Presenting Smithsonian magazine's top ten stories of 2019

Our Top Ten Stories of 2019

From a 16-million-year-old tree to Confederate soldiers’ diaries, voracious snakes and England’s warrior king, these were the most-read stories of 2019

In the past decade or so, the number of podcasts to choose from has soared.

Education During Coronavirus

Eighteen Podcasts to Listen to in 2020

Need podcast recommendations for travel or the treadmill? Here’s what Smithsonian experts listen to

An artist's illustration of Dendromaia unamakiensis, a 310-million-year old land-dwelling vertebrate that looked a like a modern monitor lizard, pictured here with its offspring

Lizard-Like Fossil May Represent 306-Million-Year-Old Evidence of Animal Parenting

Shortly after transitioning from sea to land, our egg-laying ancestors may have started parenting their young

An aerial view of a fossil of Archaeopteris, a 385-million-year-old tree with surprisingly modern-looking roots.

The World’s Oldest Forest Has 385-Million-Year-Old Tree Roots

A trove of arboreal fossils pushes back the origin of modern forests and sophisticated tree roots

The Blue Mountains of Niger. Arable land in the fast-growing country shrank nearly 50 percent per capita from 1996 to 2016.

Photographs From One of the World’s Most Troubled, and Least Understood, Regions

A photojournalist journeys to the Sahara-Sahel desert of remote northern Africa to catalogue the state of emergency on the ground

The North Island brown kiwi is a flightless, nocturnal bird that lays the biggest egg relative to its body size.

What Bird Lays the Biggest Eggs Compared to Its Body Size? Where Does ‘Lame Duck’ Come From? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got question. We’ve got experts

Strains of Streptomyces bacteria, found in soil, grow in a lab at Swansea University in Wales. They're so new to science they haven't been named.

Soil From a Northern Ireland Graveyard May Lead Scientists to a Powerful New Antibiotic

An ancient legend could provide a new weapon in the fight against deadly bacteria

A melanistic Indian leopard in Nagarhole National Park.

Why Are Black Leopards So Rare?

Several species of cat have members with all-black coats, but the evolutionary advantages and disadvantages are just starting to be understood

Exposed stone-built features in shallow water at the archaeological site of Tel Hreiz.

Oldest Known Seawall Discovered Along Submerged Mediterranean Villages

Archaeologists believe the 7,000-year-old structure was intended to protect settlements as sea levels rose

Microneedle patches, like this one that measures about a centimeter across, could be used to deliver nanoparticles when pressed to the skin for two minutes.

This Spiky Patch Could Invisibly Record Vaccination History Under Skin

But the technology raise several ethical concerns that could stymie its progress

Several Homo erectus skulls were recently identified as the youngest known fossils of the species, some 108,000 to 117,000 years old. These fossil replicas are housed at the University of Iowa.

Fossils From Some of the Last Homo Erectus Hint at the End of the Long-Lived Species

Homo erectus, one of the first species of the Homo genus, survived for longer than any other close human ancestor

The coastline of Quadra Island in British Columbia. Some scientists believe that prehistoric humans spent thousands of years in the region.

The Story of How Humans Came to the Americas Is Constantly Evolving

Surprising new clues point to the arrival taking place thousands of years earlier than previously believed

A 5,700-year-old piece of birch tar, chewed as gum, contains the genome, mouth microbes, and even dietary information about its former chewer.

Human Genome Recovered From 5,700-Year-Old Chewing Gum

The piece of Birch tar, found in Denmark, also contained the mouth microbes of its ancient chewer, as well as remnants of food to reveal what she ate

Ecologists fear that repaving the highway known as BR-319 will open new sections of the Amazon to catastrophic deforestation.

Is the Amazon on a Road to Ruin?

Brazil’s plan to develop a lonesome track in the heart of the rainforest poses a threat the whole world may someday have to overcome

Older people tend to believe that younger generations lack whatever traits they themselves possess in abundance.

The Psychology Behind Generational Conflict

Older people have groused about younger people for millennia. Now we know why

Thousands of brooding octopuses were discovered in 2018 on the ocean floor off the coast of California.

Eighteen Things We’ve Learned About the Oceans in the Last Decade

In the past 10 years, the world’s oceans have faced new challenges, revealed new wonders, and provided a roadmap for future conservation

Many artists work hard to bring dinosaurs to life with accurate details, but often products can be out dated or be careless with details like how Diplodocus held their necks.

A Shopper’s Guide to Dinosaur Gifts

Tips from experts at the National Museum of Natural History to help you buy scientifically accurate dinosaur gifts for your loved one

The cubs are a male named Paitoon and a female named Jilian. They were born April 29 and March 24, respectively, at the Nashville Zoo.

The Smithsonian’s Ten Splashiest New Acquisitions of 2019

This year marks the arrival of a brilliant diamond, a hybrid space rocket, exciting paintings and two darling clouded leopard cubs

A colorized scanning electron microscope image of a neuron (orange) interfaced with the nanowire array.

Miniature Brains Recently Sent Out Brain Waves for the First Time

The brain organoids, about the size of a pea, can be used to better understand neurological diseases

The remarkably complete skull of a human ancestor of the genus Australopithecus

Here’s What 2019 Scientific Discovery Taught Us About Our Human Origins

Six studies rocked the anthropological world from a new branch of the human family to a face only an Australopithecus could love

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