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Astronaut Sally Ride (left) and poet Maya Angelou (right) will be the first individuals honored through the American Women Quarters Program.

Women Who Shaped History

Maya Angelou, Sally Ride to Be Among First Women Featured on U.S. Quarters

Between 2022 and 2025, the U.S. Mint is set to highlight up to 20 trailblazing American women

Though the intaglio dates to the days of Roman Britain (43 to 410 A.D.), the silver seal that holds it was likely made in the 13th or 14th century.

Cool Finds

Silver Medieval Seal Featuring Engraved Roman Gem Unearthed in England

The rare artifact depicts war god Mars and Victoria, the mythological personification of victory

While erosion is a natural occurrence that happens over time, the Galàpagos Islands are more at risk to threats of erosion because of climate change.

Iconic Natural Rock Feature in the Galápagos Islands Crumbles Into the Ocean

The top of the Darwin’s Arch, a natural stone archway, fell as a result of natural erosion

One of the six recovered frescoes depicts a dancing cherub.

Six Stolen Frescoes Returned to Pompeii

Between the 1970s and 2012, looters stole elegant artworks from two villas neighboring the famed ancient settlement

When male cicadas are infected with Massospora, they exhibit both male and female mating behavior: singing to attract females and flicking their wings to attract males.

Cicadas Fall Prey to a Psychedelic-Producing Fungus That Makes Their Butts Fall Off

This ‘zombie’ fungus isn’t going after the bugs’ brains—it’s after their genitals

"You can never safely operate a flying bomb," says historian Dan Grossman.

Cool Finds

Watch Newly Resurfaced Footage of the Hindenburg Disaster

A PBS documentary investigates the cause of the infamous 1937 explosion that tanked the airship industry

Kate McCaffrey, a former steward at Anne's childhood home, used ultraviolet light and photo editing software to reveal hidden writing in the Tudor queen's Book of Hours.

Cool Finds

Hidden Inscriptions Discovered in Anne Boleyn’s Execution Prayer Book

New research suggests a circle of Tudor women saved the “Book of Hours” for the queen’s daughter, Elizabeth I

A photograph captures the total lunar eclipse of January 21, 2019

Get Ready for the Super Flower Blood Moon Eclipse Next Week

Much of the western U.S. will see an extra-large, eerily red full moon on May 26

Experiments showed that pigs and mice can absorb oxygen through their rectums.

New Research

Anally Delivered Oxygen Kept Suffocating Pigs and Mice Alive in the Lab. Could the Method One Day Save Human Lives, Too?

The technique may provide doctors with a new way of providing supplemental oxygen for patients with failing lungs

Several male jaguars have been spotted in Arizona and New Mexico over the last twenty years, but no evidence of breeding pairs establishing territories beyond Mexico has been seen or reported.

It’s Time to Reintroduce Jaguars in the U.S. Southwest, Scientists and Conservation Groups Say

Hunting decimated the big cat’s population in the United States by the mid-20th century

Prior to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the thriving neighborhood of Greenwood, Oklahoma (seen here in 1920), was nicknamed "Black Wall Street."

Remembering Tulsa

How the Public Helped Historians Better Understand What Happened at Tulsa

A century after the massacre of a prosperous Black community, Smithsonian volunteers transcribed nearly 500 pages of vital records in less than 24 hours

The administration has not yet announced how the 80 million doses will be distributed, but intends to do so by the end of June.

U.S. Commits to Sharing 20 Million More Vaccine Doses With Countries in Need

The new commitment adds 20 million Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson doses to the previously promised 60 million AstraZeneca doses

New research suggests the intrepid adventurer's persistent health problems stemmed from beriberi, a disease linked to vitamin B-1 deficiency.

What Mysterious Illness Plagued Polar Explorer Ernest Shackleton?

The Antarctic adventurer was initially diagnosed with scurvy, but new research suggests he actually suffered from beriberi

Historians have long thought that Slavic peoples did not develop an alphabet until the ninth century—but the new findings suggest otherwise.

Cool Finds

Runes Found on Seventh-Century Cow Bone Could Change Slavic History

The Germanic writing suggests Slavs used an alphabet more than 200 years earlier than previously believed

A silver shilling recently found at the former site of St. Mary's Fort, one of the first colonial settlements in British North America

Cool Finds

Rare 17th-Century Coin Featuring Charles I’s Likeness Found in Maryland

Archaeologists found a telltale silver shilling at the likely site of St. Mary’s Fort, a 1634 structure built by early English colonists

The researchers identified 65 species that make noise when they play by looking at existing studies. They estimate there certainly could be more chuckling critters out there.

New Research

Dogs Do It, Birds Do It, and Dolphins Do It, Too. Here Are 65 Animals That Laugh, According to Science

Researchers suggest that laughter in the animal kingdom may help creatures let each other know when it’s playtime, so that play fights don’t escalate

Researchers found that the House Sparrow Passer domesticus had the biggest population out of the total bird species surveys at 1.6 billion individuals.

An Estimated 50 Billion Birds Populate Earth, but Four Species Reign Supreme

House sparrows, European starlings, barn swallows and ring-billed gulls all occupy the billion-bird club with gargantuan population numbers

In the images, the Great Red Spot, Jupiter's superstorm, is seen in both visible and ultraviolet light, but it disappears into the background as a black splotch in the infrared image.

Peer Into Jupiter’s Gassy Atmosphere With These Stunning New Photos

The images taken at various wavelengths reveal details about the gas giant’s stormy atmosphere

Maya Lin's Ghost Forest is on view at Madison Square Park through November 14, 2021.

Haunting ‘Ghost Forest’ Resurrected in New York City

Artist Maya Lin hopes to call attention to one of the dire effects of climate change with an installation in Madison Square Park

The exhibition includes clandestine photographs of Nazi death marches. This image, taken by Maria Seidenberger, depicts a forced march from Buchenwald to Dachau.

When the Nazis Murdered Thousands by Sending Them on Forced Death Marches

Photographs, survivors’ accounts on display at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London illuminate a lesser-known chapter of WWII

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