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Femme en Extase (Woman in Ecstacy) (detail) by Ferdinand Hodler, 1911

Around the Globe, Revered Artist Ferdinand Hodler Receives His Due, the Portrait Gallery Joins In

A swirl of dance portraits complement a single Swiss loan of Hodler’s Italian dancer

Thomas Cole's The Course of Empire: Desolation, 1836

The Next Pandemic

How Climate Change and Plague Helped Bring Down the Roman Empire

We can learn crucial lessons by examining the natural forces that shaped Rome’s rise and fall

Ephraim McDowell is memorialized in the U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall Collection

This American Doctor Pioneered Abdominal Surgery by Operating on Enslaved Women

Glorified with a statue in the U.S. Capitol, Ephraim McDowell is a hero in Kentucky, but the full story needs to be told

Conveyor bridges to Bin Structure.

These Photos of the Abandoned Domino Sugar Refinery Document Its Sticky History

A new photography book uncovers the last days (and lasting legacy) of a New York institution

The black-necked spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis) that sprayed venom into Wandege’s eye.

When Science Means Getting Cobra Venom Spat Into Your Eye

How a reptile mix-up and a fortuitous dose of breastmilk helped researchers tap into biodiversity in Africa’s eastern Congo

Artist’s representation of “neglected story on Smithsonian.com.”

The Ten Stories You Didn’t Read in 2017 But Should Have

From music behind prison bars to a San Francisco building with a dark past, here are the top 10 pieces we published last year that deserve another look

Shan Dou (from left), Jonathan Ajo-Franklin, and Nate Lindsey were on a Berkeley Lab team that, in collaboration with researchers from Stanford, used fiber optic cables for detecting earthquakes and other subsurface activity.

Could Fiber Optics Detect Earthquakes?

By monitoring every grumble, shiver and burp our planet makes, researchers hope to be more prepared to take action when things go awry

In World War II America, Female Santas Took the Reins

Rosie the Riveter wasn’t the only woman who pitched in on the homefront

For some Manhattan sybarites, the department store's 1982 bag spelled Christmas.

Finding the Sacks Appeal in a Collection of Holiday Shopping Bags

The Cooper Hewitt’s collection of some 1,000 bags reveals a few with some very cheery holiday scenes

This dinosaur footprint was found in sandstone at Dinosaur Track at Hackberry Canyon in Grand Staircase-Escalante National. A proclamation recently signed by President Trump would reduce the protected area by half.

What Shrinking Fossil-Rich National Monuments Means for Science

Smithsonian.com asks paleontologists how their work will change after the decision to slash Bears Ears and Grand Staircase

The game, designed by Akili Interactive Labs, forces players to make rapid decisions.

Can a Video Game Treat ADHD?

It’s designed to stimulate neural pathways in the brain tied to sustaining attention and controlling impulsivity

The Ten Best Children’s Books of 2017

Our picks are full of silly words, weird animals and unknown histories

Ear prosthesis

Doctors Are 3D Printing Ear Bones To Help With Hearing Loss

By printing custom bone prostheses, researchers hope they can better fix a certain kind of hearing loss

This year's crop of Smithsonian winter shows is as disparate as it is delightful.

This Holiday Season, Make Merry in a Museum

From heavenly light shows to diabolical dollhouses, the Smithsonian’s winter exhibitions offer something for everyone

In the Seeing gallery, decorated walls lit with an alternating series of colored lights reveal just how much a world bathed in white light can differ from one illuminated by blue, green or red.

See the World Through the Eyes of a Butterfly at a New Exhibit on the Senses

The American Museum of Natural History’s newest exhibition reveals how our brains make sense of the world around us

Two nurses observe a young child suspected to have bird flu at an observation room in the Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.

The Next Pandemic

Where Would Pandemic Flu Wreak the Most Havoc?

A virulent flu strain would overwhelm developing countries where health care systems are already floundering

Jimi Hendrix was “a central figure in the history of African-American music,” says Kevin Strait, a historian and curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, home to this gold-brocade vest that the musician wore.

Gone at 27 and Eternally Youthful For the Ages, Jimi Hendrix Would Have Been 75 This Year

A gold-brocade vest at the Smithsonian evokes the innovative musician’s enduring legacy

An artist's rendering of the CP-1 nuclear reactor.

How the First Man-Made Nuclear Reactor Reshaped Science and Society

In December 1942, Chicago Pile-1 ushered in an age of frightening possibility

The FCC ruled against U.S. consumer protections online.

How Other Countries Deal With Net Neutrality

As the U.S. weakens its protections for internet users, it risks falling behind the rest of the world

A macro photo of coralites off Malapascua Island in the Philippines.

The Top Ten Ocean Stories of 2017

From wind turbines to massive sunfish to octopus cities, the seas proved full of surprises this year

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