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Articles

Yellow Landscape, Isamu Noguchi, 1943, magnesite, wood, string, metal fishing weight

To Bear Witness to Japanese Internment, One Artist Self-Deported Himself to the WWII Camps

The inhumanity brought on by Executive Order 9066 spurred Isamu Noguchi to action

Stanford researcher Michael Snyder led a study on how wearable sensors could help predict illnesses.

What If an App Could Tell You When You’re Getting Sick?

A Stanford geneticist may be onto something. Body data collected by smartwatches and other sensors can tip us off to brewing colds or infections

North Sense, about a square inch in size and enclosed in body-compatible silicone, can be anchored to the chest via titanium piercings.

This Artificial Sixth Sense Helps Humans Orient Themselves in the World

A London-based company is selling North Sense, a body-anchored device that vibrates when it faces magnetic north

The doormouse hibernates to conserve resources in harsh conditions. Similarly, scientists envision humans hibernating to endure long-distance space travel.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Can Humans Ever Harness the Power of Hibernation?

Scientists want to know if astronauts can hibernate during long spaceflights. First, they need to understand what hibernation is

The rainbow at the top right in the window of the Lansdowne Portrait of George Washington (detail) was an 18th century symbol of God's blessings.

Inauguration History

Why America Has a “President” Instead of an “Exalted Highness”

The title just used to mean someone who presided over a meeting

The responsive-design website fits your phone, tablet and computer and can be used to make an itinerary for easy printout and planning.

Take a Smithsonian Tour of All Things Presidential

Here’s how to locate official presidential portraits, works of art, material culture and campaign memorabilia across the Smithsonian

Carl Laemmle in 1918

This Hollywood Titan Foresaw the Horrors of Nazi Germany

Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures, wrote hundreds of affidavits to help refugees escape Europe

As his ancestors have done for generations, Icelander Árni Hilmarsson catches an Atlantic puffin in a net called a háfur.

Disappearing Puffins Bring an Icelandic Hunting Tradition Under Scrutiny

Historically, hunting seabirds has been a distinctive feature of Nordic coastal culture. Should it still be?

Being stuck in a crowd can be an overwhelming experience. Physicists and computer scientists bring some order to the chaos.

How Fluid Dynamics Can Help You Navigate Crowds

If you plan to be in a seething mass of humans at some point—whether it’s an inauguration or protest thereof—here’s how to keep yourself safe

Anti-war demonstrators raise their hands toward the White House as they protest the shootings at Kent State University and the U.S. incursion into Cambodia, on May 9, 1970.

History of Now

Eleven Times When Americans Have Marched in Protest on Washington

Revisiting some of the country’s most memorable uses of the right to assemble

Have Scientists Found a Way to Actually Reduce the Effects of Aging?

Researchers at the Salk Institute in California have successfully induced cells to behave like younger cells

Macaques and humans seem to share the strength of knowing the limits of what they know.

New Research

A Wise Monkey Knows How Little He Knows

Japanese scientists find that macaque monkeys, like humans, know the limits of their own memory

Inauguration History

Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Presidential Food?

In honor of Inauguration Day, here’s a little quiz to see how much you know about presidential food history

Smallmouth salamanders reproduce sexually, which may give them certain advantages.

New Research

When Is Sex Worth Going the Distance? When You’re a Salamander, Apparently

Asexual amphibians may be less equipped to handle modern threats than their sexual counterparts

Creatures so small that they had been overlooked in the past—sea urchins, Echinometra viridis, (above) the size of ping-pong balls and a diminutive species of parrotfish, Scarus iseri, were grazing algae on the reef.

These Itsy-Bitsy Herbivores Could Stage a Huge Coral Reef Rescue

Tiny parrotfish and sea urchins can take over the job of their larger cousins to keep a reef free of algae

Joint press conference

In the Darkest Days of World War II, Winston Churchill’s Visit to the White House Brought Hope to Washington

Never has overstaying one’s welcome been so important

Tony Lu prepares a dish.

Atlas of Eating

Meet the Michelin-Starred Chef Pushing the Limits of Vegetarian Cuisine in China

Master chef Tony Lu discusses China’s changing tastes and his own innovative approach to ‘Vegetarian Fusion’

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