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Articles

Solomon Northup, portrayed by Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years A Slave.

Vintage Headlines

The New York Times’ 1853 Coverage of Solomon Northup, the Hero of “12 Years A Slave”

Northup’s story garnered heavy press coverage and spread widely in the weeks and months after he was rescued

A resident of "Dementia Village" goes grocery shopping with a caregiver.

For People with Dementia, Does It Take a Village?

A community in the Netherlands has become a model for how to help people feel at home even after they’ve lost their memory

Prototypes of the winning design from the 2012 "Reinventing the Toilet Challenge" are now being tested in India.

Tech Watch

Can This Toilet Save Millions of Lives?

A solar-powered toilet is the latest hope for the 2.5 billion people without access to clean water

Demaking, says Ed Fries, is "like haiku" for programmers, an exercise in "enforcing constraints on yourself as a tool for creativity."

Demaking Halo, Remaking Art: ‘Halo 2600’ Developer Discusses the Promise of Video Games

Ed Fries talks with Smithsonian magazine about programming the Atari 2600 and shaping the future of interactive media.

Celebrate Carnival Italian Style, By Pelting Your Neighbors With Oranges

Carnival celebrations can get a little crazy, but in one Italian town, it gets downright messy

New Research

Doctors’ Stethoscopes Can Transmit Bacteria As Easily As Unwashed Hands

New research shows that the instruments could be a vector for bacterial infections—a concern, as they’re infrequently sterilized

White rhinos help shape the ecosystem by increasing plant diversity and providing grazing patches for other animals.

New Research

Here’s What Might Happen to Local Ecosystems If All the Rhinos Disappear

African landscapes may become very different places if rhinos aren’t there to diversify plant life and create prime grazing spots for other animals

EEG technology allows people to play music and control vehicles with their minds. But can it translate a dog's thoughts into words?

Tech Watch

Checking the Claim: This Device Would Allow Dogs to Talk Like Humans

A team of oddball inventors claims they are developing a headset that translates a canine’s thoughts into words

How Motel Ownership Offers Indian-Americans a Gateway to the American Dream

America’s motels are owned mostly by families from the Indian state of Gujarat, a new exhibit tells the story of life behind the lobby walls

Monks celebrating Full Moon Day light thousands of small oil lamps around a pagoda in Pindaya, a small town near Inle Lake.

Photos: Burma’s Sacred Sites

Take a trip through this emerging destination with beautiful photos submitted to our annual photo contest

Congo's second civil war ended in 2003, but ongoing conflict has left millions displaced. Two million were forced from their homes in 2012, for instance, due to violence in the eastern part of the country.

New Research

Congo’s Civil Wars Took A Toll On Its Forests

Conflicts drove the human population deep into protected areas, satellite maps reveal

Fossil whale skeletons, evidence of an ancient mass stranding of the animals, discovered during the building of the Pan-American Highway in the Atacama Region of Chile in 2011.

New Research

Scientists Solve the Mystery of a Nine-Million-Year-Old Mass Whale Die-Off

Ancient blooms of toxic algae appear to have killed dozens of whales at once

On Oct. 30, 1964, a policeman dusts for fingerprints on case broken into by a cat burglar who made off with some $200,000 in jewels from the Museum of Natural History.

How Three Amateur Jewel Thieves Made Off With New York’s Most Precious Gems

The fascinating story of the hunt for Murf the Surf, a criminal who wasn’t quite the mastermind he made himself out to be

Would you want a ring made from the cremated remains of a friend or family member?

Tech Watch

A Startup Claims To Turn the Dead into Diamonds

The Swiss-based company, Algordanza, says it’s developed a technology that transforms the ashes of a deceased loved one into keepsake jewelry

Buddha's hand sliced where all the fingers are splitting off the main fruit.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

What the Heck Do I Do With a Buddha’s Hand?

Yes, you can eat this thing

Marilyn Monroe performs at a USO show in 1954.

New Research

Science Explores Our Magical Belief in the Power of Celebrity

People will pay more for memorabilia, a study finds, simply if they believe a celebrity touched it

Child-sized gas masks in elementary school, Pripyat, Chernobyl zone of exclusion

What Would the World Look Like Without People?

Photojournalist Oleg Mastruko spent eight years photographing abandoned locations for his project “Without People”

A dollar bill found floating in the basement of the offices of Smack Mellon, a Brooklyn arts organization, after flooding due to Superstorm Sandy. Submitted by Adriane Colburn.

Art Meets Science

A Crowdsourced Collection of Objects That Embody Climate Change

“A People’s Archive of Sinking and Melting” features publicly submitted items from places that could be on the brink of disappearance

With Avegant Glyph, movies and games are beamed directly into the wearer's eyeballs through a patented "virtual retina" system.

Tech Watch

This Headset Can Beam Movies Directly Into Your Eyes

The Avegant Glyph is the first wearable tech that replicates an evening at the cinema

A deep chill covered much of the eastern half of the United States this winter. Winds known as the polar vortex did not blow in as tight a formation as they have in the past. When they loosened, they let Arctic air spill south, seen by the blue in this picture. Atmospheric scientist Jennifer Francis says that this pattern can be blamed on Arctic warming.

Why We Can Blame A Warm Arctic For This Winter’s Icy Chill

Arctic amplification is affecting the jet stream and letting weather systems persist longer, atmospheric scientist says

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