Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

Trending Today

The EPA Declared That Burning Wood Is Carbon Neutral. It’s Actually a Lot More Complicated

Here are five things to know about the controversial change

Hank Willis Thomas sculpture

Five Things to See at Alabama’s New Memorial to Lynching Victims

The memorial, along with a new museum, exposes America’s fraught legacy of racial violence from slavery to lynchings to mass incarceration

New Research

Did a Prehistoric Surgeon Practice on This Cow?

Though an early human likely created the hole, the reason why remains less clear

President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, first lady Melania Trump, and Brigitte Macron stand during a State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018

A Brief History of State Dinners

The White House first hosted King David Kalākaua, of the Kingdom of Hawaii for a state dinner back in 1874

Salt Lake City, Utah, pictured here, ranks number eight for short-term particle pollution.

These Are the Cities With the Worst Air Pollution

More than 4 in 10 Americans live with unhealthy levels of air pollution, according to a new report

Cool Finds

Wreck of Nazi Germany’s Most Advanced U-Boat Discovered

Sunk in 1945, U-3523, a Type XXI sub, may have been attempting to smuggle high-ranking Nazis to Argentina

Prince George and Princess Charlotte arriving at the Lindo wing at St Mary's Hospital to welcome their new baby brother, who will be fifth in line to the British throne.

Why Princess Charlotte Just Made Royal History

Thanks to a 2013 reform, the 2-year-old royal tot can welcome her new baby brother while maintaining her place in line for the throne

Giant, Intact Egg of the Extinct Elephant Bird Found in Buffalo Museum

Fewer than 40 such eggs are held in public collections today

The gut flora of dogs and humans is incredibly similar, a new study finds.

A Surprising Way Dogs Are Similar to Humans

We share more than snuggles and and a love of walks; canines and humans have similar gut microbiota

An image on view at the National Building Museum's Evicted exhibition

This Exhibition Uses $586 to Tell the Story of American Eviction

The amount is around what one of the subjects of sociologist Matthew Desmond’s book ‘Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City’ made in one month

A model of the planned artwork for downtown Albuquerque memorializing the landmark case that expanded the rights of Asian Americans.

Monument Marks Little-Remembered Case That Set Precedent for Asian Americans to Testify in Court

The history around the ‘Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun’ will be memorialized in the upcoming public work ‘View from Gold Mountain’

Weaver ants demonstrating exploding behavior in experimental setting

‘Exploding’ Ant Ruptures Its Own Body to Defend Its Nest

It’s the ultimate act of self-sacrifice

Cool Finds

Murder Most Fowl: Forensic Scan Shows the Legendary Oxford Dodo Was Shot

Micro-CT scans shows lead scattered across the back of the skull of what is believed to be the taxidermied remains of the dodo brought to Britain

The group of Muuscoctopus found on the Dorado Outcrop.

Cool Finds

Colony of Beautiful, Doomed Purple Octopuses Found Off Costa Rica

Hundreds of unidentified cephalopods were found nursing their eggs near a deep-sea vent

Cool Finds

Cache of Benjamin Franklin’s Original Manuscripts—Doodles and All—Gets Digitized

The Library of Congress recently released approximately 8,000 letters, drafts and documents from the founding father

Three color morphs of bleached corals on the Great Barrier Reef

New Research

2016 Ocean Heatwave Killed 30 Percent of the Great Barrier Reef

Combined with a 2017 temperature spike, half of the 2 billion corals on the reef have died since 2015

‘Staggering’ Damage to Florida’s Everglades Remains in the Wake of Hurricane Irma

Researchers found gaps in 40 percent of the forest canopy in aerial images taken before and after the storm

"Untitled," a previously known James Castle work

Cool Finds

Eleven Never-Before-Seen Artworks Found in the Walls of James Castle’s House

The renowned Idaho Outsider artist was known for squirreling his drawings and sculptures away in the walls and ceiling of his Boise home

The man's limb appears to have been removed by blunt force trauma and a knife was later secured in its stead.

This Medieval Man Used a Knife as a Prosthetic Limb

The man’s skeleton bears signs of frequent ‘biomechanical force,’ according to a new study

Partial rendering of Psamtek I's statue

4,500 Newly Discovered Fragments Help Piece Together Massive Psamtik I Statue

The pieces gave researchers a better idea of the size and shape of the colossus

Page 617 of 1141