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A full-size restoration of what Aletopelta might have looked like, at the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Ankylosaur Reef

Even though dinosaurs never lived in the sea, a few unfortunate specimens created temporary reefs in ancient oceans

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Was America Named for a Pickle Dealer?

Amerigo Vespucci wasn’t entirely heroic—just ask Ralph Waldo Emerson

Feline Face and Stylized Ornaments from Horse Tack, late 4th–early 3rd century BCE

Explore the Treasures of Kazakhstan in New York City

Artifacts from the Central Asian nation, including saddles ornamented with gold foil and cinnabar, are on display for the first time in the United States

Egyptians embalming a corpse.

The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine

The question was not “Should you eat human flesh?” says one historian, but, “What sort of flesh should you eat?”

L to R: Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Captain America (Chris Evans) & Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson)

Why Hollywood Loves Comic Books

And why some critics can’t stand them

Scientists calculated how to make a force field big enough to fit the Millennium Falcon.

May the Fourth Be With You: The Science of the Millennium Falcon

On Star Wars day, we take a look at the science behind the series’ most popular spacecraft and the force fields it flies through

Steve Jobs' patent for the iPod classic included the scroll wheel.

The Patents Behind the Genius: Steve Jobs Exhibit Opens Soon at the Ripley Center

The S. Dillon Ripley Center hosts an exhibit of more than 300 of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ patents since 1980.

Khrushchev and Mao meet in Beijing, July 1958. Khrushchev would find himself less formally dressed at their swimming-pool talks a week later.

Khrushchev in Water Wings: On Mao, Humiliation and the Sino-Soviet Split

That sauropod looks quite frustrated. These dilapidated dinosaurs rest at Berlin's abandoned Spreepark.

Dinosaur Sighting: Berlin’s Dilapidated Dinosaurs

At a spooky abandoned theme park, once-regal dinosaurs are suffering a second extinction

In his new book, Moral Origins, evolutionary anthropologist Christopher Boehm speculates that human morality emerged along with big game hunting.

How Humans Became Moral Beings

In a new book, anthropologist Christopher Boehm traces the steps our species went through to attain a conscience

Mexican silver miners likely invented the taco, Mexican Americans in the Southwest reinvented it, and Glen Bell mass-marketed it via the crunchy Taco Bell shell.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Where Did the Taco Come From?

Dating back to the 18th century, the dish has jumped from the Mexican silver mines to fast food staple

A public drinking fountain in Rome

Making Water Use Visible

Could the design of a Brita filter help us with controlling how much water we waste?

This Saturday, you can make a Korean kite just like this one at the Sackler Gallery.

Events May 4-6: Cool off with IMAX, Fly a kite at the Sackler and celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with Smithsonian

These cyclists are enjoying another day on the trail in the Crocodile Trophy, in northeastern Australia, considered one of the most punishing bicycle races in the world.

Grueling Travel through Beautiful Places: the Madness of Extreme Races

The Crocodile Trophy mountain biking race is off-road, meaning gravel, rocks, ruts, puddles, dust and lots of crashing

Hugo Gernsback's vision for a monument devoted to electricity (1922)

The Monument to Electricity That Never Was

A pair of Pachycephalosaurus face off at the Museum of Ancient Life in Utah.

Fossil Testifies to Pachycephalosaur Pain

A damaged skull throws support to the idea that some dome-headed dinosaurs butted heads

Architects from around the world submitted their portfolios, and by mid-December, a jury of experts invited ten design teams to re-imagine three "dead-zones" on the National Mall.

Winners Announced for National Mall Design Competition

The area between the Lincoln Memorial and the U.S. Capitol has seen better days, but architects are vying to improve the nation’s front lawn

Captain America (Chris Evans) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in Marvel’s The Avengers

Film vs. Digital: Archivists Speak Out

Pros and cons of “perforated plastic with photographic emulsion”

The supermoon of March 2011, rising behind the Lincoln Memorial In Washington, DC

The Biggest Supermoon in Years is Coming Saturday Night

The moon’s closest approach to earth will coincide with a perfectly full moon

A freakishly cold winter coated Rome's Colosseum in snow

The Snows of…Tenerife?

The white stuff can fall at any time and almost anywhere, from the streets of Rome to the subtropical Canary Islands

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