome reprieve for these three American soldiers, eager to return home

With elaborate coiffures and scarves and ceremonial garb, all the way down to beautifully designed sandals and the tinkling of gold bracelets, Senegalese women usefashion for sociopolitical and economic ends as well as celebrating their own history.

In Senegal, Female Empowerment, Prestige and Wealth Is Measured in Glittering Gold

The African Art Museum’s new exhibition delves into a tradition that is both ravishingly beautiful and hauntingly fraught

Leif Asp envisions a car with a body that acts as an energy source.

Let’s Build Cars Out of Batteries

If batteries could make up the very structure of our vehicles and electronics, those products would be far lighter and more efficient

Freddie Mercury performing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in August, 1980.

How Close Does ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Come to Showing the Real Freddie Mercury?

While the movie has been critiqued for flattening the legacy of Queen, see the band come to life in historic photos

“What I also want people to understand is that as difficult as this history is, it's ripe with optimism," says the museum's director Lonnie Bunch. "Because if you can survive that cabin, there's a lot more you can survive.”

This South Carolina Cabin Is Now a Crown Jewel in the Smithsonian Collections

The 16- by 20-foot dwelling once housed the enslaved; a new podcast tells its story

Seagrass plants have a large capacity for absorbing and storing carbon on the seafloor.

Underwater Meadows of Seagrass Could Be the Ideal Carbon Sinks

Many ecosystems absorb and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide, and seagrass is one of the most efficient natural carbon storage environments

Khoikhoi of South Africa dismantling their huts, preparing to move to new pastures—aquatint by Samuel Daniell (1805). Pastoralism has a rich history in Africa, spreading from the Saharan region to East Africa and then across the continent.

Ritual Cemeteries—For Cows and Then Humans—Plot Pastoralist Expansion Across Africa

As early herders spread across northern and then eastern Africa, the communities erected monumental graves which may have served as social gathering points

In his 90-minute performance, Leguizamo hurtles through 50 characters—from an Incan emperor to a female Confederate soldier.

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

Why John Leguizamo Is So Invested in Telling the Country About Latino History

His uproariously inventive one-man show, soon to be shown on Netflix, puts the story of a neglected culture center stage

The advantages of gear-and-lever voting machine, c. 1898, over the ballot box were many, including that it kept a running count, thus speeding up the reporting of results.

When Pulling a Lever Tallied the Vote

An innovative 1890s gear-and-lever voting machine mechanized the counting of the ballots so they could be tallied in minutes, not hours or days

A view of the wreckage in the Malbone St. Tunnel

The Malbone Street Wreck of 1918

A confluence of circumstances led to the deadly disaster, 100 years ago today, in the New York subway that killed 93

From New York to South Carolina, take a trip through the haunts of one of America's favorite authors.

Halloween

Take a Trip Through Edgar Allan Poe’s America

From his birth in Boston to his death in Baltimore, check out places that were important to America’s favorite macabre author

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