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Articles

Over the course of the 2018 Folklife Festival, experienced artisans worked hand in hand with crochet novices to decorate a humble tree of life.

Armenia

Armenia’s “Tree of Life” Tradition Took Root Thousands of Years Ago, and Has Only Grown Since

The tree adorned in this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival will continue to blossom overseas

Socialists gather in New York City, but the crowd is conspicuously male-dominated considering the party's official stance on women's rights.

The Historical Struggle to Rid Socialism of Sexism

When it was founded, the Socialist Party of America proclaimed itself as the champion of women’s rights. The reality was much more complicated

New Research

Scientists Explain The Thrill of Detecting a Neutrino From a Far-Off Galaxy

For the first time, the IceCube observatory has triumphantly tracked a neutrino back to a massive blazar

Kasimu Harris, "War on the Benighted #1," 2015. Digital photography.

American South

Seven Artists Explore New Orleans’ Forgotten Histories

A new exhibit timed to the city’s tricentennial explores The Big Easy’s diverse and sometimes troubled past

The History and Psychology of Roller Coasters

Researchers take you on a wild ride through endorphins, brain chemistry and stress science to explain the allure of theme park thrill

Optimizing cows

This Connecticut Farm Is Milking Cows for Data

Robotic milkers, video cameras and even sensors hidden inside cows will help the facility get the most milk from a healthy herd

Soft tumors make life hard for sea turtles.

Should We Share Human Cancer Treatments With Tumorous Turtles?

They may be key to saving wild sea turtles from tumors associated with turtle-specific herpes

These Volcanic, Italian Islands Have Been Beloved by Travelers Since Homeric Times

The Aeolian Islands have been drawing visitors, fictional and real, for centuries

A restaurant in Bishopville, S.C. markets the town’s association to the Lizard Man.

A Search for Mysteries and Monsters in Small Town America

How monster festivals became American pilgrimage sites

A view of St. Ottilien monastery in 1945

When a Bavarian Monastery Provided a Home to Jewish Refugees

As World War II ended, Europe’s Jews began the process of rebuilding their lives and families. But few places were like St. Ottilien

Scientists with Smithsonian’s Global Health Program examine a wrinkle-lipped bat, which can harbor a never-before-seen virus.

New Research

A Never-Before-Seen Virus Has Been Detected in Myanmar’s Bats

The discovery of two new viruses related to those that cause SARS and MERS marks PREDICT’s first milestone in the region

Clay's team captured 15 female gnus for study. Following controlled exposure to male mating calls in an experimental setting, the quadrupeds (and their offspring) were released back into the wild.

How Noisy Males Control the Gnu’s Cycle

New research shows that ovulation in Serengeti wildebeests is accelerated and synchronized by the yammering of eager males

Eunice Kennedy Shriver with Best Buddies and Special Olympians (left to right) Airika Straka, Katie Meade, Andy Leonard, Loretta Claiborne and Marty Sheets.

For More Than Five Decades, the Special Olympics Has Given Marginalized Superstars Center Stage

Founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the games offer intellectually disabled athletes the chance to dazzle an international audience

Born June 30, the new scimitar-horned oryx is already beginning to explore her surroundings.

New Artificial Insemination Technique Successfully Breeds Critically Endangered Scimitar-Horned Oryx

This marks the first birth of an oryx through artificial insemination that did not rely on potentially fertility-compromising anesthesia

Gay rights activists march in San Francisco in 1978,

History of Now

How Gay Activists Challenged the Politics of Civility

From pie-throwing to shouting down public figures, these groups disturbed the establishment to effect change

Using an artist's tools and the skills of a scientist, Tangerini makes “art in the service of science.”

The Botanical Artist Who Translates Plant Science Into Beautiful Art

The Smithsonian’s first and only botanical illustrator brings her subjects to life in all their scientific glory

Ricardo Martínez digging up the arm of the dinosaur Ingentia prima in Triassic layers of Balde de Leyes, San Juan Province, Argentina.

New Research

The Most Massive of Dinos Evolved Earlier Than Previously Thought

A Triassic giant unearthed in Argentina suggests that dinosaurs took the path to greatness at least twice

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