Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

Why did this cheeky snake have two hind legs?

New Fossils Unlock Evolutionary Secrets of Two-Legged Snakes

Scientists have known about the ancient snake group Najash for years, but were not able to gain a thorough understanding of its skull until now

This carving is the first Nazca Line to be identified by artificial intelligence.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Identify 143 New Nazca Lines

The trove of newly documented geoglyphs includes a humanoid figure identified by artificial intelligence

Despite aging in old volcanic caves, Saint-Nectaire cheese is rather sweet in aroma and flavor.

This Cheese’s Secret Ingredient Comes From Caves on Volcanic Hillsides

Each cellar has unique flora that gives its wheels of Saint-Nectaire a different flavor

The feathers were probably dark colored, which was unexpected in a polar region and might mean that the animals changed colors with seasons.

First Fossil Evidence of Feathered Polar Dinosaurs Found in Australia

The ten feathers are the first signs that fluffy dinosaurs lived near the South Pole more than 100 million years ago

A stone in front of Adolf Hitler's birthplace reads, "For peace, freedom and democracy. Never more fascism. Millions of dead warn."

Hitler’s Birthplace Will Be Converted Into a Police Station

Officials hope the building’s new function will deter Nazi sympathizers from making pilgrimages to the site

The 19-page volume features three original stories, advertisements and a table of contents.

Miniature Manuscript Penned by Teenaged Charlotte Brontë Will Return to Author’s Childhood Home

The tiny volume, one of six created for a series, will now join four surviving counterparts on view at the Brontë Parsonage Museum

New Research

First Global Map of Saturn’s Moon Titan Reveals Secrets of Earth’s ‘Deranged’ Twin

The map showcases the planet’s flat plains, sand dunes, hilly terrain and lakes full of liquid methane

Nina Allender created political cartoons for The Suffragist newspaper.

Celebrating a Century of Women’s Contributions to Comics and Cartoons

A new exhibit marking the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment features innovative illustrations from the suffragist movement to today

One of the infants was around 18 months old at time of death, while the second was between 6 and 9 months old.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Remains of Infants Wearing ‘Helmets’ Made From the Skulls of Other Children

Members of Ecuador’s Guangala culture may have outfitted the infants in skulls as a protective measure

A humpback whale basks in sunlight at the ocean's surface in Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

South Atlantic Humpback Whales Have Rebounded From the Brink of Extinction

A new study estimates that the group’s population has grown from 440 individuals in 1958 to nearly 25,000 today

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

Page 507 of 1141