Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

Records of lunar eclipses that appeared unusually dark are telling scientists when volcanic eruptions might have occurred in the past.

Medieval Eclipse Records Help Scientists Understand Volcanic Eruptions

Descriptions of lunar eclipses from monks and poets can shed light on how volcanoes affect Earth’s climate in a new study

One of the fake Basquiats taken by the FBI last summer

California Man Admits to Helping Create Fake Basquiat Paintings

Michael Barzman agreed to plead guilty in connection with a scandal that rocked the Orlando Museum of Art

An etching of Black families gathering the dead after the Colfax Massacre published in Harper's Weekly, May 10, 1873

Trending Today

The 1873 Colfax Massacre Set Back the Reconstruction Era

Occuring 150 years ago, one of the worst incidents of racial violence after the Civil War set the stage for segregation

Lake Mead in July 2021—the lighter colored rocks indicate how high water levels used to be. Last summer, the lake was filled to just 27 percent of capacity, its lowest water levels since 1937.

U.S. Proposes Cuts to Colorado River Water Usage

Negotiations between states have not produced an agreement on how to allocate the dwindling water, so the federal government has offered tentative plans

Researchers think the artists may have been experimenting with how to depict movement.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover 1,400-Year-Old Murals of Two-Faced Men in Peru

The new finds are shedding light on the Moche people, who lived on Peru’s northern coast

Volcanic ash covers the ground and houses in Klyuchi village on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia after the Shiveluch volcano's eruption. 

Volcanic Eruption Spews Ash 12 Miles Into the Air in Russia

The volcano Shiveluch coated villages in dust and prompted flight warnings

The M+ museum is giving away 10,000 free tickets to university students in Hong Kong for the “Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now” exhibition.

This Hong Kong Museum Is Giving Away 10,000 Tickets to Yayoi Kusama Show

College students can get free admission to the museum as part of a broader government-led mental health initiative

The supernova Cassiopeia A, as imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI)

See the James Webb Telescope’s Stunning New Snapshot of an Exploded Star

The supernova, known as Cassiopeia A, is located roughly 11,000 light-years from Earth and could offer insights into cosmic dust and star death

An artist's rendition of the runaway black hole with the stream of stars trailing behind it. Its former host galaxy is in the upper right of the image.

Black Hole Hurtling Through Space Leaves a Trail of Stars in Its Wake

Researchers theorize a stream of stars 200,000 light-years long came from a black hole ejected from its galaxy

Yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes)

These Male Ants Have Two Separate Sets of DNA

A genetic condition called chimerism may have helped yellow crazy ants become a dominating invasive species, a new study suggests

Disney just announced that a live-action remake of its 2016 film Moana is in the works.

‘Moana’ Will Set Sail Again in Disney’s Live-Action Remake

Dwayne Johnson will co-produce the film—and reprise his role as the demigod Maui

A person clears snow off their car in February 2023 after a snowstorm in Provo, Utah.

Utah Shatters Snowpack Records, but Its Drought Remains

Unprecedented winter storms may provide temporary relief for the state’s water problems

Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO's director-general, meeting with Ukrainian officials during her visit to the country last week

Rebuilding Ukraine’s Cultural Sector Will Require Nearly $7 Billion, UNESCO Says

The agency’s director-general traveled to the war-torn country to pledge additional support

A wild Asian elephant in Sri Lanka

Watch This Elephant Peel a Banana With Her Trunk

Pang Pha likely learned to de-skin the yellow fruits while observing her human caretaker in her youth

Archaeologists unearthed the foundation of the original 1818 church.

DNA Evidence Sheds Light on One of America’s Oldest Black Churches

New research links human remains in Williamsburg, Virginia, to the first permanent building of the First Baptist Church

Now extinct, thylacines are carnivorous marsupials that once roamed freely around Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea.

Extinct Tasmanian Tigers May Have Survived Longer Than Previously Thought

Though the last documented thylacine died in 1936, a new study based on alleged sightings suggests the species lived for decades more

The bow of the Vasa displayed at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm

Who Was the Woman Aboard This Famed 17th-Century Swedish Warship?

DNA analysis has revealed that a woman was among the 30 who died when the ‘Vasa’ sank on its maiden voyage

After Yellowstone National Park faced an unusually harsh winter, a large number of its nearly 6,000 bison migrated to find food and more temperate climates.

Controversial Yellowstone Hunt Kills More Than 1,100 Bison

The hunt is an effort to control the animal’s population and protect cattle outside the park

The hair strands were found inside decorative tubes.

New Research

Ancient Europeans Took Hallucinogenic Drugs 3,000 Years Ago

Hair strands from the Bronze Age reveal the first direct evidence of drug use in Europe

A zoomed-in image of Uranus captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Eleven of the planet's 13 rings are visible, though some are so bright they appear to blend into one ring.

James Webb Telescope Captures Detailed Image of Uranus’ Rings

The high-tech observatory also observed two storm clouds on the planet, a polar cap, six moons and distant galaxies

Page 257 of 1127