Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Articles

A pair of bison hang out in the snow at Yellowstone National Park, one of the United States' best spots to see the huge mammals.

American Safaris: Where to See the Biggest Mammals in the U.S.

Go wild for the United States’ largest mammals and take an American Safari

Stephen Durham (left) and his father, Michael Durham, gather shells from Fence Creek in Madison, Connecticut.

Age of Humans

Ancient Oyster Shells Are Windows to the Past

Like thousands of soap-dish-sized Rosetta stones, the shells can reveal clues about the past—if you know what you’re looking for

Researchers fear that these normal monk seal encounters could soon grow deadly.

Why Rare Hawaiian Monk Seals Are Lining Up to Get Their Shots

Fearing devastating disease, researchers are vaccinating a wild marine mammal for the first time

In an artist's interpretation, the forested and warm Late Cretaceous is abruptly destroyed by a six-mile wide asteroid.

Life Bounced Back After the Dinosaurs Perished

The devastation was immediate, catastrophic and widespread, but plants and mammals were quick to take over

The lowly urban rat deserves our attention.

In Defense of Studying City Rats

By placing a taboo on researching these “disease sponges,” we leave ourselves at their mercy

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Can This App Cure Your Fear of Flying?

No, you’re not plummeting from the sky. But the SkyGuru app can help explain why it might feel that way, using real-time flight data

April 5, 2014, Maarat al-Numaan, Idlib. At the time I made this picture, the area was controlled by Jamal Marouf’s Syrian Revolutionaries Front (SRF), but was still contested by Syrian Government forces from their Wadi Deif and Hamadiyah bases about 2K away. SRF, which had recently displaced ISIS from the area, was itself displaced by Al Qaeda Affiliated Jabhat al Nusra (JAN) later in 2014. Wadi Deif and Hamadiyah bases were captured by Islamist rebels including JAN and Ahrar ash-Sham in December of 2014.

Photographer Nish Nalbandian on Bearing Witness to the Violence in the Syrian Civil War

In a new book, “A Whole World Blind,” the American photographer documents the tragedy in the Middle East

The Mechelse Wyandotte, the latest iteration of Koen Vanmechelen's Cosmopolitan Chicken Project

Art Meets Science

Breeding a Better Chicken in the Name of Art (and Science)

For 20 years, Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen has been selectively breeding chickens for his Cosmopolitan Chicken Project

How AltSchool Is Personalizing Education By Collecting Loads of Data on Its Students

Ex-Googler Max Ventilla founded AltSchool to prepare students for the 21st century. Now, he’s spreading his model and software to partner schools

Parliament Funkadelic Mothership, "Musical Crossroads" exhibition

Breaking Ground

Exclusive Photography From Inside the African American History Museum Offers a Hint of What Is to Come

Architecture photographer Jason Flakes brings his unique lens to the Smithsonian’s brand new museum

An artist's representation of the Akelarre.

Visit the Site of the Biggest Witch Trial in History

Over 7,000 people were accused of witchcraft in Basque Spain

Coated in a conductive polymer material, this half-inch square of fabric contains an array of six rectangular solar cells.

Future of Energy

A Chemist and a Designer Team Up to Weave Solar Panels Into Fabric

Trisha Andrew and Marianne Fairbanks are developing a solar textile that could end up in clothing, curtains, car seats and tents

Empress Green is a 4,500-square foot urban farm located at Urby Staten Island, a 900-apartment complex in New York City.

Meet the Woman Who Runs NYC’s First Commercial Farm in a Residential Development

Wouldn’t it be great if all apartment complexes came with an urban farm?

A sculpture of Hendrick Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid in South Africa.

How Should South Africa Remember the Architect of Apartheid?

Fifty years after H.F. Verwoerd was assassinated in Parliament, the nation he once presided over reckons with its past

A beta version of the 3D interactive exhibit that is set to open in 2017.

Breaking Ground

Google Is Redefining 3D Tech at the New African American History Museum

Next spring, visitors will interact with artifacts beyond those in the physical exhibitions

Batang and her infant are doing well and Zoo staff report she is nursing the new male Bornean orangutan.

UPDATE: Meet the National Zoo’s Latest Bouncing Baby—an Orangutan (New Video)

A historical birth of a male Bornean orangutan, the first in 25 years, took place in Washington, D.C.

It is thought that Nat Turner was holding this Bible when he was captured two months after the rebellion he led against slaveholders in Southampton County, Virginia.

Breaking Ground

Nat Turner’s Bible Gave the Enslaved Rebel the Resolve to Rise Up

A Bible belonging to the enslaved Turner spoke of possibility says curator Rex Ellis of the National Museum of African American History and Culture

Ask Smithsonian: How Does the World Look to the Color Blind?

Most people who are color blind can see colors, they just have trouble distinguishing between specific kinds

Page 454 of 1324