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Articles

A cognitive scientist suggests that your baby learns from watching you struggle.

How Your Frustration Helps Your Baby Learn

Watching adults struggle with a difficult task can teach young children the value of hard work

Petit Pli

The Innovative Spirit fy17

These Origami Clothes Grow With Your Child

Designer Ryan Yasin is creating pleated garments that could save on money and waste

The stretchable keyboard cover is designed to make typing truly tactile.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Keyboard Cover Lets Users Actually Feel the Letters They Type

Two college students found a way have a keyboard tap into our muscle memory of the alphabet

Once the track is formed with "people fences" on either side, crossing is strictly prohibited—they believe "cutting" it will upset the deities and lead to accidents during the race. Now with improved transportation in the region, more outsiders visit Dzongsar for the festival and often break this rule.

Check Out These Stunning Photographs of a Tibetan Horseback Sport

Kings in ancient Tibet promoted the sport to save money on military training

Over 130 Factories Get New Lives as Tourist Destinations in Taiwan

From glassblowing to ribbon weaving, baking to soap making, the island offers innovative tourism attractions for every type of visitor

Irregular heart rhythms

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Turning Irregular Heartbeats Into Music

A set of piano pieces could help doctors better understand heart rhythm disorders

Skeleton of the Neanderthal boy recovered from the El Sidrón cave complex (Asturias, Spain).

New Research

Modern Humans and Neanderthals May Be More Similar Than We Imagined

A remarkably preserved 49,000-year-old skeleton shows that Neanderthal kids may have grown slowly, like us

Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) right before the famous match in Battle of the Sexes.

The True Story Behind Billie Jean King’s Victorious “Battle of the Sexes”

Smithsonian sports curator Eric Jentsch offers a look at her legacy beyond the legendary match

Herding the bison into the corral.

Family Travel

Witness a Real-Life Wild West Buffalo Roundup

For one day only, the old West lives on in South Dakota’s Custer State Park

Inside the Rainbow Tunnel.

Family Travel

Follow This Rainbow Tunnel to the World’s Largest Collection of Fluorescent Rocks

Get glowing in the Sterling Hill Mining Museum

The Contemplative Court at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture

The Innovative Spirit fy17

In This Quiet Space for Contemplation, a Fountain Rains Down Calming Waters

One year after the Nation’s first black president rang in the opening of the African American History Museum, visitors reflect on its impact

Mount Hora, the site in Malawi where an 8,100-year-old skeleton was found, yielding the oldest-known DNA from Africa.

New Research

Ancient DNA Helps Scientists Shed Light on How Ancient Africans Moved and Mixed

New techniques help explain why there is little genetic overlap between modern and ancient Malawi people—and promise much more

Two tree frogs share an intimate moment. The eye-popping yellow of the male only emerges in mating season.

The Color-Changing Marvel of Tree Frogs Looking for Love

A new study sheds light on the wild world of “dynamically dichromatic” amphibians

Jim Naughten’s 2017 stereograph, The Toucans, mimics the look of a Victorian image.

Stereographs Were the Original Virtual Reality

The shocking power of immersing oneself in another world was all the buzz once before—about 150 years ago

“As a guard, what I liked about the ABA ball was the color,” said former ABA player Gene Littles. “It was a special feeling to take a long shot and watch those colors rotate in the air and then see the ball with all those colors nestle into the net. It made your heart beat just a little bit faster when you hit a 25-footer with the ABA ball.” -Loose Balls by Terry Pluto

The ABA Was Short-Lived, but Its Impact on Basketball Is Eternal

The spectacular play you see today owes a mighty debt to the revolutionary, slam-dunking basketball league

Ask Smithsonian

When Did East Asian Countries Adopt the Western Calendar and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Eight New Uses For Virtual Reality

Fasten your headsets. VR technology is coming at us from all directions

Don’t overlook immediate safety in a search for something better.

Some of the Best Parts of Autonomous Vehicles Are Already Here

Consumers with high hopes of driverless cars improving safety might be looking past the boring near-term advances that could make a real difference

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