Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

The memorial features a 125-foot bas-relief created by sculptor Emily Bedard that moves chronologically from the buildup of the operation to the conflict and liberation.

See the Sweeping Dune Walls and 125-Foot Bas-Relief Sculpture at the National Mall’s Newest Memorial, Dedicated to Veterans of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm

The Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial is an oasis-like place for honoring the Americans who served and lost their lives in combat to liberate Kuwait in the early 1990s

A still from a video shows a fire raging at the Eagle's Nest.

A Fire Ravaged the ‘Eagle’s Nest,’ an Alpine Retreat Built for Top Nazis. What Happens Next?

Police have detained a 33-year-old German citizen in connection with the blaze, which gutted the infamous historic building. In recent years, the mountaintop guesthouse hosted a restaurant, beer garden and exhibit about the site’s dark past

Shamonda is most commonly detected in cattle.

Shamonda Virus Infected and Killed a Person for the First Time. Here’s What to Know About the Pathogen Usually Found in Livestock

The patient, a French man in his 60s with leukemia, died earlier this month. Health officials say the risk to the public is low

The Milwaukee Brewers are playing the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2026 World Series.

Art Museums in Milwaukee and Tampa Bay Are Betting That Their Hometown Baseball Teams Will Win the World Series. The Wager? Monet Paintings

As the Brewers take on the Rays in the Fall Classic, two art museums are engaged in a friendly bit of sports betting: The winning city (temporarily) gets a Monet from the other city’s collection

Coral reefs support roughly a quarter of all marine species.

Most of the World’s Shallow-Water Coral Reefs Have Been Deemed Critically Endangered, Meaning They Could Collapse Within 50 Years

The first-ever global assessment of these vibrant underwater ecosystems paints a grim picture: Climate change projections put 96 percent of shallow-water reefs at the highest level of threat

Spain was one of the hardest-hit countries during Europe's summer heat waves.

Scientists Estimate That Europe’s Scorching Summer Heat Killed More Than 50,000 People in Urban Areas

The new research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed but was accepted for publication, suggests that climate change is responsible for two-thirds of the deaths

Researchers wanted to know how the severity of rule violations can influence others' behaviors.

Rule Breaking Is Contagious. Just a Few Extreme Troublemakers Can Turn a Whole Group Into Rebels, Study Suggests

Experiments with real participants—and digital twins based on them—show how a small number of bad apples can spoil the whole barrel. However, the research scenarios don’t exactly mimic the real world

Monet is believed to have painted Iris in 1924 or 1925, shortly before his death in 1926.

This Massive, ‘Mega-Rare’ Monet Painting Is Now the Most Expensive Artwork Ever Sold at Auction in France

The Impressionist painted “Iris” a year or two before his death, at a time when his work was becoming increasingly abstract and falling out of favor with critics. Now, it’s considered a masterpiece ahead of its time

The Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

New Research

A Team of Astronomers Thinks They Have Identified the Exact Night Sky That Inspired Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night.’ Not Everyone Is Convinced

Very few night skies seen from the south of France during the summer of 1889 would match the scene on van Gogh’s canvas. A new study argues that it could have been July 22

The positron is held inside a tank beneath ground level.

For the First Time, Scientists Trapped an Elusive Antimatter Particle—and Contained It for Months. It Could Allow Them to Test an Enduring Physics Theory

The standard model of particle physics works really well, but it can’t explain why the universe exists. Something is missing, and this trapped particle might hold a clue to the answer

The planetarium is in Florida Southern College's Polk County Science Building.

Immerse Yourself in the Cosmos at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Only Planetarium, Recently Restored to Its Former Glory in Florida

Completed in 1958, the domed building is located on the campus of Florida Southern College, home to 13 Wright-designed buildings, the world’s largest single-site collection of the architect’s work

The team pinpointed the FRB's host galaxy thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope. 

Astronomers Detect the Oldest Known Fast Radio Burst, Spewed From an Ancient Galaxy Just Three Billion Years After the Big Bang

The universe formed 13.8 billion years ago, so this far-traveled burst of radio waves can help scientists learn more about the early cosmos. However, researchers still aren’t sure what produces these strange flashes

In Australia, southern cassowaries live primarily in the rainforests of Queensland. 

These Big, Fierce Birds Found Love in Australia—and Laid the First Southern Cassowary Eggs at the Adelaide Zoo in 34 Years

Zoo staffers don’t know whether the bright green eggs are viable and will ultimately hatch into chicks. However, the eggs themselves are a major win, because breeding the birds in captivity is tricky

The coin offers a rare glimpse into Olaf's life and royal power.

Cool Finds

In a Hoard of 5,500 Viking Age Coins, Archaeologists in Norway Found One So Rare That They Already Consider It a ‘National Treasure’

Fewer than 20 coins minted under Norwegian King Olaf II Haraldsson have ever been found. “We can almost imagine Olaf himself holding this coin in his hand,” one researcher says

The Voynich Manuscript is named for the antiquarian who purchased it in Italy in 1912.

New Research

This Mysterious Medieval Manuscript Has Stumped Scholars for Well Over a Century. Could Its Pages Have Been Bound Out of Order This Whole Time?

A new study claims that the pages of the Voynich Manuscript, thought to be written by several different scribes in 16th-century Europe, alternate irregularly. It may change the way codebreakers approach the text

The researchers’ criteria for circadian depression includes morning sleepiness, delayed sleep timing, social jet lag, excessive sleeping during depressive episodes, and seasonality.

One in Four Cases of Depression Could Be Caused by a Dysregulated Body Clock, Study Says

Outside experts warn that more research is needed before “circadian depression” can be classified as a subtype

Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan with a map showing the route of their final flight

Researchers Claimed a Blurry Object on Apple Maps Was ‘Very Likely’ Amelia Earhart’s Missing Plane. It Turned Out to Be a ‘Collection of Large Trees’

A 17-person crew traveled to a remote atoll in the South Pacific to investigate the so-called Taraia Object. After surveying the site, the team announced that the anomaly was not a fragment of the long-lost Lockheed Electra aircraft

The top floor of the new Espace Riopelle–Michael Audain Pavilion features Tribute to Rosa Luxemburg (1992), which Riopelle created after the death of his longtime companion Joan Mitchell.

The Canadian Artist Jean Paul Riopelle Was ‘Completely Absorbed by the Act of Painting.’ His Abstract Works Finally Have Their Own Home in a Quebec Museum

Home to the world’s largest public collection of his artworks, a new pavilion at Quebec’s Musée National des Beaux-Arts showcases the more than 50-year career of Riopelle, who was a key member of the avant-garde Automatistes movement

The figure comes from the number of birds spotted by volunteers with the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, and it likely represents an undercount.

More Than 1,000 Birds Were Killed or Injured in Window Collisions Around Chicago Over the Weekend

On the evening of October 16, more than five million birds are estimated to have flown through Cook County, which includes Chicago. They were propelled by favorable winds brought by a cold front

The park's unique rock formations were formed by an ancient volcanic eruption.

Arizona’s Otherworldly ‘Wonderland of Rocks’ Is Now America’s Newest National Park

Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona is now Chiricahua National Park, the 64th national park in the United States. Its striking geologic landscape and biodiversity have drawn humans for thousands of years

Page 4 of 1151