Women in early modern Europe collected recipes for balms, distillations and elixirs to treat all manner of ailments.

Part of Being a Domestic Goddess in 17th-Century Europe Was Making Medicines

Housewives’ essential role in health care is coming to light as more recipe books from the pre-Industrial Revolution era are digitized

Artist’s conception of the Perseverance rover sampling rocks on the floor of Jezero crater. The rover also carries the Ingenuity helicopter (not shown) that can fly in advance of the rover and scout out high priority rocks and outcrops for the rover to visit.

Smithsonian Voices

Is There Life on Mars?

Smithsonian scientist John Grant says we have to know what to look for and where to go on the planet for evidence

Covid-19

The Fever That Struck New York

The front lines of a terrible epidemic, through the eyes of a young doctor profoundly touched by tragedy

Artist’s rendition of Ingenuity flying on Mars.

Smithsonian Voices

How the Perseverance Rover Paves a Path Into the Future

Three new (and particularly challenging) aspects of the Mars 2020 mission that distinguishes it from previous missions

The health of corals on the Great Barrier Reef is routinely being threatened by hot water temperatures. The Australian government is investigating a range of techniques to try to protect the corals and stave off warming.

Could Flushing Cold Water Over the Great Barrier Reef Save Corals?

Lack of action on climate change is forcing scientists to devise ever more elaborate ways to stave off damage

A statue of Charles Darwin sits in the Natural History Museum in London. The scientist's book 'Descent of Man' was published in 1871.

How Darwin’s ‘Descent of Man’ Holds Up 150 Years After Publication

Questions still swirl around the author’s theories about sexual selection and the evolution of minds and morals

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Covid-19

How Navajo Physicians Are Battling the Covid-19 Pandemic

Combining traditional medicine and modern science, these courageous doctors have risen to the challenge

Technicians at Canada's main polio vaccine supplier at the time, Connaught Laboratories, working on a step of vaccine formulation in 1955.

The Great Canadian Polio Vaccine Heist of 1959

A theft more than 60 years ago shows how sought-after scarce vaccine doses have been in past epidemics

A piece of bone labeled PP-00128 was thought to belong to a bear until DNA analysis revealed it came from a dog.

Ancient DNA Reveals the Oldest Domesticated Dog in the Americas

A 10,000-year-old dog bone was found in an Alaskan cave near a site with human remains

Researchers in France are testing which fish eggs are best suited to being launched to the moon. So far, European seabass are among the leaders.

Could Astronauts Rear Fish on the Moon?

Researchers in France aim to boldly farm fish where no one has farmed fish before

Could humans be visiting Venus in the future?

Ask Smithsonian

Will We Ever Send Humans to Venus?

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

NASA's Perseverance rover will store rock and soil samples in sealed tubes on the surface of Mars.

Exploring Mars

Perseverance Kicks Off Elaborate Effort to Bring Mars Rocks to Earth

The decade-long mission requires dozens of glass tubes, two rovers and three more rocket launches, including the first from another planet

Regenerative farming, which centers on building soil health, is one promising pathway for decreasing agriculture’s carbon footprint.

To Meet Ambitious Emissions Goals, Large Food Companies Are Looking to Lock Carbon in Soil

But the logistics of moving farmers in their supply chains to regenerative agriculture practices can be complicated

This fossilized dinosaur head and vertebrae were discovered in 1883 but only recently gained its name, Smitanosaurus agilis.

Smithsonian Voices

Scientists Name Old Dinosaur for the Smithsonian

A new study has reclassified a fossil discovered in 1883 as a dicraeosaurid—a family of long-necked dinosaurs rarely found in North America

Since scientists haven’t yet found evidence that the vaccines provide mucosal immunity, someone who is vaccinated and has no symptoms of illness may be carrying the live SARS-CoV-2 virus and spreading it to others when they cough, breath or sneeze.

Covid-19

Why It’s Important to Still Wear a Mask After Covid-19 Vaccination

Vaccinated people should still wear masks around unvaccinated individuals to prevent transmission

A polar bear, dependent on sea ice for its hunting grounds, pauses near Churchill, Manitoba.

Polar Bears Live on the Edge of the Climate Change Crisis

On Hudson Bay’s frigid shores, scientists track the animals to better understand how the environment is shaping their chances of survival

NOAA geneticist Patricia Rosel and Smithsonian marine mammal collection manager John Ososky examine the Rice’s whale skeleton at the Smithsonian whale warehouse in Maryland.

How the Rice’s Whale Became a New Species

The intact skeleton of a washed-up whale gave scientists the final pieces of evidence needed to make the designation

A new study analyzes the downy feathers of 249 Himalayan songbird species, including this brown-throated fulvetta, using specimens from the National Museum of Natural History's vast collections.

Himalayan Songbirds Adapted to the Cold by Sporting Thicker Down ‘Jackets’

High-elevation birds might use their downy feathers to keep from wasting energy shivering to stay warm

Steppe mammoths evolved shaggy coats over a million years ago, a trait inherited by woolly mammoths.

Oldest DNA Sequenced Yet Comes From Million-Year-Old Mammoths

Genetic material from three ancient molars reveals secrets of about how the Ice Age elephants evolved

"We didn’t think there was a lot of wind-driven activity on Mars because the atmosphere is so thin,” says the Smithsonian's Mariah Baker. “We’ve discovered that Mars is a very active place."

Exploring Mars

Why a Smithsonian Researcher Is Tracking the Wind on Mars

When Perseverance lands, Mariah Baker will collect data that will prepare the way for crewed missions to the Red Planet

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