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The olm, or cave dragon, is the largest cave-adapted animal in Europe. These strange creatures spend their entire lives in caves, and face threats from pollution runoff from agriculture and chemical plants on the surface.

Future of Conservation

Cave Dragons Exist—And Saving Them Could Be Key to Protecting Drinking Water

New DNA techniques are letting researchers track down the largest, strangest cave animals in the world

Despite being largely forgotten today, Lowell Thomas was a pioneering journalist of the 20th century who reshaped news media.

History of Now

The Forgotten Man Who Transformed Journalism in America

Lowell Thomas was the first host of a TV broadcast news program, and adopted a number of other new technologies to make his mark in the 20th century

A Pack Horse Librarian returning over the mountain side for a new supply of books

Horse-Riding Librarians Were the Great Depression’s Bookmobiles

During the Great Depression, a New Deal program brought books to Kentuckians living in remote areas

The sun may get all the attention, but our lunar lodestar helps creatures navigate the swells and tides of ocean life.

How Moonlight Sets Nature’s Rhythms

Lunar luster triggers mating orgies, guides travelers and even can even provoke magical transformations

In 2001, Smithsonian scientists Doug Owsley and Kari Bruwelheide traveled to the Grove in Glenview, Illinois, Robert Kennicott's boyhood home, to open the naturalist's casket and determine the cause of his death.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Two Smithsonian Scientists Retrace the Mysterious Circumstances of an 1866 Death and Change History

Did the 19th-century naturalist Robert Kennicott die of his own hand?

Secret Tunnels Under London, Once Used to Hide Art During WWI, Open to the Public for the First Time

Explore the 6.5-mile-long network of hidden mail tunnels starting this July

French American Music and Dance, 1983

Commentary

After 50 Years of Song, Dance, Food, Even Hog Calling, at the Folklife Festival, Is It Still Worthwhile?

Recognizing traditional culture in the information age is ever more important argues the director of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

For the times that licking an ice cream cone is too difficult, this patented motorized ice cream cone does the work for you. Happy summer.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Motorized Ice Cream Cones and Floating Campgrounds: 14 of the Wackiest Summer Fun Patents

Inventors never stop thinking of new ways to have fun, as these 14 patents show.

In 2001, Smithsonian scientists Doug Owsley and Kari Bruwelheide traveled to the Grove in Glenview, Illinois, Robert Kennicott's boyhood home, to open the naturalist's casket and determine the cause of his death.

Smithsonian’s Behind-the-Scenes ‘Sidedoor’ Podcast Returns for Second Season

New episodes explore a 150-year-old cold case, the history of beer, war photography and more

A young padawan asks astrophysicist Erin Macdonald a question at a Future Con panel. This year, Smithsonian's Future Con took place as a special programming track within Awesome Con, leading to a number of serendipitous moments like this.

When Cutting-Edge Science Meets Science Fiction, It Packs the House

At Future Con, fans of sci-fi, fantasy and comics met the researchers and engineers who are bringing their stories to life

The advantages of coins as currency were clear.

Making Cents of Currency’s Ancient Rise

Cash has been king for over 40,000 years

For 19th-century American bakers—who slaved for hours trying to make their doughs rise and their cakes puff up—the advent of baking powder was a revolution in a can.

The Great Uprising: How a Powder Revolutionized Baking

Before baking powder hit the scene in 1856, making cake was not a piece of cake

Natural Phenomenon Creates Awesome Waterslide at Great Sand Dunes National Park

Each spring and early summer, melting snow creates waves in Colorado

Bronze sculpture of Mercy Otis Warren stands in front of Barnstable County Courthouse, Massachusetts.

The Woman Whose Words Inflamed the American Revolution

Mercy Otis Warren used her wit to agitate for independence

Baskets of local fruit for sale in Niagara, Ontario. Peaches are more frequently being grown in cold-weather climates like Canada as climate change affects the viability of crops.

Canadian Peaches and California Coffee: How Farmers Are Being Forced to Innovate in the Face of Climate Change

As the climate changes and global temperatures rise, farmers are having to change cultivation techniques and sometimes even crops.

Piri Thomas by Máximo Colón, 1972

Why Piri Thomas’ Coming of Age Memoir Still Resonates Today

“Down These Mean Streets” was an instant classic, a text of painful truths

Cyanobacteria, sometimes known as blue-green algae, are single-celled organisms that use photosynthesis to produce food just like plants do.

New Research

Need to Fix a Heart Attack? Try Photosynthesis

Injecting plant-like creatures into a rat’s heart can jumpstart the recovery process, study finds

Cats rule the world. But how did they get here?

New Research

How Cats Conquered the World

Scientists use 9,000 years of feline genetics to chart their global rise to power

“The Southern BBQ Trail” episode.

Come for the Bug Eating and Get a Lesson in Humanity from Andrew Zimmern

A Q&A with the Travel Channel’s ‘Bizarre Foods’ Chef

“I felt that I was always connected to the world and the people of the world, and that activism was in me from a very young age,” Ono says.

The Long and Winding Road of Yoko Ono’s Art

A Hirshhorn exhibition of four works opens the same week Ono is credited, 46 years later, as a co-writer of the chart-topping ballad “Imagine.”

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