Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

None

Clouds Obscure Clear Climate Forecasts

Ride alongside NASA’s Airborne Science Laboratory as scientists try to figure out the role of clouds in climate change

The symbol of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza family and the ones who put out their new magazine.

Japanese Mafia Has Its Own Magazine

Looking to boost morale, the Japanese crime syndicate is putting out a magazine

Melting Glaciers Are Liberating Ancient Clothes, Like This 1,700-Year-Old Sweater

The well worn, patched up tunic turned up after sections of Norway’s quickly-melting Lendbreen glacier retreated

Most sound (99.9 percent) bounces off the frog, but the mouth captures and amplifies key vibrations needed for the frogs to pick up on one another’s croaks.=

This Frog Hears With Its Mouth

The tiny Gardiner’s frog does not possess an eardrum, but it has come up with a convenient evolutionary hack to get around that

Japan’s Planning to Build an “Ice Wall” Around Fukushima

The Japanese government has stepped in and announced that it will invest $500 million in the project

Tourists explore the Crescent Moon Spring along the historic Silk Road trade route.

How Third-Century China Saw Rome, a Land Ruled by “Minor Kings”

Translations of a 3rd century Chinese text describe Roman life

Skunk is one of the smells this poor man thinks he’s smelling.

This Man’s Smell Hallucinations Can Predict the Weather

For one man Parkinson’s hallucinations were both horrible and predictive - he smelled an intense skunky oniony smell that got worse when a storm was coming

LEGO Reveals a Female Scientist Minifigure

Just a few weeks ago Barbie released their “Mars Explorer” doll. And today LEGO unleashed their female scientist block figurine

None

A Reminder From Yosemite’s Massive 1988 Fire: Wildfire Is Largely a Human Problem

This isn’t the first time fire has threatened a national park

Whales Can Get Sunburned, Too

While we slather sunscreen on our skin, whales don’t have the hands or the technology to do the same

None

Watch NASA Crash-Test a Helicopter by Dropping It

For tanks and cars safety testing means crashing them into walls. For a military helicopter that means dropping it from 30 feet in the air

When You Don’t Have Enough Money, It’s Hard to Think About Anything Else

Subjects consumed with money, they found, dropped an average of 13 IQ points, or the equivalent of zapping our brain by pulling a mind-numbing all-nighter

None

Time-Traveling Time Lapse Takes the Same Train Ride in 1953, 1983 And 2013

Three time-lapses were shot on the same stretch of rail over 60 years

Thousands of Dolphins And Whales Will Get in the Way of the Navy’s Bombs, Says the Navy

Underwater explosions and sonar testing is expected to kill hundreds, and injure thousands to millions of animals

There Might Soon Be a Cure for (Your Pet Mouse’s) Jetlag

Scientists have found the protein that prevents your (mouse’s) body from adjusting to changing time zones

Why Do We Cry When We’re Happy?

Your brain can’t handle the overflow of emotion

Twyla Hein, Earth Biscuit Farm, Tipton, Iowa

This Photographer Is Documenting the Forgotten Female Faces of Farming

The face of farming is almost always male, but women are the fastest growing farming demographic in the country. This photographer is telling their stories

Dung Beetles Offset Climate Change

Even the most determined dung beetles can’t offset all of those emissions, so don’t feel too relieved about that steak or burger

None

Russian Authorities Are Deciding If It’s Illegal to Paint Putin in a Negligee

Russian police are flexing their newly appointed authority under the country’s anti-gay propaganda law

Guilt Is Contagious

Shaking hands with a cheater made study participants feel guilty themselves

Page 1021 of 1132