Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

Regaliceratops peterhewsi, the “Hellboy Dinosaur”

New Research

Dinosaur Horns Were For Making Love, Not War

The elaborate horns and frills were more likely for attracting mates than fighting off enemies

Cool Finds

Wreck of U.S.S. Juneau Discovered in the Solomon Islands

The ship was known as the grave of the five Sullivan Brothers who died aboard it during the Battle of Guadalcanal

Sixty-eight percent of meadow pipits have disappeared from the French countryside.

Pesticides Have Led to a ‘Catastrophic’ Decline in France’s Bird Populations

The chemicals have decimated the insects that birds rely on for food

New Research

70,000 Years Ago, a Passing Star Shook Up Our Solar System

The red dwarf likely came within one light-year of the sun, altering the course of some asteroids and comets

The Temptations

Library of Congress Adds ‘The Sound of Music,’ ‘My Girl’ to National Recording Registry

Each year since 2002, 25 recordings that impacted American culture are chosen for inclusion in the growing database. Read about the class of 2017

Larry Kwong in the 1940s

Larry Kwong, Gifted Athlete Who Broke NHL’s Color Barrier, Dies at 94

Kwong, the first athlete of Asian heritage to play in an NHL game, battled racism and discrimination as he made a name for himself on the ice

Scientists have created a hoppy beer without hops.

Scientists Brew a Hoppy Beer Without the Hops

Hops are expensive and require lots of water to grow, so researchers tried to recreate the distinctive taste

In this 12th century illuminated manuscript Mary Magdalene announces the resurrection to the apostles.

Cool Finds

New Exhibition Unfolds the “Bizarre” Stories Behind Centuries-Old Pigments

Cow urine is one of many strange ingredients included in the University of Manchester’s new show exploring the history and chemistry of artists’ palettes

Landmark Exhibition Takes You Inside the Exuberant, Diverse World of the Fatimid Dynasty

Toronto’s Aga Khan Museum brings together 87 pieces from collections across the globe

Periplaneta Americana

New Research

Cockroach Genome Shows Why They Are Impossible to Kill

The massive genome includes code for neutralizing toxins, regrowing limbs and a thousand genes for detecting food and chemicals

Researchers have found that graphene could work as a hair dye.

Graphene Hair Dye Is Gentle on Your Locks. But Is It Safe?

Unlike traditional hair dyes, graphene coats the hair surface without chemically altering it

This digitally-colorized negative-stained transmission electron microscopic (TEM) image shows recreated 1918 influenza virions that were collected from supernatants of 1918-infected Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells cultures 18 hours after infection.

New Research

Flu Skies: How Influenza Might Spread On a Plane

A new study suggests the chances of contracting a sick passenger’s flu virus is surprisingly low

New Research

Why Some People “Hear” Silent GIFs

This week, researchers published their findings on the largest study to date on the phenomenon, which is called visually evoked auditory response or vEAR

New Research

Kids Are Drawing Women Scientists More Often Than They Did Decades Ago

But analysis of studies over the past 50 years show that sketches of male scientists still dominate

Investigators on Lookout for 314 Items Stolen From Carnegie Library’s Rare Books Room

A first edition of Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica” was among the items taken

James K. Polk. Oil on canvas.

Trending Today

Tennessee Votes to Keep Polk’s Grave Where It Is. For Now

A resolution to move the grave from the capitol grounds in Nashville to one of his boyhood homes failed by one vote

None

Coming Soon

Become a Nicer, Gentler Neighbor With This Trailer for a Documentary About Mister Rogers

To mark the late children’s television visionary’s 90th birthday, Focus Features teases a clip of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

Excavation of Antioch-on-the-Orontes

2,000-Year-Old Mosaics Unearthed Under Florida Art Museum

The relics came from ancient Antioch and were buried by museum officials in 1989 for storage purposes

The Stephen Foster statue will be replaced with a monument in honor of an African American woman who made an outsized impact on Pittsburgh.

Monument to a Historic Black Woman Will Replace Racist Statue in Pittsburgh

A city task force is asking the public to help decide who should be honored

Stalin, Leningrad, USSR, 1978

Found: 30,000 Photographs by the ‘Russian Vivian Maier’

The photographer’s daughter stumbled upon the photo-films in the family attic

Page 598 of 1116