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Articles

The Los Angeles That Was Never Built

Had these 13 grand architectural plans been executed, the city would look entirely different today

When viewed from space, Earth looks like a water planet. But nearly all of that is saltwater and undrinkable.

A World of Water Woes

From the Middle East to the Caribbean to Australia, people around the world are dealing with water scarcity

The protagonist, Tris (Shailene Woodley), and her friend Christina (Zoë Kravitz) jump from a train running through post-apocalyptic Chicago in a scene from the film Divergent.

We Asked Four Teenagers to Explain “Divergent” to Old People

The first movie in the dystopian young adult book trilogy comes out this weekend. Get ready

Zoo Keepers Are Hand-Rearing A Tiny Sloth Bear Cub

After her mother consumed two other cubs, staff took the unprecedented step of raising her themselves

Measuring 745 feet across, Janet Echelman's Skies Painted with Unnumbered Sparks is her largest aerial sculpture to date.

Art Meets Science

A Massive Aerial Sculpture Is Hoisted in Downtown Vancouver

Artist Janet Echelman combines ancient techniques with modern technology to create her largest-ever net sculpture for TED’s 30th anniversary

The Louvre is remarkable, but it's not the only museum Paris has to offer.

Five Must-See Art Museums in Paris

Of course you have to hit the Louvre, but here are a few others to add to your cultural bucket list

New Research

The Human Nose Can Distinguish Between One Trillion Different Smells

New research says our olfactory system is far more sensitive than we thought

Conceptual close up image of a synapse.

Does Thinking Fast Mean You’re Thinking Smarter?

The research into the relationship between quick thinking and methodical reasoning could take some time to decipher

What Emotion Goes Viral the Fastest?

On Twitter and Facebook, which spreads quickest: joy, sadness or disgust?

The Anguilla Bank skink, a Caribbean species discovered along with 23 others in 2012, is vulnerable to extinction.

How Many Species Can We Find Before They Disappear Forever?

Biologists are in a race to locate and identify new species as habitats become victim to an industrialized world

From the National Air and Space Museum / Udvar-Hazy Center.

The Story of NASA’s Jet-Propulsion Backpack

Thirty years ago, astronauts set out on the first untethered space odyssey

Is the Giant Squid Near Extinction and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Smithsonian Best Small Towns 2014

The 20 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2014

From country music to herbal cocktails to horseshoe crabs to Rodin, our third annual list takes you to cultural gems worth mining

This 1943 large letter postcard is now a collector's item.

Smithsonian Secretary Clough on His Hometown

Post retirement, he will be spending more time in Douglas, Georgia

Fold the momo and pinch it closed.

How Manchester’s Burgeoning Bhutanese Population Is Pursuing the American Dream

An unlikely place for immigrants from central Asia, New Hampshire is an ideal adopted homeland

Kamakura Shirts owner Yoshio Sadasue opened a New York store on Madison Avenue.

How Japan Copied American Culture and Made it Better

If you’re looking for some of America’s best bourbon, denim and burgers, go to Japan, where designers are re-engineering our culture in loving detail

The Forum was among the many sights in Rome that amazed Copley, who said he was “feasting my eyes.”

When Colonial America’s Greatest Painter Took His Brush to Europe

John Singleton Copley left for Europe on the eve of the American Revolution. A historian and her teenage son made the trip to see why

For Twain, the “magnificent Mississippi, rolling its mile-wide tide” was the stuff of dreams (the St. Louis waterfront today).

American South

How the Mississippi River Made Mark Twain—and Vice Versa

No novelist captured the muddy waterway and its people like the creator of Huckleberry Finn, as a journey along the river makes clear

The Beautiful, Streamlined Cars That Set the World’s First Land Speed Records

One hundred years ago, the Bonneville Salt Flats became a racing paradise

Art Meets Science

This Is What Photography Looks Like on Drugs

Sarah Schoenfield’s experience as a bartender put her on the path to giving a “face” to illegal drugs

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