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Magazine

What Happened to America’s Public Intellectuals?

Our nation has always depended on these heavyweights to guide us, but are they still with us, and if so, who are they?

“I saw these beautiful shapes and forms,” says Soluri, creator of the series “Evidence of Human Spaceflight.”

New Photos Reveal What’s Left Behind When a Rocket Travels to Space

Michael Soluri captures these strangely evocative traces of America’s heroic extraterrestrial journeys

Discussion

Reader responses to our May issue

With the idle set at 54 percent of full throttle, drivers could unleash the car by merely stepping off the brake.

When a Jet-Powered Car Raced in the Indianapolis 500

The racecar tore up the track and dazzled fans at the legendary competition—and then vanished

Stephen Talty’s Guide to Culture

The detective novelist offers his picks for movies, tv shows and Twitter accounts to follow

Ask Smithsonian 2017

How Does Earth’s Geomagnetic Field Work?

You asked, we answered

A mid-air tourist flight. The author is second from the left.

The Future of Zero-Gravity Living Is Here

Entrepreneurs predict there will be thousands of us living and working in space. Our correspondent takes off to see what that feels like

Bjarke Ingels

Bjarke Ingels Makes the Impossible Concrete

The star architect is mapping out a new daring plan for the Smithsonian

How Mastiffs Became the World’s Top Dogs

The large, furry dogs of Tibet took an evolutionary shortcut millenia ago

Aubrey de Grey says, “There’s no such thing as aging gracefully.”

Can Human Mortality Really Be Hacked?

Backed by the digital fortunes of Silicon Valley, biotech companies are brazenly setting out to “cure” aging

The world’s largest model world, the Unisphere was erected for the grand fair themed “peace through understanding.”

What the Unisphere Tells Us About America at the Dawn of the Space Age

A towering tribute to the future past—and one man’s ego

Exoskeletons, automaton pets and tiny toy humanoids (pictured) populate the Korea Institute of Robot and Convergence.

A Visit to Seoul Brings Our Writer Face-to-Face With the Future of Robots

In the world’s most futuristic city, a tech-obsessed novelist confronts the invasion of mesmerizing machines

History of Now

Joe Pyne Was America’s First Shock Jock

Newly discovered tapes resurrect the angry ghost of Joe Pyne, the original outrageous talk show host

The soil microbe Bacillus subtilis is ubiquitous, but one rare strain yielded scientific pay dirt.

One Girl’s Mishap Led to the Creation of the Antibiotic Bacitracin

Margaret Treacy was the namesake for a breakthrough medication

“Salt Series” taken during a low-altitude flight in Western Australia.

Australia’s Salt Ponds Look Like Beautiful, Abstract Art From Above

Taking to the sky to show how industry shapes the earth

New York Water Taxi

How New York City Is Rediscovering Its Maritime Spirit

The city’s waterfront fell into dangerous decline, but now its on the rebound with a new wave of money and creativity

In 1950, Tollund Man’s discoverers “found a face so fresh they could only suppose they had stumbled on a recent murder.”

Europe’s Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets

High-tech tools divulge new information about the mysterious and violent fates met by these corpses

Ask Smithsonian 2017

What’s the Difference Between Horns and Antlers and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

“Very, very early in my boyhood,” Hudson wrote, “I had acquired the habit of going about alone.”

The Naturalist Who Inspired Ernest Hemingway and Many Others to Love the Wilderness

W.H. Hudson wrote one of the 20th century’s greatest memoirs after a fever rekindled visions of his childhood.

The Unsavory History of Sugar, the Insatiable American Craving

How the nation got hooked on sweets

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