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Where to Go if You Want to See Manhattanhenge in 2017

It’s the most anticipated sunset of the year

Ask Smithsonian 2017

How Does Earth’s Geomagnetic Field Work?

You asked, we answered

A mid-air tourist flight. The author is second from the left.

The Future of Zero-Gravity Living Is Here

Entrepreneurs predict there will be thousands of us living and working in space. Our correspondent takes off to see what that feels like

Children of the ‘80s Never Fear: Video Games Did Not Ruin Your Life

Inside the ridiculous media panic that scared parents silly

"We saw kids who created hands that had solid, non-moving opposable joints," says Tim Pula (left) from the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation .

The Innovative Spirit fy17

The Next Generation of Military Prosthetics Is Breaking New Ground

At the Smithsonian’s Military Invention Day, visitors experienced how military innovation is helping society

John F. Kennedy meeting with Soviet politician Nikita Khrushchev.

Top Hats, James Bond and a Shipwreck: Seven Fun Facts About John F. Kennedy

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of JFK’s birth, a look at his extraordinary life

In 1971, Folkways Recordings released the album Raimon: Catalonian Protest Songs, and in the liner notes, Pete Seeger wrote: “Censors, in every corner of this world, tend to be shallow, literal-minded people. Raimon is a poet. There is no need to say more.”

This Catalan Folk Singer Refused to Bow to Oppression

The director of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage recognizes the lifetime work of the singer activist Raimon

DNA barcoding, as the name suggests, was designed to make identifying a species as simple as scanning a supermarket barcode.

Future of Conservation

The Key to Protecting Life on Earth May Be Barcoding It

An easier way to read DNA is helping scientists tease apart species and ecosystems in nuanced ways

Hay Festival 2016

More Than 250,000 Bibliophiles Are About to Descend on “The Town of Books”

The Hay Festival of Literature kicks of its 30th anniversary festival in Wales

Mr. Darcy, the socially awkward love interest in Pride and Prejudice, has been retroactively diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, but a new wave of fiction casts people with autism in a new light.

Why Your Next Favorite Fictional Protagonist Might Be on the Autism Spectrum

Fiction can reframe misunderstood mental conditions like autism

Aubrey de Grey says, “There’s no such thing as aging gracefully.”

Can Human Mortality Really Be Hacked?

Backed by the digital fortunes of Silicon Valley, biotech companies are brazenly setting out to “cure” aging

Bjarke Ingels

Bjarke Ingels Makes the Impossible Concrete

The star architect is mapping out a new daring plan for the Smithsonian

How Mastiffs Became the World’s Top Dogs

The large, furry dogs of Tibet took an evolutionary shortcut millenia ago

From the Batpod to the Batcomputer, the Caped Crusader's gadgets use up a whole lot of energy and spew a whole lot of carbon. But when it comes to carbon footprints, Gotham's techiest hero has nothing on some of pop culture's other saviors.

Age of Humans

Which of Your Favorite Superheroes Is Destroying the Earth?

Measuring the carbon footprints of your favorite comic book heroes, from Batman to Jessica Jones

Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge as Bill Murray Reads You Poetry This June

65 East 125th Street, Harlem by Camilo José Vergara, 1977

Watch How One Harlem Storefront Changes Over Nearly Four Decades

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s new exhibition goes “Down These Mean Streets”

A prosthetic hand outfitted with an inexpensive webcam lets its user grab objects with less effort.

Prosthetic Limb ‘Sees’ What Its User Wants to Grab

Adding computer vision and deep learning to a prosthetic makes it far more effective

Main chamber.

Europe

Malta’s Hypogeum, One of the World’s Best Preserved Prehistoric Sites, Reopens to the Public

The complex of excavated cave chambers includes a temple, cemetery and funeral hall

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