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NMAH director John Gray, designer Hervé Pierre, First Lady Melania Trump and Smithsonian secretary David Skorton pose with the silk crepe gown.

Melania Trump Donates Her Inaugural Ball Gown to the Smithsonian

Mrs. Trump, who confesses a passion for design, had a precise idea of what she wanted to wear on that historic evening

Highlighting the breadth of the collection, the exterior of the museum was draped with images of the artworks in the Freer and Sackler Galleries, including Whistler’s famed Peacock Room

Freer|Sackler: Reopens

Here’s What It Takes to Turn a Museum into a Movie Screen

To mark the reopening of the Freer Gallery, the façade of the newly renovated museum made its cinematic debut

The October 21, 1967 March on the Pentagon is remembered as one of the most significant political demonstrations of the era.

Fifty Years Ago, a Rag-Tag Group of Acid-Dropping Activists Tried to “Levitate” the Pentagon

The March on the Pentagon to end the Vietnam War began a turning point in public opinion, but some in the crowd were hoping for a miracle

A juvenile Western chimpanzee in the Bossou Forest of Mont Nimba, Guinea.

New Research

Western Chimpanzees Have Declined By 80 Percent Over The Past 25 Years

The largest population of these animals—the only critically endangered chimp subspecies—sits in a region riddled with bauxite mines

New Research

In 2014, Americans Feared Walking Alone at Night. Now They’re Worried about Government Corruption

A survey on American fears by Chapman University sociologists has produced some surprisingly frightful results

The electric eel is the National Zoo's new main attraction.

Family Travel

The Shocking World of Electric Fishes

Fish like eels use electricity to navigate their worlds

Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in 1967.

History of Now

The Ties That Bind Muhammad Ali to the NFL Protests

A new biography reveals new details about the history of the boxer—“a heavyweight of contradictions”

Robert La Follette

World War I: 100 Years Later

Fake News and Fervent Nationalism Got a Senator Tarred as a Traitor During WWI

The fiery progressive Robert La Follette responded with a classic defense of free speech in wartime

Could This Bionic Vision System Help Restore Sight?

The technology gives hope that blind patients, who lost sight from disease, might one day emerge from the dark

Aimee Stapleton and other researchers at the University of Limerick have found that lysozyme—in tears, saliva, mucus, milk and chicken eggs—accumulates an electric charge when squeezed.

Future of Energy

Your Tears Can Generate Electricity

A protein found in human tears can create electricity when placed under pressure, potentially paving the way for better biomedical devices

How Flowers Manipulate Light to Send Secret Signals to Bees

Come-hither blue haloes are just one of the effects employed by nature’s first nanotechnologists

Climb a 2,500-Rung Ladder Up New Zealand’s Towering Twin Falls

Clip in and follow 3,200 feet of newly-laid cable up this stunning waterfall in Wanaka

Virginia Tech, whose Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) was instrumental in bringing the festival to fruition, exhibited on Day 1 a cutting-edge robotic fabrication system.

These Collegiate Innovators Are at the Vanguard of Technology and Art

A massive three-day festival spotlights the achievements of the Atlantic Coast Conference

The House of Artists is part of Austria's Art Brut Center Gugging.

Austria

How This Vienna Suburb Became the Center of the “Raw Art” Movement

Once a psychiatric clinic, the Art Brut Center Gugging now serves as a museum exhibiting the works of some of the world’s best self-taught artists

From left: The bell tower of the “Fish Church,” in Stamford, Connecticut; the Sculpture Gallery at Philip Johnson’s Glass House, in New Canaan.

Every Modern Architecture Lover Should Take This Three-Day Road Trip

In Connecticut, works by some of the most notable architects of the 20th century are hiding in plain sight. Take the wheel for this sightseeing tour

Could satellites ever prevent natural disasters?

The “Science” Behind “Geostorm”, the Newest Weather-Fueled Doomsday Flick

Researchers have long sought control over the weather, but have yet to find a realistic way to master it

A smart window prototype dims in response to electricity.

Future of Energy

These Windows Tint With a Flick of a Switch

Stanford engineers are developing electric windows that block glare without blocking your view

The Old House Chamber has been used as National Statuary Hall since July 1864.

History of Now

A Senator Speaks Out Against Confederate Monuments… in 1910

Alone in his stand, Weldon Heyburn despised that Robert E. Lee would be memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol

Testing football gear

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Could This Strange Fluid Prevent Concussions and Twisted Ankles?

Army researchers, academics and industry have been using shear thickening fluids for body armor, better football helmets, rehabilitation tools and more

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