Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Articles

Washington, D.C.

Portraiture in the Time of Mad Men

The Portrait Gallery takes a look at portraiture as it faces Abstract Expressionism in the era of Don Draper’s mid-century modernism

A tea party. Inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea."

What it Takes to Cook Some of Literature’s Most Famous Meals

Dinah Fried’s new photo book brings the words of authors such as James Joyce and Lewis Caroll to life

Five Ways to Eat Seaweed

For years a staple of Asian cuisine, the leafy green is becoming a popular new “super food” in the U.S.

These inflatable wind turbines are capable of delivering two to tree times the amount of energy produced by conventional towers, a Boston-based startup says. The turbines will be part of a pilot that will power a dozen homes in Alaska.

Tech Watch

Massive Flying Wind Turbine Could Offer A New Path To Clean Energy

A Boston-based startup is piloting its invention in Alaska, but could soon bring alternative energy to the masses.

Oil floats on the surface of Gulf waters in June 2010. Is it still there today?

Breaking Down the Myths and Misconceptions About the Gulf Oil Spill

Does oil stick around in the ecosystem indefinitely? What was the deal with the deformed fish? Can anything bad that happens in the Gulf be blamed on oil?

Female on top: A female Neotrogla insect mates with a male in a cave in eastern Brazil.

In This Community of Brazilian Cave Insects, Females Wear the Penises, Literally

A genus of insect that inhabits caves in eastern Brazil has reversed sex organs, say scientists

What future will our children inherit?

New Poll Reveals Americans’ Predictions of the Future

What are they most fearful of? What are they most optimistic about?

Mom's ample body serves as this baby's bed for now, but soon she'll grow up to build sleeping nests of her own.

New Research

Chimpanzees Are Extremely Picky About Where They Sleep

The primates painstakingly rebuild their nest from scratch every night—a pre-bed ritual reminiscent of the “Princess and the Pea”

The old and the new and the cardboard meet in Tokyo, by Luke aan de Wiel.

These Intricate Cardboard Models Perfectly Capture the Look and Feel of World Cities

A photographer and model-maker created these dreamscapes, including a forest animal, to convey the essence of the urban metropolis

Israeli-based research firm StoreDot is looking to revolutionize batteries with a system that uses tiny nanodot crystals to quickly store energy.

Tech Watch

This Battery Could Charge Your Smartphone In 30 Seconds

An Israeli startup has developed a bio-organic material that uses tiny nanodot crystals to quickly store energy.

View of Takanawa Ushimachi under a Shrouded Moon, Kobayashi Kiyochika,1879

Tokyo in Transition: Woodblock Prints Cast an Ambiguous Light on Japan’s Modernization

A collection of works by the great Eastern modernist Kobayashi Kiyochika are on view at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum

Photos: Cherry Blossoms Bloom in Washington, D.C.

More than 3,000 cherry trees blossom along the banks of the Tidal Basin

Dead Flamingos, 2009, Massachusetts.

The Many Manifestations of the Color Pink

Lisa Kessler traveled across the country to hunt down images that show pink in America

A FedEx truck carrying the Wankel T. rex skeleton departed Bozeman, Montana, on Friday for the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. A bronze cast of the 65-million-year-old skeleton outside the Museum of the Rockies looks on in the foreground.

Five Things We Don’t Know About Tyrannosaurus Rex

As the Smithsonian welcomes the arrival of its fossil rex, scientists reveal all that we have yet to learn about this magnificent creature

Track the Nation’s T-Rex as it Arrives at the Smithsonian

The Natural History Museum’s much-anticipated fossil completes the ultimate road trip: a 2,000 mile journey from Montana to our nation’s capital.

Jacqueline and Kenneth Griffin Jr. live in Atlanta, Georgia, with their two kids, Kenneth “Tre” Griffin III, 9, and Antonio, 7. Over the course of a week, they produced 41.1 pounds of household waste—31 pounds of landfill garbage and 10.1 pounds of recyclables.

Art Meets Science

What Can We Learn From Pictures of People and Their Trash?

A photography project meets public service campaign aims to raise awareness about what we throw in the trash in just one week

Ultra thin patches will be able to keep track of what's happening inside your body.

Tech Watch

Forget Wristbands, Health Trackers of the Future Will Be Skin Patches

Thin as a human hair and applied like temporary tattoos, they’ll be able to monitor everything from heartbeats to brain activity to muscle tremors

Researchers say they've developed a system that allows them to use dolphins' own language to communicate with the animals.

Tech Watch

Checking the Claim: A Device That Translates Dolphin Sounds Into English

Researchers used new technology to interpret a dolphin noise they say translates loosely to “seaweed”

Look familiar? Morocco's Essaouira, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was the filming location for Astapor, "Game of Thrones'" infamous slave-trading city.

From Iceland to Croatia, Go On the Ultimate “Game of Thrones” Tour

Want more “Game of Thrones” than a show every Sunday and books every few years? Consider visiting the filming locations

As climate change makes wet places wetter and dry areas drier, the frequency of drought is expected in increase in certain locations. Droughts, such as this one in Kenya in 2006, can increase food insecurity, especially among the poor.

Anthropocene

Eight Ways That Climate Change Hurts Humans

From floods and droughts to increases in violent conflict, climate change is taking a toll on the planet’s population

Page 578 of 1285