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Articles

Headed for export?

Why Don’t We Eat Turkey Tails?

The strange story speaks volumes about our globalized food system—you’ll be surprised where the unwanted parts end up

Your Guide to Seeing the Northern Lights in Alaska

There are good reasons why you won't see a Siamese fighting fish swimming this way in the wild.

The Evolutionary Reason Why Fish Don’t Swim Upside Down

It’s a natural question for animals that float, but few scientists have delved into the details

American Girl by Emma Amos, from the portfolio "Impressions: Our World, Volume I," 1974

Women Who Shaped History

Why Making a Portrait of a Black Woman Was a Form of Protest

For Emma Amos, an African-American artist working in the 1970s, the personal was often political

Corpsmen in cap and gown ready to attend patients in influenza ward of US Naval Hospital in Mare Island, California, December 10, 1918.

The Next Pandemic

The United States Is Not Ready for Another Flu Pandemic

You might think that today, if a pandemic like the 1918 flu hit, we’d be ready for it. You’d be wrong

A demonstration at the Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Station in Washington, D.C., during the influenza pandemic of 1918

The Next Pandemic

Why Did the 1918 Flu Kill So Many Otherwise Healthy Young Adults?

Uncovering a World War I veteran’s story provided a genealogist and pharmacologist with some clues

One of the new trees in the Future Library forest.

After 100 Years, This Entire Forest Will Be Turned into Mystery Manuscripts

Hike through Norway’s future library, currently in the form of baby trees

A solar and battery-powered microgrid got San Juan’s Children’s Hospital quickly back online after Hurricane Maria.

Future of Energy

Why Puerto Rico’s Power Can’t Come From Solar ‘Microgrids’ Alone

The island could benefit from on-site solar and battery backup, but the strategy isn’t a cure-all for its energy woes

The exhibition "Sports: Leveling the Playing Field" highlights the achievements of African American athletes on both national and international stages.

Lonnie Bunch Looks Back on the Making of the Smithsonian’s Newest Museum

The director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture reflects on what it took to make a dream reality

A 1939 photo of German Jewish refugees aboard the German liner Saint Louis.

Women in Science

The Forgotten Women Scientists Who Fled the Holocaust for the United States

A new project from Northeastern University traces the journeys of 80 women who attempted to escape Europe and find new lives in America during World War II

Crested pigeons make an awful racket when they take off—but where's it coming from?

New Research

Australian Pigeons Have a Specially Evolved Feather to Better Annoy the Heck Out of You With

Pinpointing the birds’ noisemakers could help researchers better understand why urban avians make so much dang noise

The sKan device detects minute temperature changes associated with melanoma.

This Inexpensive Scanning Device Could Catch Skin Cancer Early

A team of biomedical engineers has won this year’s Dyson Award for “the sKan,” which detects the thermal changes associated with melanoma

A poster from the Vichy period shows a disintegrating France on the left, with words like "communism" and "Jewishness" causing the foundation to crumble. On the right are the words of Pétain's France: work, family, fatherland.

Was Vichy France a Puppet Government or a Willing Nazi Collaborator?

The authoritarian government led by Marshal Pétain participated in Jewish expulsions and turned France into a quasi-police state

In her second book, The Sexes Throughout Nature, Blackwell argued that while male lions are physically larger and stronger, female lions were “more complex in structure and in functions” through their ability to reproduce and feed their young.

The Woman Who Challenged Darwin’s Sexism

How a preacher with no scientific training ended up writing the first feminist critique of Origins

A demonstration of the technology, with the light fabric sewn into a onesie

These Light-Emitting Pajamas Could Help Treat Newborns With Jaundice

The method has an advantage over traditional phototherapy in that it allows babies to receive treatment in the comfort of their parents’ arms

When we first saw these two figures together at the Met's Mbembe art show in 2014, says the Smithsonian's Kevin Dumouchelle, "it was clear these works likely were from the same slit gong."

Two Enigmatic Nigerian Figures Reunited After a Century Apart

One of many highlights in a new exhibition at the National Museum of African Art

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