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Digital artist Jeremy Sutton's finished painting captured the many elements of the event.

This Is How You Live Paint an Event

Artist Jeremy Sutton painted on his iPad while musicians performed and visitors played virtual reality games at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Yampa River in Dinosaur National Monument

Twenty of the West’s Leading Water Managers Raft Colorado’s Yampa River

In a historic drought, a group of decision makers take to the water to discuss the future of rivers

The hydrophobic bacteria that coat the ceilings of some dark lava caves produce a gorgeous golden sparkle.

How Bacteria Make This Underground, Awe-Inspiring Cave Shine Gold

These underground tubes at Lava Beds National Monument include sparkling gold ceilings that even NASA wants to study

Entrance to the new "American Enterprise" exhibition at the National Museum of American History.

How Curators Wrestled With the Complex Story of American Business

The broad and sometimes difficult history of business in the U.S., its rogues, heros, successes and failures, is the dynamic story in a new exhibition

Our dynamic home.

Anthropocene

The Top Five Conversations About Earth in the Age of Humans

The Generation Anthropocene podcast brings you stories from the front lines of Earth science, history and philosophy

Ornamental weathervanes once adorned the cupolas of the stand-alone Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, hinting at a bygone folk era and forecasting the multi-directional dominance of its corporate future.

How Colonel Sanders Made Kentucky Fried Chicken an American Success Story

A weathervane from the Smithsonian collections is emblematic of Harland Sanders’s decades-long pursuit to make his chicken finger-lickin’ good

Turning New York City’s Subway Into a Symphony

Musician James Murphy wants to replace the beeps of the system’s turnstiles with beautiful music

Miki Sudo takes on the 2013 women's champ Sonya Thomas. Sudo would grab Thomas' title by consuming 34 hot dogs to Thomas' 27.75.

Urban Explorations

How a Hot Dog Eating Contest Became One of the Fourth of July’s Greatest Traditions

Why the American dream is shaped like a hot dog

Smart Startup

Can You Crack a Medical Mystery?

A startup called CrowdMed asks volunteer detectives to study cases of patients with symptoms that baffle doctors

Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster’s first book, was published in 1961 and came about accidentally, through procrastination and boredom.

Why Milo’s Sunrises Are a Symphony of Color in The Phantom Tollbooth

Author Norton Juster says one boon to his magical writing is that he was born with synesthesia and hears colors

In a still from Back to the Future: Part II Marty McFly asks his son about watching too much television

The Back to the Future Movies Are Obsessed With Television, Rightfully So

The McFlys’ constant attention to the TV was a perfect reflection of life in post-war America

Roses mark a window filled with bullet holes after a shooting spree in Denmark.

New Research

Shootings and Mass Murders Seem to Be Contagious

Data spanning decades shows how high-profile events can cause outbreaks of similar killings that mirror the spread of disease

Unlike the tails of almost all other animals, seahorse tails are more like square prisms than cylinders.

New Research

Why Seahorses Have Square Tails

Engineers show that the animals’ prism-like tails are mechanically superior to cylindrical ones

The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to legalize marriage equality nationwide on June 26.

Can Science Help People Unlearn Their Unconscious Biases?

Social events, sleep training and even meditation may offer ways for people to erase biases they probably didn’t know they held

The Thomas Jefferson original granite base and obelisk is now complete with a Smithsonian-made reproduction of the marble plaque and on view at the University of Missouri.

Urban Explorations

Bringing Thomas Jefferson’s Battered Tombstone Back to Life

The founding father’s fragile grave marker has survived for centuries, enduring souveniring, a fire and errant repairs

From the Italian version of The Great Moon Hoax. Leopoldo Galluzzo, Altre scoverte fatte nella luna dal Sigr. Herschel (Other lunar discoveries from Signor Herschel), Napoli, 1836

Urban Explorations

The Great Moon Hoax Was Simply a Sign of Its Time

Scientific discoveries and faraway voyages inspired fantastic tales—and a new Smithsonian exhibition

An iconic remnant of the space shuttle Challenger disaster, this flag-covered piece of fuselage was hidden away in storage until NASA's new memorial launched on June 27, 2015.

NASA’s Memorial Honors Lives Lost on the Challenger and Columbia Missions

The permanent exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida displays remnants of the shuttles and items from fallen astronauts

Smithsonian Secretary David Skorton and his wife, Robin Davisson, greet Marie Dieng at the Institution's staff picnic on the National Mall. Skorton begins his tenure as the 13th Secretary on July 1.

On His First Day on the Job, Smithsonian Secretary David J. Skorton Discusses the Past and the Future

The new Smithsonian leader says he wants to emphasize the arts and humanities at a time when they are being deemphasized nationally

Two boxers spar in the ring in the outdoor gym Gimnasio de Boxeo Rafael Trejo in Old Havana, Cuba.

These Photos From Cuba Place You in the Boxing Ring

Photojournalist and wedding photographer Rebecca Barger captures vibrant images of local streets, architecture and athletes in Havana

For the first time, Florian Engert and his team mapped every firing neuron in a living animal.

How a Transparent Fish May Help Decode the Brain

An outspoken Harvard neuroscientist is tackling the wondrous challenge of understanding the workings of the brain

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