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Ask Smithsonian: What Is Lightning? How Do Bees Make Honey? How Do Cats Purr?

Smithsonian experts answer your burning questions

A new study suggests that a daydreaming is an indicator of a well-equipped brain

The Benefits of Daydreaming

A new study indicates that daydreamers are better at remembering information in the face of distraction

Dinosaurs, such as this Apatosaurus at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, were landlubbers, not aquatic creatures.

Aquatic Dinosaurs? Not So Fast!

A cell biologist says dinosaurs spent their days floating in lakes, but his idea doesn’t hold water

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Making Noise and Selling Ice Cream

Put the bumpy, sour, off-key sound of a mobile ice cream vendor on repeat and play it loud, and you’ve got an infectious earworm

Polio patients in iron lungs in 1952

Salk, Sabin and the Race Against Polio

As polio ravaged patients worldwide, two gifted American researchers developed distinct vaccines against it. Then the question was: Which one to use?

In his new book, Learning From the Octopus, Rafe Sagarin argues that we ought to look to nature for how to better protect ourselves from danger.

How Plants and Animals Can Prepare Us for the Next Big Disaster

Author Rafe Sagarin looks to the natural world for tips on how to plan for national emergencies

Howler monkey Chula cradles her new baby.

Cute Baby Animal Watch: Black Howler Monkey Edition

Breaking news: Cute baby monkey born at the zoo!

The eight bones of the new fossil foot discovered in Ethiopia.

New Hominid Fossil Foot Belonged to Lucy’s Neighbor

A 3.4-million-year-old fossil foot shows that early hominids had more than one way of walking around

Burning the midnight sauropod

Dinosaur Sighting: Our Lady of Sauropods

For an April Fool’s prank, one of our readers created a burning sauropod

Shake off winter with a scavenger hunt in the Smithsonian Gardens.

Events April 3-5: Spring Break, Let’s Move! and Baseball Presidencies

Spend spring break at the National Portrait Gallery, explore the Smithsonian gardens, and learn about baseball’s special place in our presidential history

The brain is more grid than tangle of spaghetti.

The Brain is Full of Surprises

New research suggests the brain is more organized than previously thought and alsothat a full memory can reside within only a few neurons

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Venice by Kay Ryan

The former U.S. poet laureate writes about the Italian city

Cristina Cárdenas and Jeremy Longoria, Houston, 2008.

The 21st-Century American Prom

Renowned photographer Mary Ellen Mark invites herself to the dance, capturing the poignant moment teenagers teeter on the edge of adulthood

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The Conversation

Readers Respond To The February Issue

Upon the release of the Bangle-era BMW Z4 Coupe in 2006, Business Week observed that it seems to be moving "even when standing still."

How Futurist Art Inspired the Design of a BMW

The Italian art movement that celebrated modernity still moves us 100 years later

Aitken’s plans for the museum (an artist’s rendering) include music, too.

Turning the Hirshhorn Into the Ultimate Movie Screen

Artist Doug Aitken’s “SONG1” will transform the Smithsonian art museum, projecting a series of fantastic moving images onto its concrete exterior

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Are There Any Fossils Left and Other Questions From Smithsonian Readers

We brought your questions on paleontology, Civil War photography and other subjects to the Institution’s experts

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Foreseen Consequences

The art and science of looking ahead

Clarke has seen the future of war and says it will be fought by hackers.

Richard Clarke on Who Was Behind the Stuxnet Attack

America’s longtime counterterrorism czar warns that the cyberwars have already begun—and that we might be losing

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Books: Teddy Roosevelt: Top Cop, Jonah Lehrer and Other Must-Read Books

TR’s rough ride as New York’s police chief shaped the man who became president just six years later

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