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In recent years, many scientists have been able to watch people trying to find their way and measure how well they do.

Why Do Some People Always Get Lost?

Research suggests that experience may matter more than innate ability when it comes to a sense of direction

Ann P. Rowe transferred around 88 books and 4,556 archaeological specimens from her father’s collection to Peru.

Why the Daughter of an American Archaeologist Sent Her Father’s Collection to Peru

Unlike many of his peers, John Howland Rowe viewed the country as a source of partnership, not a laboratory to play in

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What Happens When Animals Cross the Road

Our byways are an unnatural incursion into the natural world, especially when they’re allowed to fall into disuse. Meet a roadkill scientist and a journalist tracking how roads mess with nature—and what we can do about it

Visitors to the Red Flat in Sofia, Bulgaria, immerse themselves in the lives of an average 1980s-era Bulgarian family.

How Museums in Central and Eastern Europe Tell the Complicated Story of Life Behind the Iron Curtain

Grassroots exhibitions popping up in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Poland provide a window into ordinary lives during the communist era

Visitors left notes, photos and mementos at the base of an oak tree Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl had favored after escaping from the Central Park Zoo. A memorial for Flaco was held there on March 3.

What Flaco the Owl’s Death Teaches Us About Making Cities Safer for Birds

Ornithologists and conservationists say humans can take key steps to make urban environments less hazardous for our avian friends

Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, the real Baron Münchhausen, was a retired German officer who fought with a Russian regiment in two campaigns against the Ottoman Empire.

The 18th-Century Baron Who Lent His Name to Munchausen Syndrome

The medical condition is named after a fictional storyteller who in turn was based on a real-life German nobleman known for telling tall tales

Fans hold a photo of Selena during the ceremony honoring her with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017.

How Museums Are Preserving and Celebrating Selena’s Legacy

The singer’s presence can still be felt at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

JBS Haldane and Edwin Martin Case (pictured) experimented on themselves to study the effects of nitrogen narcosis, in which the gas becomes a powerful narcotic drug under increased pressure.

To Help the Allied War Effort, These Scientists Got Drunk on Nitrogen

During World War II, British researchers conducted tests on themselves to gauge how submariners’ brains would function at extreme depths

Farmer Robert Tomlinson harvests forced rhubarb by candlelight on his farm in Pudsey, near Leeds in northern England, in January 2022. 

Northern Europe and the British Isles

The English Farmers Who Harvest Rhubarb by Candlelight

The secret to the world’s sweetest rhubarb? Sealed sheds, total darkness and a little old-fashioned flair

This false-colored image of Mercury reflects the varying age and mineral composition of the surface.

The Seven Most Amazing Discoveries We’ve Made by Exploring Mercury

Only two robotic missions have made it to the Swift Planet, but they were crucial for upending many false assumptions of that sun-scorched world

Robert M. Pirsig’s 1966 Honda Super Hawk Motorcycle.

This ‘Zen’ Motorcycle Still Inspires Philosophical Road-Trippers 50 Years Later

Robert M. Pirsig’s odyssey vehicle takes its final ride as it vrooms into public view for the first time ever at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

Lofoten Islands, Norway

Northern Europe and the British Isles

Northern Europe and the British Isles

Explore the region’s history, culture and natural wonders

Suzan-Lori Parks' Sally & Tom makes its New York debut on April 16.

This Play Within a Play Confronts the Power Dynamic Between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson

In “Sally & Tom,” Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks continues her investigation of American myths

A close-up of blooming blossoms captures their stunning detail.

Smithsonian Photo Contest Galleries

Behold 15 Beautiful Photos of Cherry Blossoms in Bloom

These 15 picture-perfect cherry blossom images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest are pretty in pink

Michael Douglas stars as Benjamin Franklin in the Apple TV+ series "Franklin."

Based on a True Story

The Real Story Behind Apple TV+’s ‘Franklin’

A new limited series starring Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin revisits the founding father’s years as the American ambassador to France

USS South Dakota (BB-57) anchored in Hvalfjordur

This 12-Year-Old Boy Fought on a World War II Battleship and Became the Nation’s Youngest Decorated War Hero

In 1942, young Calvin Graham was decorated for valor in battle, before his worried mother learned of his whereabouts and revealed his secret to the Navy

A beetle collection used for scientific study

Why Do So Many Beetle Species Exist?

Diet played a key role in the evolution of the vast beetle family tree

The hideout boasted more than 1,000 bunk beds, a 400-seat cafeteria, individual auditoriums for both the Senate and the House of Representatives, vast water tanks, and a trash incinerator that could serve as a crematorium.

Untold Stories of American History

The Town That Kept Its Nuclear Bunker a Secret for Three Decades

The people of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, helped keep the Greenbrier resort’s bunker—designed to hold the entirety of Congress—hidden from 1958 to 1992

Sea otters float amid a forest of kelp off California’s Central Coast.

Sea Otters Have Helped Bolster California’s Kelp Forest

A study that looks back more than 100 years shows that where the animals have thrived, underwater forests have, too

“For me, [Hanuman] was also a hero that lost faith in himself,” says director and star Dev Patel. “He didn’t have courage at one point and needed to be reminded of who he was.” 

How the Hindu Deity Hanuman Inspired Dev Patel’s ‘Monkey Man’

The story of the half-human, half-monkey god mirrors the journey of the protagonist in Patel’s directorial debut

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