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Anna Murray Douglass helped Frederick escape from slavery, and continued to support his abolitionist work for the rest of her life.

Women Who Shaped History

The Hidden History of Anna Murray Douglass

Although she’s often overshadowed by her husband, Frederick Douglass, Anna made his work possible

More women than men were left standing after the war and pandemic.

Women Who Shaped History

How the 1918 Flu Pandemic Helped Advance Women’s Rights

While the virus disproportionately affected young men, women stepped into public roles that hadn’t previously been open to them

A large female Greenland shark observed near the community of Arctic Bay, Nunavut.

New Research

The World’s Most Ancient, Elusive Sharks Were Finally Caught on Video

Greenland sharks, which can live more than 400 years, reveal how little we know about life in the coldest oceans

President Lyndon Johnson constituted the Kerner Commission to identify the genesis of the violent 1967 riots that killed 43 in Detroit and 26 in Newark (above, soldiers in a Newark storefront), while causing fewer casualties in 23 other cities.

The 1968 Kerner Commission Got It Right, But Nobody Listened

Released 50 years ago, the infamous report found that poverty and institutional racism were driving inner-city violence

Ruth (Woodworth) Creveling, US Navy Yeoman (F), 1917-1920

During World War I, Many Women Served and Some Got Equal Pay

Remembering the aspirations, struggles and accomplishments of women who served a century ago

Kinorhynchs (aka mud dragons) range in size from about 0.13 to one millimeter. Like other meiofauna species, they are integral parts of marine food chains in sediments throughout the world.

King of the Mud Dragons

Robert Higgins has spent his career dredging out tiny creatures from dirt and obscurity

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Women Who Shaped History

Women Who Shaped History

Collecting the stories of women who forever changed the course of the American story

An endocast revealing the brain of an Iguanodon, an herbivorous dinosaur of the early Cretaceous period. This was the first fossilized dinosaur brain found by modern scientists, announced in 2016.

Women Who Shaped History

The Woman Who Shaped the Study of Fossil Brains

By drawing out hidden connections, Tilly Edinger joined the fields of geology and neurology

The Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial in Knoxville is a start to what should be a nationwide trend.

Women Who Shaped History

Why We Need to Start Building Monuments to Groundbreaking Women

The brilliant female codebreakers of WWII were forgotten to history, but would that have happened had they been recognized with the same fervor as men?

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders director Kelli Finglass (left) peruses the donated materials with current DCC captains Jinelle (middle) and KaShara (right). Foregrounded are the original uniform sketches of designer Paula Van Wagoner.

A Classic American Cheerleading Troupe Tumbles to Smithsonian Immortality

“America’s Sweethearts” are as dedicated to social service as they are to the Dallas Cowboys

A scene from Hulu's "The Looming Tower"

There’s Great Drama Within the Truths of “The Looming Tower”

How filmmaker Alex Gibney brought a documentarian’s eye to the story of the 9/11 attacks

Moviegoers familiarize themselves with the joystick that will allow them to interact with the film I’m Your Man during its premiere on Dec. 16, 1992.

Smell-O-Vision, Astrocolor and Other Film Industry Inventions That Proved To Be Flops

Sound, color and special effects transformed the moviegoing experience. These innovations decidedly did not.

Nicknamed the Hand of God, this pulsar wind nebula is powered by a pulsar: the leftover, dense core of a star that blew up in a supernova explosion. Before astronomers had any idea what they were, Jocelyn Bell Burnell found the signal of a pulsar in her telescope data in 1967.

Women Who Shaped History

Fifty Years Ago, a Grad Student’s Discovery Changed the Course of Astrophysics

By identifying the first pulsars, Jocelyn Bell Burnell set the stage for discoveries in black holes and gravitational waves

Set to land in mid 2018, the new mosquito emoji will give people a new way to talk about the dangerous insects.

Will a New Mosquito Emoji Create Some Buzz About Insect-borne Diseases?

Available in mid-2018, the emoji could provide a new means for communicating the science and health implications of mosquitoes

Will a New Law Forever Change the German Language?

When a language is strongly gendered, it can raise all sorts of challenges to a society that’s increasingly accepting of a wide spectrum of identities

Hawaii’s Last Outlaw Hippies

After half a century, the counterculture squatters of Kalalau Valley are facing a final eviction

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