Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Science

An illustrated depiction of a scene of Lincoln lying in state

When You Die, You’ll Probably Be Embalmed. Thank Abraham Lincoln For That

The president was an “early adopter” of embalming technology, helping to bring the modern death industry to the mainstream

Does science support the idea that teens are more reckless and impulsive than their adult counterparts?

The Impulsive “Teen Brain” Isn’t Based in Science

Yes, adolescent brains crave novelty. But they have the cognitive control to go with it

El Greco: Apocalyptic Vision {The Vision of St. John)

Where Do New Ideas Come From?

With close study, the genealogies of even the most original ideas can be traced

An artist's impression shows two tiny but very dense neutron stars at the point at which they merge and explode as a kilonova.

What the Neutron Star Collision Means for Dark Matter

The latest LIGO observations rekindle a fiery debate over how gravity works: Does the universe include dark matter, or doesn’t it?

Water-strapped cities with growing populations and energy needs could benefit the most. Greater Phoenix, for instance, is served by this reservoir and irrigation system fed by the Colorado River.

Five Questions You Should Have About Evaporation as a Renewable Energy Source

What’s the big deal with evaporation-driven engines?

African Lionesses by Lakshitha Karunarathna, 2017 Grand Prize

These Breathtaking Images Are the Cat’s Meow in Nature Photography

Sixty incredible outdoor scenes are now on view at the National Museum of Natural History

Crews clean up debris in a neighborhood flooded by Hurricane Harvey in Beaumont, Texas, Sept. 26, 2017

The Next Pandemic

How Do Scientists Measure the Public Health Impacts of Natural Disasters?

In the wake of this year’s hurricanes, epidemiologists are assessing the effects of mold, toxic leaks and other threats

One of the excavated burials in Drawsko, Poland showed a skeleton with a sickle placed over its neck, likely to prevent the dead from rising again as the undead.

Burials Unearthed in Poland Open the Casket on The Secret Lives of Vampires

What people actually did to prevent the dead from rising again was very different than what Hollywood would have you think

Scary pumpkins are the least of what frightens us at Halloween, a day devoted to being frightened.

What Happens in the Brain When We Feel Fear

And why some of us just can’t get enough of it

An illustration of the raccoon-like Sinosauropteryx, which lived 130 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous.

New Research

This Adorable Bandit-Faced Dinosaur Will Steal Your Heart

Some dinos were small, fluffy and frankly adorable, a new analysis shows

“And bats with baby faces in the violet light / Whistled, and beat their wings”—T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

How a Deadly Flesh-Eating Fungus Helped Make Bats Cute Again

A silver lining to the worldwide epidemic of white nose syndrome: People like bats more now

In July 1955, black children wait to register for school in Lawrence County, Arkansas, as schools desegregate in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education.

How a Psychologist’s Work on Race Identity Helped Overturn School Segregation in 1950s America

Mamie Phipps Clark came up with the oft-cited “doll test” and provided expert testimony in Brown v. Board of Education

Out of five vaquita found dead this past spring, three were killed in illegal gill nets.

There Are Possibly Only 30 of These Rare Porpoises Left on the Planet

The fascinating vaquita is heading for oblivion, the victim of a ravenous black market for a dubious remedy

The molds responsible for aflatoxins grow on a number of staple crops, including corn, peanuts, millet, wheat, cottonseed and tree nuts.

Could Video Gamers Make Our Food Supply Safer?

An effort to combat poisonous molds that contaminate crops is looking to tap the puzzle-solving skills of amateur gamers

None

The Next Pandemic

The Next Pandemic

With Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the National Museum of Natural History, we look at the past, present and future of the flu

Page 142 of 457