Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

Mother and daughter listen to an audio tour at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Baltimore Museum of Art Will Collect Works Exclusively by Women in 2020

“To rectify centuries of imbalance, you have to do something radical,” says museum director Christopher Bedford

The study involved 104 Labrador retrievers between four weeks and 16 years old.

New Research

Calculate Your Dog’s Age With This New, Improved Formula

A study of the epigenetic clock in Labradors shows calculating a dog’s age is much more complicated than just multiplying by seven

Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that cause plague, survives on fleas that live on rodents, like rats and rabbits.

Three Cases of Plague Diagnosed in China

Officials say the risk of an outbreak is low, but many are concerned that information about the cases is being restricted

A golden ring once given as a present by the famed Irish writer Oscar Wilde has been recovered by a Dutch "art detective" nearly 20 years after it was stolen from Britain's Oxford University.

Cool Finds

Art Detective Tracks Down Oscar Wilde’s Stolen Friendship Ring

Authorities previously believed the ring, taken from Oxford in 2002, was melted down by an individual unaware of its true significance

The Hindenburg disaster marked the end of the era of passenger-carrying airships.

Werner Doehner, Last Survivor of the Hindenburg Disaster, Dies at Age 90

The event “was definitely a repressed memory,” says Doehner’s son

The centuries-old painting—now identified as a genuine Botticelli—has finally emerged from storage.

Cool Finds

An Unidentified Botticelli Painting Spent Decades Hidden in Welsh Museum’s Storeroom

The newly attributed masterpiece was previously believed to be a crude copy of the artist’s work

A singed Koala receives treatment for dehydration at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital earlier this month.

Australia Faces ‘National Tragedy’ After Koala Population Takes Hit in Recent Brushfires

Massive wildfires are exacerbating the marsupial’s already vulnerable status

Sweet Narwhal will be adoptable soon, but he is not for sale. He is a very good boy, of course.

Meet the ‘Unicorn Puppy’ With an Extra Tail on His Head

Narwhal’s unique appendage may be the remnant of his parasitic twin

One of the three Armada portraits of Queen Elizabeth I

Three Portraits of Victorious Elizabeth I to Be Displayed Together for the First Time

The paintings were created in the wake of England’s defeat of the Spanish Armada

The $9,500 digital dress

Designers Are Selling Expensive Clothes That Don’t Exist—and People Are Actually Buying Them

Earlier this year, a digital-only dress sold at auction for $9,500

The thread-like structures in this image from the Japanese satellite Hinode are spicules, giant plumes of gas that transfer energy through the sun’s various regions.

New Research

Millions of Plasma ‘Spicules’ Could Explain the Extreme Heat of the Sun’s Atmosphere

New observations suggest interactions between opposite magnetic fields cause millions of super hot tendrils to erupt from the surface of the sun

A view of Gale Crater, where the Curiosity rover is currently conducting research.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Strange Fluctuating Oxygen Levels on Mars

Oxygen levels seem to spike in Mars’ spring season, occasionally in tandem with shifting methane levels

Two cows photographed in 2017 on Cedar Island. Three cows, not pictured, were found later following Hurricane Dorian.

Three Cows Swept Away by Hurricane Dorian Have Been Found Alive

Officials think the brave bovines swam between four and five miles to the Cape Lookout National Seashore

Charlotte Salomon's "Life? or Theatre?" combines memory and imagination, presenting flashbacks and split screens filled with a “dizzying array” of allusions to other art forms.

The Genre-Bending, Death-Defying Triumph of Charlotte Salomon’s Art

Prior to her murder in Auschwitz, the Jewish-German artist created a monumental visual narrative centered on her family history

A Veronese official commissioned the portrait while hosting the young musician and his father during their stay in the city.

Rare Portrait of Teenage Mozart Heads to Auction

“This charming likeness of him is my solace,” wrote Pietro Lugiati, the Italian nobleman who commissioned the artwork, in a letter to Mozart’s mother

New Research

Scientists Now Know Where the Largest Ape to Ever Exist Sits in Primate Family Tree

Proteins from a 1.9 million-year-old molar show that the 10-foot-tall ‘Gigantopithecus’ is a distant relative to modern orangutans

The ibis-headed god Thoth

New Research

DNA Suggests Ancient Egypt’s Millions of Ibis Mummies Were Wild-Caught Birds

The animals’ genes don’t show the tell-tale signs of domestication, suggesting they were only held temporarily before being sacrificed

Greenland's oldest ice—once thought of as "the last ice area"—is melting twice as fast as the rest of the Arctic.

Greenland’s Oldest Ice Is Melting ‘Twice as Fast as the Rest of the Arctic’

The region was once thought of as the ‘last ice area’ because scientists thought it would outlive other ice

The Swiss government will delay making a final decision on the matter until January at the earliest.

Switzerland Will Reconsider Decision to Stop Stockpiling Coffee Following Public Outcry

The country’s government suggested coffee was not essential to survival. The public strongly disagreed

Dolphins corral sardines into a "bait ball."

Watch Dolphins Punt, Thrash and Trap Their Prey

Recent observations showcase dolphins’ diverse—and often violent—hunting techniques

Page 482 of 1116