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Round Table

What is the Most Important Innovation in the History of Rock ‘n’ Roll?

Musicians, historians and critics tell us what they consider to be the greatest game changers for the industry

Eddie Van Halen, 1985

The Electric Guitar’s Long (And Louder), Strange Trip

From its gentle 16th-century acoustic origins to the souped-up ‘Frankenstein,’ a Smithsonian scholar strums the historic chords of the guitar

How Long Will You Live? Ask Your Friends

A medical personality quiz started in the 1930s shows how your best pals may know more about your health than you do

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The Sultry Dance of the Bowerbird

A brightly-colored male bowerbird mesmerizes a young female with his bizarre dance

The World of Chocolate

The World of Chocolate

Both within the Smithsonian and in the broader world, the story of chocolate has many fascinating morsels

The abandoned city of Machu Picchu is one legacy of the Spanish conquest of the Incas. Traces of air pollution in a Peruvian ice cap are another.

Anthropocene

Spanish Conquest of the Incas Caused Air Pollution to Spike

A sample of Peruvian ice has revealed a surge in pollution linked to mining that wasn’t exceeded until the Industrial Revolution

Trained in CPR? This Life-Saving App Could Make You a Superhero

When someone is experiencing cardiac arrest, PulsePoint sends alerts to CPR-certified invidividuals nearby

The sleek 11-foot model of the Enterprise had been seen in the 1966-69 television series Star Trek.

A Feisty Capt. James T. Kirk Checks in on the Starship ‘Enterprise’

When the model for the TV show Star Trek was removed for conservation at the National Air and Space Museum, the actor William Shatner weighed in

Exterior of Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Nominated for Unesco World Heritage Status

It’s the first time the United States has nominated works of modern architecture

Ask Smithsonian: How Does a Satellite Stay Up?

Meet a Harvard-Smithsonian researcher who monitors all the satellites and explains why they rarely fall

Best Space Photos of the Week

These Cosmic Visions Include a Moon Parade and a Naked Nebula

Jovian giants and newly seen stars are among our picks for the week’s best space-related images

This personal robot can listen, talk, take photos and even feel temperature.

This Week in Crowdfunding

Five Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded: From an Automated Home Brewery to a Personal (Robot) Assistant

Two other quirky inventions teach music in novel ways

Spire’s Austin Ellis shows off a satellite frame at Spire's San Francisco headquarters. Components, like the weather sensor, stack on top of each other inside the frame. Solar panels and antennae fold out from the frame once the device is in orbit.

New Satellite Network Launching This Year Aims to Improve Weather Forecasting

With a network of compact, low-cost weather satellites with smartphone-like internals, startup Spire plans to make future forecasts a lot more reliable

A new hotel in Japan will have robots serving its front desks.

Japan Announces Plans for the First Hotel Run by Robots

Slated to open July 17, the hotel in a Japanese theme park will be staffed by “actroids”

Amager Resource Center, Copenhagen, Denmark. Under construction. This power plant, which turns household waste into electricity, is the cleanest in the world. "Normally, you want to be as far away from the power plant as possible because of the toxins, but in this case you literally have fresh mountain air on the roof of the building. Since we have snow in Denmark, but we don't have hills, we made the roof into a big ski slope," Ingels explains. The chimney puffs a giant steam ring each time a ton of carbon dioxide is emitted.

Designing Buildings For Hot Climates, Cold Ones and Everything in Between

A decade’s worth of sustainable projects by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels and his firm, BIG, are now on display at the National Building Museum

Neuschwanstein Castle, the ultimate fairy-tale castle, is the 13th most visited castle in the world.

The World’s Most-Visited Castles and Palaces

From Paris to Beijing, these historic castles and palaces draw millions of visitors for a glimpse of the lifestyles of the rich and famous

Art Molella delivers his speech on innovation.

The Innovative Spirit - OLD

The Recipe for Innovation Calls for a Little Chaos and Some Wall Bashing

Scholar Art Molella chronicles the habits, habitats and behaviors of the men and women who invent

In some parts of the country, this is what duck sauce looks like. In others, not so much.

Ask Smithsonian

What Exactly Is Duck Sauce?

Trying to get to the bottom of this Chinese food mystery sends our writer on a wild goose chase

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