Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Science

May 6, 2006: Barbaro, with Edgar Prado aboard, nears the finish of the Kentucky Derby. He won the "Run for the Roses" by six and a half lengths, the largest margin in 60 years.

Barbaro’s Legacy

The effort to save the fallen champion shows how far equine medicine has come in recent years. And how far it still has to go

A member of an underwater archaeology team inspects a sphinx that is at least 3,000 years old.

Raising Alexandria

More than 2,000 years after Alexander the Great founded Alexandria, archaeologists are discovering its fabled remains

Among the best hunters in Africa, wild dogs have a higher kill rate than lions and can take down antelope that weigh as much as 500 pounds. They are notorious for a grisly efficiency that has made some people fear and hate them, if not shoot them on sight.

Curse of the Devil’s Dogs

Viewed as pests, Africa’s wild dogs have nearly been wiped out. But thanks to new conservation efforts, the canines appear ready to make a comeback

None

The Nic Fix

Put down your lighters and pick up your health care cards—, nicotine vaccines are in the works

Nudibranchs (seaslugs) are favorite with amateur divers. The advent of SCUBA diving and digital photography has revolutionized how we document and describe these soft-bodied, shell-less gastropods.

Species Explosion

What happens when you mix evolution with climate change?

Covering the Earth

A collection of Smithsonian’s recent environmental stories

The amount of jobs and money funneling into the American Midwest could be an economic boon, says Chris Somerville. "We've gone from a couple to 150 corn-grain ethanol plants in 3 years."

The World After Oil

As the planet warms up, eco-friendly fuels can’t get here fast enough

None

Who’s Your Daddy?

Tyrannosaurus rex

Dino Do-Over

Two NOAA WP-3D Orions

Farming the Deep

None

Squirrelologist

None

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Gray seals, alligators and the world’s largest flower

Although Brazil protected indigenous territories in the 1980s, many miners and loggers ignore Native boundaries; they see cultural mapping as a threat.

Rain Forest Rebel

In the Amazon, researchers documenting the ways of native peoples join forces with a chief to stop illegal developers from destroying the wilderness

Sometime after 1938, a forger, perhaps oblivious to the document's historic nature, tried to boost its value by painting Byzantine-style illuminations on a few of its pages.

Reading Between the Lines

Scientists with high-tech tools are deciphering lost writings of the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes

Pallid sturgeons, which can reach six feet long and live 60 years, flourished for eons in murky American waters.

Curtains for the Pallid Sturgeon

Can biologists breed the “Dinosaurs of the Missouri” fast enough to stave off their extinction?

Page 411 of 441