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Articles

Watch What These Soft Robots Can Do

Scientists are making bendy robots that can squeeze into small spaces and grip objects of any shape

A woman performs the Namaskara gesture, a traditional Indian greeting with hands in front of chest and a slight bow.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: India

The Secret Language of Hands in Indian Iconography

Unlock the meaning of these ancient gestures

A 19th-century illustration depicts a scene off the coast of Peru, where bird poop, or guano, was harvested as a valuable agricultural fertilizer.

How the Gold Rush Led to Real Riches in Bird Poop

The ships carrying gold miners to California found a way to strike it rich on the way back with their holds full of guano

Artist Gary Staab and his team spent roughly 2,000 hours over five months to create the first of three models.

Art Meets Science

An Artist Creates a Detailed Replica of Ötzi, the 5,300-Year-Old “Iceman”

Museum artist Gary Staab discusses the art and science of constructing exhibition pieces

High in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, scientists and hunters are unlikely allies in an effort to protect the endangered snow leopard before it vanishes.

Hunters Become Conservationists in the Fight to Protect the Snow Leopard

A pioneering program recruits locals as rangers in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, where the elusive cat is battling for survival

Beluga whales blow bubbles.

Why Do Beluga Whales Blow Bubbles?

The animal’s whimsical pastime offers insight into the mammalian brain

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Is the Earthworm Native to the United States and More Questions From Readers

You asked, we answered

Palm oil is extracted from the fruit of oil palm trees.

Giving Up Palm Oil Might Actually Be Bad for the Environment

The trouble with the maligned crop isn’t its popularity, but where it’s planted

Steve Wozniak’s Apple I Booted Up a Tech Revolution

With only a circuit board, keyboard and tiny, blurry monitor, the circa 1975 computer looks crude by today’s standards

The Super Cao Nguyen supermarket, founded by Vietnamese immigrants in 1979, offers fresh fish to landlocked seafood lovers.

Oklahoma City Is Becoming a Hotspot for Vietnamese Food

Southeast Asian immigrants are spicing up America’s fast-food capital with banh mi, curried frogs’ legs and pho

To Mapplethorpe, flowers offered a way to broaden his appeal. Parrot Tulips, 1988

Robert Mapplethorpe Could Make Even Tulips Erotic

LACMA and the J. Paul Getty Museum will be showcasing the photographer’s lesser known flower portraits

Did ADHD Play a Role in George Gershwin’s Eclectic Style?

The composer himself seemed to see a link between his restlessness and his art

Dennis the Menace

Dennis the Menace Has an Evil British Twin

Meet the lovable American cartoon character’s sinister counterpart

Tropical hardwoods wait to be milled into boards near the coastal city of Miri.

In Borneo’s Ruined Forests, Nomads Have Nowhere to Go

The island’s hunter-gatherers are losing their home to the unquenchable global demand for timber and palm oil

The statue of Abu Bint Deimun, from third century B.C. Hatra, Iraq. A global network of preservationists are teaming up to protect the world’s antiquities.

Crash Courses Prepare Art Conservators for Catastrophic Disasters

Smithsonian experts train a brave band of conservators in northern Iraq to brace buildings and rescue artifacts in a hurry

Virtual reality headsets at the 2015 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam allow visitors to view digital reconstructions of artifacts destroyed by ISIS.

The Heroic Effort to Digitally Reconstruct Lost Monuments

Scholars create a virtual archive of antiquities destroyed by extremists in Syria and Iraq

On his property, Jones County’s J. R. Gavin points out a site that was a hide-out for Newt Knight. “The Confederates kept sending in troops to wipe out old Newt and his boys,” says Gavin, “but they’d just melt into the swamps.”

The True Story of the ‘Free State of Jones’

A new Hollywood movie looks at the tale of the Mississippi farmer who led a revolt against the Confederacy

Texting is blamed for ruining personal discourse and common courtesy.

Texting Isn’t the First New Technology Thought to Impair Social Skills

When Alexander Graham Bell introduced the telephone, skeptics worried about how it might affect people’s interactions

MIT’s moisture-sensitive sportswear might one day be genetically modified to glow in the dark.

The First Truly Breathable Fabric Contains Living Bacteria

Microbiology meshes with fashion to create a new kind of cool

Tulsi Yadav teaches Shoba Narayan about the application and design of mehndi, or henna, at the Dera Mandawa haveli in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Formerly a private mansion, the Dera Mandawa is now a hotel.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: India

A Quest to Master the Art of Henna

In anticipation of her daugher’s wedding, Shoba Narayan set out to hone her mendhi craft

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