Hurricane Irene caused destruction throughout the Caribbean and along the U.S. East Coast, killing more than 50 people in late August 2011.

New Research

Our Gender Biases May Be Making Hurricanes With Female Names More Deadly

Even without Katrina and Audrey, storms with feminine monikers have killed more people than those with masculine names

Anatomically Correct Hibiscus; yarn; 2005; 45" x 45" x 32"

Art Meets Science

Sowing a Garden, One Knit Flower At a Time

Providence-based artist Tatyana Yanishevsky’s sculptures of various plant species are botanically accurate in almost everything but their scale

An oil tanker makes its way to Valdez, Alaska. The Arctic’s rich stores of oil and natural gas make it an attractive destination for future voyages.

Arctic Shipping: Good For Invasive Species, Bad For the Rest of Nature

A pair of Smithsonian marine biologists argue that a warming Arctic puts the area at risk for inviting invasive species

A Cyclosa ginnaga spider perched amid its silk web decoration looks strangely like the result of a bird relieved itself in the forest understory.

New Research

This Spider Web Was Deliberately Spun to Look Like Bird Poop

It’s not artistic license. The arachnid avoids predators by masquerading as bird droppings, say scientists

Watching a movie on a DVD requires more energy than streaming it over the Internet, a new study finds.

New Research

Streaming a Movie Uses Less Energy Than Watching a DVD

Getting rid of DVD players could reduce carbon dioxide emissions, researchers find

A chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) mother resting with her children in western Uganda.

New Research

Ebola Vaccine For Chimps Could Help Save Wild Populations

A trial of a chimp vaccine highlights debates over vaccinating wild populations and using chimps in medical research

Left to right: Kamala, Swarna, and Maharani at the Calgary Zoo in 2013.

The National Zoo May Be In For An Elephant Reunion

These three females will help the zoo develop a diverse elephant herd like those found in the wild

The American paddlefish, which makes spawning migrations up the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers.

Trending Today

This Weekend, Celebrate the World’s Weird and Wonderful Migratory Fishes

The first annual World Migratory Fish Day is making a splash with hundreds of outdoor, fish-centric events

Noc (in 1995) strongly “wanted to make a connection,” says former naval trainer Michelle Jeffries. “I think that was part of the thing behind him mimicking speech.”

The Story of One Whale Who Tried to Bridge the Linguistic Divide Between Animals and Humans

While captive in a Navy program, a beluga whale named Noc began to mimic human speech. What was behind his attempt to talk to us?

Why Are People So Comfortable With Small Drones?

The FAA will soon allow commercial drones to fly in U.S. airspace, but researchers have found that they aren’t seen as much of a nuisance at all

Tiktaalik roseae had fish-like fins, a flattened skull (similar to a crocodile), and is thought to have lived in shallow water, using its fins to prop itself up.

Did the Evolution of Animal Intelligence Begin With Tiktaalik?

How one marvelously preserved fossil sheds light on how the vertebrate invasion of land took place

The Clarion nightsnake, brought into the scientific light at last.

New Research

Written Off as a Figment, the Mysterious Clarión Nightsnake Reemerges after Nearly 80 Years

The snake was discovered on a remote Mexican island in the 1930s, but the notes of the famous naturalist who documented it were later called into question

The crater measures almost 230 feet across.

This Hellish Desert Pit Has Been On Fire for More Than 50 Years

In the Turkmenistan desert, a crater dubbed “The Door to Hell” has been burning for decades

Kayakers paddle along the roadway of the historic waterfront of Annapolis, following Hurricane Isabel. As much as four feet of water flooded the historic capital city.

Which of America’s Most Precious Historical Sites Are Threatened By Climate Change?

A new report warns that rising sea levels could destroy many of the nation’s important—and beloved—locations

The interior of Greenland (seen here with researchers’ tents pitched) is usually covered in frozen ice and snow. In July 2012, though, 97 percent of the surface melted for the first time in more than 100 years. Scientists now know why that happened.

New Research

Nearly All of Greenland’s Surface Melted Overnight in 2012—Here’s Why

High temperatures and black carbon from forest fires and fossil fuels combined to push the huge ice sheet over the edge

This year, Smithsonian magazine's festival is themed "Science Meets Science Fiction."

Future Is Here Festival

The Future is (Still) Here: Day Two of Smithsonian’s Second Annual Conference

Instead of holding its own global fest this year, Nerd Nite descended on our nation’s capital.

Jet pack demonstration at Smithsonian magazine's 'The Future is Here' Festival

Future Is Here Festival

Watch a Man Fly a Jetpack Around D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Building at Smithsonian’s ‘The Future Is Here’ Festival

The conference’s first day ended with a bang—or should we say, a blast-off.

A combination of infrared and X-ray observations indicates that a surplus of massive stars has formed from a large disk of gas around Sagittarius A*.

Future Is Here Festival

Inside Black Holes

Three recent black hole events and how they shape our universe

Christopher Vo, a roboticist at George Mason University and drone technology educator, teaches everyday users how to build and fly drones like this one.

Future Is Here Festival

What Would You Do With A Drone?

As the potential drone applications grow, so does the build-your-own drone movement

Left, a golden record (© Nasa/National Geographic Society/Corbis) Right, the other side of the golden record shows directions to play it. Identical records carrying the story of Earth were sent into deep space on Voyager 1 and 2.

Future Is Here Festival

The Golden Record 2.0 Will Crowdsource A Selfie of Human Culture

Inspired by a similar effort in the 1970s, the project wants your help in creating a portrait of humanity to send out of the solar system

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