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Articles

New work suggests that dolphins each have their own distinctive whistle, and respond to hearing their sound made by calling right back.

Do Dolphins Use Whistles to Call Themselves by Unique Names?

Audio experiments show that the marine mammals each have their own whistle, and respond to hearing their distinct whistle by calling right back

Excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa

Archaeologists Just Found the Biblical King David’s Palace. Maybe.

A large, fortified building was found outside Jerusalem. Some archaeologists claim it to be the palace of the biblical King David

An Arab city of the early medieval period. Urban centers in the Middle East were of a size and wealth all but unknown in the Christian west during this period, encouraging the development of a large and diverse fraternity of criminals.

Islam’s Medieval Underworld

In the medieval period, the Middle East was home to many of the world’s wealthiest cities—and to a large proportion of its most desperate criminals

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The Macabre Beauty of Medical Photographs

An artist-scientist duo shares nearly 100 images of modern art with a ghastly twist—they’re all close-ups of human diseases and other ailments

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The Story of the First Postage Stamp

Postage stamps can reveal more than the history of a letter, they can reveal the history of a nation

A New Surgical Knife Identifies Cancerous Tissue As Doctors Are Cutting It Out

The knife cauterizes tissue and then analyzes the smoke produced by the burning flesh using mass spectrometry

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Hangovers: The Driving Force Behind Our Favorite Foods

Overimbibing makes some people’s brains shut down, for others, it gets the innovative juices flowing

Alzheimer’s Patients Often Self-Diagnose Years Before Doctors Do

In a study of 200 older people, researchers found that those who reported the most memory problems had the highest levels of beta amyloid in their brain

Kalelicious Smoothie Pops: A big hit at the Fancy Food Show

Food Science Brings Us Kale on a Stick and Twinkies That Last Longer

With so much interest in what’s in our meals, food innovators are focusing on making the healthy palatable.

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Iconic Photography by the Legendary Irving Penn Comes to the American Art Museum

The Modernist photographer pushed the boundaries of art and fashion

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Asian-Latino Artwork “Pops Up” in Outdoor Museum

See works by Asian American and Latino artists, presented by the Smithsonian Asian-Latino Festival

This gold and pearl hair ornament from the days of China’s Qing Dynasty shows the symbolic significance of the phoenix in Chinese culture. Come see an exhibit at the Sackler Gallery showcasing materials from the creation of Chinese artist Xu Bing’s Phoenix Project, on display until September 2.

Hurry In! These Smithsonian Exhibitions Won’t Be Here Much Longer

Spend your remaining summer days at the museums, and don’t miss out on the Smithsonian’s soon-to-be-closed exhibits

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The End of the World Might Just Look Like This

Artist Ron Miller presents several scenarios—most of them scientifically plausible—of landscapes imperiled and of Earth meeting its demise

The Trinity University pitch drop setup

After 69 Years, Second Oldest Pitch Drop Experiment Observes Drop

After 69 years, the pitch has finally dropped

An Icelandic Artist Accuses a German Contemporary of “Nature Terrorism”

In February, somebody painted words on some of Iceland’s most pristine landscapes

Although their perception of color is limited, new research suggests that dogs routinely discriminate between objects based on their hue.

New Study Shows That Dogs Use Color Vision After All

Although their perception of color is limited, dogs discriminate between objects based on their hue—a finding that may change the way dogs are trained

A spiral well at El Brujo, near where the mummy was found

Archaeologists Find an Unusual Victim of Human Sacrifice in Peru

The young woman was either poisoned or strangled with a cord, then dumped into a pit

Traveling in pods through tubes. Is this what Elon Musk has in mind?

L.A. to San Fran in 30 Minutes? Can You Say Hyperloop?

Entrepreneur Elon Musk thinks bullet trains are too slow and expensive. He says he has a better idea: high-speed travel in tubes

Two neutron stars violently collide—potentially the sourse of all heavy elements in the universe, including gold.

All the Gold in the Universe Could Come From the Collisions of Neutron Stars

When two stars recently collided, astronomers landed on a new theory about where gold and other heavy elements originate

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The Invention of the Baseball Mitt

Once thought a sign of weakness, the baseball glove has become an iconic piece of equipment

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