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Science

"I’ve never lost the wonder," says Hans-Dieter Sues (above). "To be the first human to find and touch an extinct creature is a singular moment that cannot be easily put into words."

Beyond Dinosaurs: The Secrets of Earth's Past

How Do Paleontologists Find Fossils?

Smithsonian’s Hans-Dieter Sues, who has collected fossil vertebrates in the U.S. and around the world shares some of his tips

This spring, temperatures in Alaska and northern Canada have been significantly higher than usual. Red indicates areas warmer than average while blue indicates colder than average. The darker the red, or blue, the greater the deviation from average.

Record-Breaking Heat in Alaska Wreaks Havoc on Communities and Ecosystems

Abnormally high temperatures have led to unsafe travel conditions, uncertain ecological futures and even multiple deaths

A Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket, with a payload of 60 satellites for SpaceX's Starlink broadband network, lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, May 23, 2019.

Future of Space Exploration

SpaceX Launched 60 Internet-Beaming Satellites Into Orbit

Last night’s successful launch was the first big step in SpaceX’s plan to provide global internet coverage from space

In 1954, John Kirklin of the Mayo Clinic created the Mayo-Gibbon heart-lung machine when he modified a design pioneered by John Gibbon. The machine is now in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

This 1950s Heart-Lung Machine Revolutionized Cardiac Surgery

Open-heart procedures evolved rapidly once Mayo Clinic surgeon John Kirklin made his improvements to an earlier invention

As the 2017 North American total solar eclipse comes to an end, the famous "diamond ring" becomes visible. The sun's corona is also visible, with the star Regulus to the left.

A Total Solar Eclipse 100 Years Ago Proved Einstein’s General Relativity

Two teams of astronomers voyaged to Africa and Brazil to observe the most famous eclipse in science

Do fungi like this Penicillium mold, which produces the the antibiotic penicillin, trace their origins to an ancestor that lived a billion years ago?

Fossil Discovery Pushes Back the Origin of Fungi by Half a Billion Years

Ancient fungus helps rewrite what we know about evolution and the tree of life

Women were involved with the computing field from its earliest days.

Women Who Shaped History

The Gendered History of Human Computers

It’s ironic that women today must fight for equality in Silicon Valley. After all, their math skills helped launch the digital age

T. rex moves in for the kill on a doomed Triceratops—an herbivore that existed mainly on a diet of palm fronds.

Beyond Dinosaurs: The Secrets of Earth's Past

The ‘Nation’s T. Rex’ Prepares to Make Its Smithsonian Debut

In a new exhibit about “deep time” at the National Museum of Natural History, T. rex is still the king

Artist Gary Staab assembles the massive megalodon. A scale model at the bottom right shows what the finished creature will look like.

Beyond Dinosaurs: The Secrets of Earth's Past

Reimagining the Megalodon, the World’s Most Terrifying Sea Creature

The ancient beast of the oceans comes to life in a new display at the National Museum of Natural History

A volcano can provide a great deal of geothermal energy

Could Yellowstone’s Volcanoes Provide Geothermal Power and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Planktonic foraminifera assemblage from Caribbean sediments that provide an accurate picture of the species community before human influence. Each shell is less than one millimeter in size.

Plankton Haven’t Been the Same Since the Industrial Revolution

Changes in plankton populations over the past centuries correlate with rising sea temperatures

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Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

We Chose to Go to the Moon

A collection of stories to celebrate the semicentennial of the Apollo 11 mission

This lunar extravehicular visor assembly, photographed by Cade Martin at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar- Hazy Center, was worn by Neil Armstrong on the Moon in July 1969. Armstrong’s helmet visors were designed to protect against hazards, from micrometeoroids to infrared light.

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

What You Didn’t Know About the Apollo 11 Mission

From JFK’s real motives to the Soviets’ secret plot to land on the Moon at the same time, a new behind-the-scenes view of an unlikely triumph 50 years ago

Reconstructed color patterns of Sinosauropteryx based on the pigmentation of fossil plumage. The dinosaur is portrayed in the predicted open habitat in which it lived around the Jehol lakes, preying on the lizard Dalinghosaurus.

The Colors of Dinosaurs Open a New Window to Study the Past

Old fossils and new technology are coloring in life’s prehistoric palette

Nazi officials use calipers to measure an ethnic German's nose on January 1, 1941. The Nazis developed a pseudoscientific system of facial measurement that was supposedly a way of determining racial descent.

Race in America

The Disturbing Resilience of Scientific Racism

A new book explores how racist biases continue to maintain a foothold in research today

The Smithsonian has completed its multi-year conservation project of the Neil Armstrong spacesuit, digitizing the historic Apollo artifact so that soon authentically realized duplicates can be downloaded for study and appreciation.

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

In Celebration of 50 Years Since the Moon Landing, Neil Armstrong’s Spacesuit Set to Return to Public View

Duplicates of the 3D scanned historic Apollo artifact will also tour Major League ballparks this summer

The Apollo 10 Command Module, "Charlie Brown," as seen from the detached Lunar Module, "Snoopy."

A Smithsonian Curator Reflects on Apollo 10, the Mission That Made Landing on the Moon Possible

Fifty years ago, the astronauts who crewed the “dress rehearsal” for Apollo 11 paved the way for history to be made just a couple months later

Bedbugs, which were previously thought to be about 50 million years old, could be much older, new genetic and fossil evidence suggests.

Bedbugs Scurried the Earth Alongside the Dinosaurs 100 Million Years Ago

Researchers calculate that the pests evolved long before bats, which were thought to be their first hosts

To all the looney lunar landing deniers and conspiracy theorists out there, NASA has just four words to say: "Apollo: Yes, We Did."

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

Yes, the United States Certainly DID Land Humans on the Moon

Moon-landing deniers, says space scholar and former NASA chief historian Roger Launius, are full of stuff and nonsense

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