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Water water everywhere, and not a day to think.

How Coastal Cities Are Evolving to Deal With Extreme Rain

Facing the specter of more and worse rainstorms, these vulnerable areas are turning to innovative urban design

SoftBank's humanoid robot "Pepper" can lead funerals.

Nine Tasks Robots Can Do That May Surprise You

Machines can cook your dinner, fill your prescriptions, make your shoes and much, much more

Scientists can study stress in these petite primates with simply a few strands of their hair.

New Research

Stress Is Killing These Teeny Lemurs, and The Story Is In Their Hair

Sampling the fur of Madagascar’s gray mouse lemurs reveal a bevy of environmental pressures

This is Harlem, 1943

Why the Works of Visionary Artist Jacob Lawrence Still Resonate a Century After His Birth

His vibrant and bold paintings tell stories of liberation, resistance and resilience

A development test model of the Voyager spacecraft looms large in the Air and Space Museum's Exploring the Planets gallery.

Forty Years Later, the Voyager Spacecraft Remain Beacons of Human Imagination

Remembering the mission that opened Earth’s eyes to the vastness and wonder of space

A baby gray whale surfaces in Magdalena Bay, Baja, Mexico.

A Whale’s Baleen Bristles Reveal the Story of Its Life

Like tree rings, these layered plates hold chemical clues to how the animals adapt to a changing world

When the moment came to ring the Freedom Bell alongside President Obama and the First Lady, Ruth Bonner was overjoyed.

Ruth Odom Bonner, Who Rang the Freedom Bell With President Obama, Passes Away at 100

Looking back on the redoubtable woman who helped inaugurate the African American History Museum

The first Labor Day was hardly a national holiday. Workers had to strike to celebrate it.

Striking Union Workers Turned the First Labor Day Into a Networking Event

The end-of-summer holiday was designed to spur overworked Americans to meet up, picnic and call for fairer labor laws

Link Wray

‘Rumble’ Aims to Upset the Rock ‘n’ Roll Canon

A documentary based on a Smithsonian exhibition is wowing festival audiences

19 Fall Festivals in Canada to Get You Excited for Sweater Weather

Enjoy autumn with our neighbors to the North

Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park

See the Most Northerly Active Sand Dunes in the World

The Athabasca Sand Dunes are a geological oddity in northern Canada

The Queen's Head, Yehliu Geological Park

Taiwan’s Yehliu Geopark Is Like Disneyland for Rock Lovers

These mushroom-like mounds are some of the country’s greatest geological treasures

Hitler Youth members burn books. Photograph dated 1938.

A Brief History of Book Burning, From the Printing Press to Internet Archives

As long as there have been books, people have burned them—but over the years, the motivation has changed

To the naked eye, the Albireo star system looks like a single, brilliant star. In reality, this binary system consists of two stars, similar to the ones witnessed by Korean astronomers nearly 600 years ago.

New Research

The Secret Lives of Cannibal Stars Revealed, Thanks to 15th Century Korean Astronomers

For the first time ever, astrophysicists observe the entire life cycle of a binary star system

It's too early to know the sexes of the baby armadillos, but one thing is clear: they're darling.

Once You See These Brand New “Screaming Armadillo” Pups, You’ll Be Screaming Too

No armor is impervious to this cuteness now at the National Zoo

Printed graphene supercapacitor

Future of Energy

Flexible Batteries May Soon Be Printed Right On Your Clothes

Graphene supercapacitors, printed directly on textiles, could power medical devices, wearable computers, even phone-charging shirts

What is it about cheap eats, long hours, counters, and booths that so consistently captures the American imagination?

The Mystique of the American Diner, From Jack Kerouac to “Twin Peaks”

Freedom, fear and friendliness mingle in these emblematic eateries

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