Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Science

In an artist's interpretation, the forested and warm Late Cretaceous is abruptly destroyed by a six-mile wide asteroid.

Life Bounced Back After the Dinosaurs Perished

The devastation was immediate, catastrophic and widespread, but plants and mammals were quick to take over

The lowly urban rat deserves our attention.

In Defense of Studying City Rats

By placing a taboo on researching these “disease sponges,” we leave ourselves at their mercy

Batang and her infant are doing well and Zoo staff report she is nursing the new male Bornean orangutan.

UPDATE: Meet the National Zoo’s Latest Bouncing Baby—an Orangutan (New Video)

A historical birth of a male Bornean orangutan, the first in 25 years, took place in Washington, D.C.

Ask Smithsonian: How Does the World Look to the Color Blind?

Most people who are color blind can see colors, they just have trouble distinguishing between specific kinds

Researchers studying stalagmite formations in the Wabash Valley fault system have found that stalagmites can yield clues to the timing of ancient earthquakes.

Journey to the Center of Earth

Cave Formations Carry Clues About Ancient Earthquakes

Researchers have found that stalagmites can help determine if and when a region was struck by an earthquake.

The magnitude 5.8 earthquake that struck Pawnee, Oklahoma, on Sept. 3 is officially the state's largest on record. Geologists believe that activities related to oil and gas extraction in the state have triggered a quake swarm in the seismically active region.

Journey to the Center of Earth

Oklahoma Just Had Its Biggest Quake Ever, and There May Be More to Come

Oklahoma’s recent string of earthquakes are something new for the state

After just moments in the air, flight 1549 collided with a flock of geese.

Smithsonian Expert Fills in the Missing Science Behind the Movie “Sully”

Forensic ornithologist Carla Dove shares her story of analyzing the bird remains or “snarge” scraped from the engines of flight 1549

As more countries and companies send spacecraft to other worlds, scientists are worried about potential contamination risks. Here, NASA's Curiosity rover takes a self-portrait on Mars.

Think Big

Can We Save Mars From Ourselves?

When we travel to Earth-like worlds, contamination may be inevitable

Melba Roy led the group of human computers who tracked the Echo satellites in the 1960s.

Women Who Shaped History

The True Story of “Hidden Figures,” the Forgotten Women Who Helped Win the Space Race

A new book and movie document the accomplishments of NASA’s black “human computers” whose work was at the heart of the country’s greatest battles

The pace of drug development can be key in minimizing the scale of an outbreak.

The Story of a Resurrected Antiviral Could Hold Lessons for Combating Zika

How Stanford scientists used two genetic screening techniques in tandem to unravel the mystery of a discarded antiviral

Mario Livio

Think Big

Astrophysicist Mario Livio on the Intersection of Art and Science

The scientist considers both a response to the vastness of the universe

Like humans, captive Komodo dragons tend to impose their microbes upon their environments.

Captive Komodo Dragons Share Their Teeming Microbiome with Their Environment, Just Like Us

Komodos could be the perfect model for studying host-microbe interactions

Dennis Wiist inspects an eagle's foot at the National Eagle Repository in Commerce City, Colorado.

Inside a Remarkable Repository that Supplies Eagle Parts to Native Americans and Science

The repository, which has long provided feathers to tribes for traditional uses, also helps bird conservation researchers

The only one who really understands me.

New Research

Dogs Know When You’re Praising Them. That Doesn’t Mean They Understand Human Speech

A dose of caution with the results of an intriguing new study

Think Curiosity is cool? You ain't seen nothing yet.

Think Big

How the Next Generation of Mars Rovers will Search for Signs of Life

The Mars 2020 rover doesn’t even have a name yet—but it already has an ambitious goal

A Falcon 9 explodes on the launch pad, 9:07 a.m. on September 1, 2016.

Air & Space Magazine

SpaceX Explosion Sets Back Launch Date, Hopes

The Falcon 9 blow up may be a sign that Elon Musk is moving too fast

An artist's impression of the Milky Way six million years ago, depicts an orange bubble at the galactic center and extending to a radius of about 20,000 light-years. Scientist think that outside of that bubble, a pervasive "fog" of million-degree gas might account for the galaxy's missing matter.

Solving the Mystery of the Milky Way’s Missing Mass

Smithsonian scientists have discovered a huge cloud of super hot gas expanding from the middle of our galaxy

Page 173 of 457