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Articles

A green bluebottle fly, part of the Calliphoridae family of carrion flies.

How Fly Guts Are Helping Researchers Catalog the Rainforest

These tiny, buzzing lab assistants provide scientists with a treasure trove of conservation data

How the Narwhal Got Its Tusk

According to Inuit storytelling tradition, the narwhal was once an evil stepmother, who wove her hair into a tusk

Salt caverns make good energy storage reservoirs as they are impermeable and don't react with oxygen.

Why Salt Is This Power Plant’s Most Valuable Asset

Compressed air energy storage can help keep the grid running and pave the way for renewables

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Japan’s Surrender in WWII Ushered in a New World Order

On September 2, 1945, Japan delivered its unconditional surrender in WWII. Twelve million American troops went home as civilians

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A Brief History of Eclipse Chasers

They also go by umbraphiles, coronaphiles, eclipsoholics and ecliptomaniacs

In a healthy reef, coral symbionts make food for the coral animal.

A Blueprint for Genetically Engineering a Super Coral

Why some researchers are proposing a drastic measure to save a threatened ecosystem

Christylez Bacon at the Opening Ceremony of the 2017 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Christylez Bacon on Finding His Voice through Music

The Grammy-nominated artist takes inspiration from weaving together seemingly disparate musical forms

Parisite-(La), a carbon-bearing mineral that was predicted by computer model before it was discovered.

Big Data (and You) Could Help Find 1,500 Undiscovered Minerals

Researchers are using new tools to predict where to find new minerals as well as to locate new sources of valuable resources like copper

An arachnid in the trapdoor spider family, a group known for its snug and potentially even ocean-going burrows.

New Research

How One Brave Spider Floated Thousands of Miles to Colonize a New Continent

Improbably, new genetic analysis shows that trapdoor spiders may have ridden ocean currents from Africa to Australia

Musk ox have laid claim to this tundra for thousands of years, but today they face new threats. Joel Berger is determined to find out just what they are.

Future of Conservation

To Understand the Elusive Musk Ox, Researchers Must Become Its Worst Fear

How posing as a grizzly helps one biologist grasp the threats facing this ancient beast

The algal scrubber in action.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Smithsonian Scientists Are Using Algae to Revitalize America’s Waterways

Walter Adey’s algal turf scrubber filters pollutants to clean water

Did a Nazi Submarine Attack a Chemical Plant in North Carolina?

Multiple eyewitnesses say that one night in 1943, their calm, quiet beach briefly became a war zone

While presidents have the power to pardon, their decision to use it isn't always popular. Just look at this anti-Ford button made in response to his pardoning of Richard Nixon.

History of Now

A Brief History of Presidential Pardons

The power bestowed upon the chief executive to excuse past misdeeds has involved a number of famous Americans

Michael Twitty, a culinary historian and living-history interpreter at the Stagville Plantation in Durham, North Carolina.

Food Historian Reckons With the Black Roots of Southern Food

In his new book, Michael Twitty shares the contributions that enslaved African-Americans and their descendants have made to southern cuisine

Facial recognition technology has the potential to violate privacy or just really freak people out, but it also has the potential to do good.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Big Brother Knows What You Look Like, and That’s OK?

Some uses for rapidly-improving facial-recognition technology are more benign than scary

On Earth, creatures from sharks to snails to these coral polyps light up the darkness. Are glowing aliens really that far-fetched?

Life in the Cosmos

Could We See Glow-in-the-Dark Aliens From Earth?

Extraterrestrial life might make its own light to protect itself from harmful radiation

Armenia

Each Summer, These Armenian Villages Are Taken Over by Hundreds of White Storks

Villagers participate in a “Nest Neighbors” program to monitor the health of their new house guests

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