People & Places

One of the 4,700-year-old impact craters at Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve in Australia.

To Find Meteorites, Listen to the Legends of Australian Aborigines

Oral traditions may have preserved records of impacts over thousands of years and could lead to fresh scientific discoveries

Odile Madden — Materials Scientist & Engineer, Smithsonian's Museum Conservation Institute

Materials Scientist & Engineer, Smithsonian's Museum Conservation Institute

Thomas Dolby — Musician, Producer & Director

"Future Is Here" Featured Speaker

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Buzz Aldrin: Apollo 11 Astronaut

"Future Is Here" Featured Speaker

Elizabeth Cottrell — Director of Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program

<em>Smithsonian</em> Magazine "Future Is Here" Conference Speaker

André Fenton — New York University Neuroscientist, Biomedical Engineer & Entrepreneur

"Future Is Here" Featured Speaker

Justin Kasper — Solar Astrophysicist at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Solar Astrophysicist at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Kirk Johnson — Director of the National Museum of Natural History

"Future Is Here" Featured Speaker

Lola Fatoyinbo-Agueh — NASA Earth Scientist

"Future Is Here" Featured Speaker

Robert Ballard — Ocean Explorer

"Future Is Here" Featured Speaker

Maria Klawe — Mathematician, Computer Scientist & President of Harvey Mudd College

Mathematician, Computer Scientist &amp; President of Harvey Mudd College

Nick Pyenson — Curator of Fossil Marine Mammals at National Museum of Natural History

Curator of Fossil Marine Mammals at National Museum of Natural History

John Mather: Nobel Laureate & Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope

Smithsonian "Future Is Here" Featured Speaker

Suzan Murray — Chief Veterinarian at the National Zoo

"Future Is Here" Featured Speaker

Eric D. Green is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

Eric Green — Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute

"Future Is Here" Featured Speaker

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What Traditional Societies Can Teach You About Life

A new book from best-selling author Jared Diamond tells us how we can learn a lot from people who live like most of us did 11,000 years ago

Bryan Stevenson crusades for thousands of young people in America's prisons.

Why Mass Incarceration Defines Us As a Society

Bryan Stevenson, the winner of the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in social justice, has taken his fight all the way to the Supreme Court

PHOTOS: The Distressing Worldwide Boom in Cosmetic Surgery

Photographer Zed Nelson traveled the world documenting how body improvement has practically become a new religion

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How a Missile Silo Became the Most Difficult Interior Decorating Job Ever

A relic from the Cold War, this instrument of death gets a new life … and a new look

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The Mooncake: A Treat, a Bribe or a Tradition Whose Time Has Passed?

Is the mooncake just going through a phase or are these new variations on the Chinese treat here to stay?

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