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Workers from the Kenya Wildlife Service carry elephant tusks from shipping containers full of ivory transported from around the country for a mass anti-poaching demonstration.

New Research

Most Ivory for Sale Comes From Recently Killed Elephants—Suggesting Poaching Is Taking Its Toll

Carbon dating finds that almost all trafficked ivory comes from animals killed less than three years before their tusks hit the market

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

A Photojournalist Captures Dramatic Portraits of Dancers in the Streets of Cuba

For Gabriel Davalos, photography is about storytelling

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Lime Marinade, Cohiba Cigar Cases and Other Unique Gifts You Can Buy in Cuba

The three-spine stickleback usually forages and builds its nest near the lake bottom. But in Enos Lake, it appears to have merged with a related species that spends its time near the surface.

Extinction or Evolution? The Answer Isn’t Always Clear

The same factors that kill off some species cause others to evolve at lightning speed

That looks nutritious.

Everyone Poops. Some Animals Eat It. Why?

Consuming feces can benefit not only the health and microbiomes of some animals, but also their environments

SPS-ALPHA concept and visualization

Future of Energy

What’s Next for Solar Energy? How About Space

Scientists are closer than ever to making the far-out concept of a space-based solar collection system a reality

Smoking leaves permanent scars on cells, new research finds.

New Research

Smoking a Pack a Day for a Year Leaves 150 Mutations in Every Lung Cell

Researchers quantify just how bad smoking is for you, molecularly

Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks before a game at Wrigley Field, 1957

If Only Ernie Had Seen It. Here’s Why “Mr. Cub” Is Part of the 2016 World Series Win

From Smithsonian Books, a treasure of baseball history for those who can’t wait for spring training

Korda captured this iconic image of the Cuban revolutionary by chance.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

The Story Behind Che’s Iconic Photo

Fashion photographer Alberto Korda took Che Guevara’s pictures hundreds of times in the 1960s. One stuck

How does a lizard that looks like a rose stem mated with a cactus suck water out of the desert?

New Research

This Spike-Crested Lizard Drinks From Sand With Its Skin

The thirsty, thorny devils of Australia’s deserts can’t quench their thirst with tongues alone

Gary Hart campaign (photo by Ken Regan), 1984

The Swag and Swagger Behind American Presidential Campaigns

From a coloring book to a painted axe, election ephemera remind us of the hard-fought elections of long ago

Ian Marcos Gutiérrez, a 23-year-old printer at the Taller Experimental de Gráfica, in Havana, helps the author prepare a block of lithographic limestone for printing.

Step Inside Cuba’s Oldest Printmaking Studio

At the Taller Experimental de Gráfica in Havana, process is everything

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District is working with dairy farms to provide on-site digesters for manure.

Future of Energy

Why Anaerobic Digestion Is Becoming the Next Big Renewable Energy Source

A food-to-electricity plant in England is just one in a string of local efforts to make waste less wasteful

A black and white ruffed lemur in Madagascar's Vakona Forest Reserve. Worldwide, primates are particularly prone to overhunting, according to the first global assessment of bush meat hunting trends.

A New Report Says We’re Hunting the World’s Mammals to Death. What Can Be Done?

Solutions are multifaceted and region-specific, but conservation researchers have some ideas

Simple, yet effective.

Why Public Health Researchers Are Looking to Urban Trees

A global study finds they can help cool cities and reduce air pollution—for less money than high-tech answers

Whoever dies with the most friends wins? It's complicated.

New Research

Facebook Might Help You Live Longer, According to Facebook Researchers

It depends on whether online social ties strengthen real-world social ties, which are known to be good for your health

Xudong Wang and his team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have invented a new type of flooring that converts footsteps into usable energy.

Future of Energy

Move Over Solar: There’s New Energy Right At Our Feet

Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are turning wood pulp, a common waste material, into a flooring that generates electricity

The Story of How McDonald’s First Got Its Start

From the orange groves of California, two brothers sought a fortune selling burgers

Brian Helmuth and his lab at Northeastern University engineered the little black data loggers from polyester resin.

Robot Shellfish May Tell Us About Climate Change’s Impact on Marine Species

Climate scientists at Northeastern University have developed “robomussels” with sensors to track temperatures in mussel beds

Three Taíno Indian sisters pose during a family pig roast in eastern Cuba, where there’s a small but growing movement to explore the indigenous culture that Columbus encountered in 1492.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Searching for Cuba’s Pre-Columbian Roots

A newfound quest for identity has led some Cubans to reclaim their Taíno Indian heritage

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