Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

This Street in Wales Is Officially the World’s Steepest

Ffordd Pen Llech, a winding road in the historic town of Harlech, has claimed the Guinness World Record—but not everyone is happy about it

Trending Today

South Dakota’s City of Presidents Unveils Obama Statue

The new life-size bronze depicts the 44th president waving to the crowd and holding his daughter Sasha’s hand

New Research

Study Finds Insects Can Experience Chronic Pain

Injured fruit flies still experience nerve pain after healing, a finding that could lead the way to more non-opioid pain medications

Alan Turing Will Be the New Face of Britain’s £50 Note

Persecuted at the end of his life, the British mathematician and code-breaker is now widely admired as a father of computer science

In 2019, 50 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit stands as one of the most significant artifacts in the world.

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

Neil Armstrong’s Restored Spacesuit Put Back on Display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum

The spacesuit, which Armstrong wore when he walked on the moon during Apollo 11, is available for public viewing and as a 3-D model online

Great Blue Heron

Audubon Photography Award Winners Show the Breathtaking Beauty of Wild Birds

The 10th installment of the competition featured two new categories

Future of Space Exploration

First Moon-Forming Disk Detected Swirling Around an Exoplanet

Telescope observations suggest that a cloud of gas and dust around a planet 370 light-years away may be coalescing into planet-sized moons

The perpetrator rips pages in half horizontally

A Literary Vandal Is Ripping Pages Out of Books and Putting Them Back on Shelves

The so-called ‘book ripper’ has targeted more than 100 volumes at a library and charity bookshop in the English town of Herne Bay

Trending Today

One of the Largest Subspecies of Giraffes Is Declared Endangered

Once the largest of nine subspecies, Masai giraffe numbers have dropped by an estimated 50 percent in the last 30 years

Nina Simone's childhood home in Tryon, North Carolina

Nina Simone’s Childhood Home Is Under Threat. This Campaign Aims to Save It

The National Trust is hoping to preserve the North Carolina house where Simone first learned to play piano

Poker poses a challenge to A.I. because it involves multiple players and a plethora of hidden information.

This Poker-Playing A.I. Knows When to Hold ‘Em and When to Fold ‘Em

Pluribus won an average of around $5 per hand, or $1,000 per hour, when playing against five human opponents

New Research

140 Million Years Ago, a Bird-Like Dinosaur Swallowed a Lizard Whole. Here’s Why Its Final Meal Is Exciting Researchers

The lizard is a piece of a complex ancient food web being pieced together in northeast China

Thanks to Bly's efforts, conditions at the women's asylum greatly improved

Women Who Shaped History

A Nellie Bly Memorial Is Coming to Roosevelt Island

The journalist famously wrote a six-part exposé cataloging the 10 days she spent at an asylum on Blackwell’s Island

A reconstruction of Elektorornis chenguangi, showing the possible probing function of the elongated toe.

This Prehistoric Bird Had Weirdly Long Toes

Researchers think the newly described ‘Elektorornis chenguangi’ used its special digits to scoop insects out of trees

New Research

Mussels’ Sticky Threads Could Inspire Ways to Clean Up Oil Spills, Purify Water and More

A new review shows the sticky threads the bivalves used to cling to rocks could have lot of potential engineering applications

An olive python swallows an Australian freshwater crocodile whole

See a Python Swallow a Crocodile Whole

A kayaker captured the gruesome photographs while exploring a swamp in Queensland, Australia

Apidima 1 and reconstruction.

This 210,000-Year-Old Skull May Be the Oldest Human Fossil Found in Europe

A new study could shake up the accepted timeline of Homo Sapiens’ arrival on the continent—though not all experts are on board

New Research

Little, Transparent Fish Show Sleep Is at Least 450 Million Years Old

Imaging of sleeping zebrafish reveal their pattern of Zzz’s is similar to that of mammals and other animals, meaning snoozing has been around a long time

Cool Finds

Remains of Napoleonic General Believed to Have Been Found in Russian Park

Charles Étienne Gudin, whose name appears on the Arc de Triomphe, was hit by a cannonball during the Battle of Valutino

The bombs likely lie in an unexplored 22-hectare section of the archaeological site

Pompeii Is Home to Multiple Undetonated World War II Bombs

A statement by the Archaeological Museum of Pompeii assures the public that there is ‘no risk for visitors’

Page 530 of 1141