Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

A Scopali's shearwater skims the water's surface.

New Research

Seabirds Use Their Sense of Smell to Navigate Open Water

A new study suggests shearwaters follow their nose home

The familiar home vacuum was immediately predated by the carpet sweeper.

The Vacuum Cleaner Was Harder to Invent Than You Might Think

The original vacuum cleaner required a number of improvements before becoming the household staple it is today

Artificial intelligence is trying to write the sixth Game of Thrones book

A Neural Network Attempted to Write the Next Game of Thrones Book

Impatient readers can quench their thirst with the awkward, yet fascinating, prose of a neural network trained on George R.R. Martin

Newly found letters by Alan Turing

Trending Today

New Letters Show Alan Turing Wasn’t a Fan of the U.S.A.

The groundbreaking mathematician and computer scientist who spent 2 years at Princeton wrote that he ‘detests America’ in newly found documents

People were just starting to gain an obsession with apocalypse fiction when Mary Shelley wrote "The Last Man."

The Author of ‘Frankenstein’ Also Wrote a Post-Apocalyptic Plague Novel

‘The Last Man’ was derided in its time for being too grim, but today it would fit in with a growing genre of dystopian fiction

Marshall was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice.

The Case Thurgood Marshall Never Forgot

Fifty years ago today, Thurgood Marshall became a Supreme Court justice. He kept telling the story of the Groveland Four

Alexander served as the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and was a prominent Founding Father before his untimely death.

Get Your Hamilton Fix With This New Trove of Digitized Documents

The Library of Congress has uploaded 12,000 items relating to the ‘ten-dollar Founding Father without a father’

On May 18, 1893, Anna Julia Cooper delivered an address at the World's Congress of Representative Women, saying, famously, "The white woman could least plead for her own emancipation; the black woman, doubly enslaved, could but suffer and struggle and be silent."

This Video Breaks Down the ABCs of Intersectionality

The National Museum of African American History and Culture explores the long legacy of women who shaped the feminist sociological theory

One of the stinky blooms at the U.S. Botanic Garden just starting to open last year.

Cool Finds

A Triplet of Corpse Flowers Will Soon Release Their Stench in D.C.

If you can’t make it to D.C., you can still catch the action (smell free) via live stream

This Texas Museum Was Devastated by Ike. Here’s How It Prepared For Harvey

The Galveston Arts Center sustained heavy losses when Hurricane Ike hit Texas in 2008. This time around, staff members were ready

A still from the 1991 film "Anna Göldi, Last Witch"

Last Person Executed as a Witch in Europe Gets a Museum

Beheaded in 1782, Anna Göldi fell victim to a system that prized the views of powerful men over justice

A small group of floating fire ants

Trending Today

Another Danger of the Harvey Flood: Floating Fire Ants

The stinging insects are floating around Texas floodwaters in giant mats

An archeologist works at the site where 16 tombs belonging to 19th-century Chinese immigrants were discovered, at Huaca Bellavista in Lima, Peru.

Remains of 19th-Century Chinese Laborers Found at a Pyramid in Peru

Between 1849 and 1874, more than 100,000 workers traveled from China to Peru, where they faced discrimination and abuse

Some authorities believe that chop suey is related to a traditional Chinese dish, but nobody knows for sure.

Chop Suey: An American Classic

Nobody really knows exactly where this dish came from, but it’s not China

The cloud was first reported at Birling Gap, located about 70 miles from central London.

A Mysterious Chemical Cloud Descended on the British Coast

150 people were treated for stinging eyes, irritated throats and vomiting

New Research

Watch Gentoo Penguins Hunting From a Bird’s Eye View

New footage is helping researchers untangle the meaning behind these tuxedo-clad birds’ calls

This clay tablet written around the year 1800 B.C.E. may represent the oldest known use of trigonometry

New Research

Ancient Babylonian Tablet May Hold Earliest Examples of Trigonometry

If true, it would mean the ancient culture figured out this mathematical field more than a millennia before its known creation

Philo T. Farnsworth got his big idea while plowing a field. He was 14, by the way.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

The Farmboy Who Invented Television

The inventor of television’s career presages many of the good and bad things about Silicon Valley

George R. R. Martin at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con International.

Texas University Invites Fans to Scour George R.R. Martin’s Archives for Plot Clues

The author’s vast collection is stored in Texas A&M’s Cushing Library

The Indus Valley, north of Besham, Pakistan

In Pakistan, Arsenic-Laced Groundwater Puts 60 Million People at Risk

Most live in the Indus River Valley

Page 646 of 1116