Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

A horsehair worm seen in its adult state, in which it lives only to breed

Cool Finds

This Jumble of Writhing Sticks Is Actually a Bizarre Parasite

Observed flailing around in Taiwan, this so-called ‘alien’ turns out to be a horsehair worm

Jennifer Zetlan who plays Rhoda in "Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt"

Family Travel

Watch a Dinosaur Opera at New York’s American Museum of Natural History

Sink your teeth into the family friendly “Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt”

Guillaume Rondelet was an early anatomist who founded his own dissecting theater, which was a thing people did in the sixteenth century.

A Sixteenth-Century Hot Date Might Include a Trip to the Dissecting Theater

Anatomy theaters were an early site for science as spectacle

Toad bones

Cool Finds

Jar of Headless Toads Found in Bronze Age Tomb

Found in Jerusalem, the little hoppers could have been an afterlife snack or a symbol of rejuvenation

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is a more modern form of IVF.

In Vitro Fertilization Was Once As Controversial As Gene Editing is Today

The scientists who pioneered it were regarded as pariahs, even within their own universities

Qalatga Darband is located in the triangular spit of land beyond the bridge on the right

Drones Reveal Unexplored Ancient Settlement in Iraqi Kurdistan

The settlement was first spotted in declassified Cold War spy images from the 1960s

Africa’s Largest Contemporary Art Museum Opens in Cape Town

But some critics have questioned whether the institution adequately represents black African artists

Easter Island's famed statues could be remnants of a populous civilization

Lots of Sweet Potatoes Could’ve Made Easter Island a Bustling Place

A new agricultural analysis of the island finds that the crop could have supported more than 17,000 people

The historic Coplay Cement Company kilns used in the 1890s.

The Modern World Depends on Humble Cement

Portland cement is a key ingredient in one of the world’s most common materials

Make your art better with this highly trained AI named Vincent

Watch This AI Turn Sketches into Masterpieces

Trained on the ‘history of human art,’ this system can transform your scribbles

Josephine Peary, wife of the legendary Arctic explorer Robert Peary, wears a parka in 1892

Family Travel

Explore the High Fashion of Exploration

From the Arctic to the Moon, a new exhibit shows how the outfits of exploration have impacted the outfits of the runway

NASA Dedicates New Facility to Katherine Johnson, the Pioneering Mathematician of ‘Hidden Figures’

‘I think they’re crazy,’ the 99-year-old jokingly said of the honor

Tim Renner, undersecretary of state for cultural affairs, at a 2016 press conference for the Urban National Museum for Urban Contemporary Art.

Museum Devoted to Street Art Opens in Berlin

The façade of the five-story building is covered in large murals

Artist's impression of 288P

New Research

Hubble Spots Strange Pair of Space Rocks in the Night Sky

The duo, dubbed 288P, may help scientists better understand asteroid evolution

Family Travel

Check Out This Awesome Trilobite Corn Maze

The elaborate Wisconsin maze honors the state’s geologic history

Vinnie Ream was not even 20 when she was commissioned by the U.S. government to create the statue of Lincoln that still stands in the Capitol today.

This Ambitious Young Sculptor Gave Us A Lincoln For the Capitol

Vinnie Ream was the first female artist commissioned to create a work of art for the U.S. government

The 'Chicago,' one of four aircraft to attempt the round-the-world trip. The others were named 'Seattle', 'Boston,' and 'New Orleans.'

How The U.S. Won the Race to Circumnavigate the Globe by Air

The first round-the-world flight was an achievement but also a surprise

Amidst Heated Criticism, Queer Art Exhibition Is Shuttered in Brazil

Protestors accused the exhibit of promoting pedophilia, bestiality, pornography and blasphemy

Hank Willis Thomas' sculpture photographed by Steve Weinik for Mural Arts Philadelphia

Cool Finds

Pop-up Monuments Ask What 21st-Century Public Memorials Should Be

A collective of artists adds new, thought-provoking works to Philadelphia’s parks and plazas

An illustration envisioning how the satellite OSIRIS-REx will collect rocks from the asteroid Bennu

How a Satellite Just Used Earth Like a Slingshot

On its way to study an asteroid for clues about the origins of life, OSIRIS-REx got a little boost from Earth’s gravity

Page 638 of 1116