Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

This bubble eye goldfish may or may not be drunk.

New Research

How Do Goldfish Survive Winter? They Make Alcohol

A mutant enzyme allows goldfish and carp to live in low oxygen ponds by turning toxic lactic acid into ethanol

Still image from "Don't Be a Sucker," first released by U.S. War Department in 1943.

WWII Anti-Fascist Film Goes Viral After Charlottesville

“Don’t Be A Sucker,” which was released in 1943, urged viewers to take a stand against divisive, prejudicial rhetoric

Yisrael Kristal receiving his Guinness certificate

Trending Today

World’s Oldest Man, a Holocaust Survivor, Dies at 113

Candy maker Yisrael Kristal survived Auschwitz and celebrated his bar mitzvah 100 years after turning 13

Casey stands at bat in a 1912 illustrated version of the poem.

‘Casey at the Bat’ Leaves a Lot of Unanswered Questions

Was there a Casey? Where did he strike out? Does it really matter?

A Virtual Exhibit Unites Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers

The global collaboration features five of the six surviving canvases

Cremation vaults in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Cremation Rates Reach All-Time High in the U.S.

The practice has surpassed burial rates for the second year in a row

Ruth Pfau in 2004

Trending Today

Ruth Pfau, “Mother of Leprosy Patients,” Has Died

Over five decades, the German-born physician and nun treated thousand of patients and got the leprosy epidemic under control in Pakistan

Almost since ballooning was invented, people were talking about trans-Atlantic crossings, but it took until 1978 for a crossing to be successful.

A Brief History of Trans-Atlantic Balloon Crossings

Fifteenth time’s the charm, evidently

Two ‘Lost’ Alberto Giacometti Drawings Found in Antique Dealer’s Collection

The works were “buried under piles of dust-covered antiques, paintings and drawings”

Alcatraz Island as it looks today.

Alcatraz Wasn’t Always ‘Uncle Sam’s Devil’s Island’

Though it was a prison for more than a century, it didn’t become the famous maximum-security penitentiary until 1934

This 1962 photo shows author Flannery O'Connor in the driveway at Andalusia in Georgia.

Georgia College Gifted Farm Where Flannery O’Connor Composed Southern Gothic

The author’s alma mater will take over and maintain the Savannah-born author’s final home

This is no ordinary origami paper, it's made out of organ tissues and could eventually become a high-tech band aid.

New Research

This “Tissue” Paper Is Made From Real Tissue

Made from powdered organs, the flexible paper could be used as a sophisticated bandage during surgery

Nyanzapithecus alesi skull

New Research

Is This Baby Animal the Last Common Ancestor of Humans and Apes?

The 13-million-year-old skull found in Kenya combines early ape and gibbon-like features

Maiopatagium furculiferum fossil found in China

New Research

Exceptional Fossils Show Ancient Winged Mammals May Have Glided Above the Dinosaurs

The discovery of two flying squirrel-like fossils suggest mammal diversity began earlier than previously thought

The engraved bones found in Gough's Cave

New Research

New Analysis Indicates Early Britons Engaged in Ritualistic Cannibalism

A zigzag pattern on an arm bone indicates around 15,000 years ago, humans in Britain may have consumed others as part of a funeral rite

A meteor from the Perseids is seen falling over the Very Large Telescope array in Chile.

Catch the Perseid Meteor Shower’s Fiery Show

Though the moon will partially obscure the normally dazzling sight, the shower’s peak is still worth a peek

An acrylic painting by Laura Collins recreates a 2006 photo of stars Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton

New Art Exhibit Remembers Trashy Tabloid Culture of 2000s

The Brooklyn show highlights art inspired by the age when celebrity scandals and gossip reigned supreme

Amedeo Modigliani, "Jeanne Hébuterne," 1918

Tate Modern’s Modigliani Exhibition Ventures Into Virtual Reality

The upcoming retrospective couples works by the famed modernist with the museum’s first VR experience

Soldier’s Patchwork with Incredible Border, artist unidentified, India, 1855 (pre-1881)

Cool Finds

The Centuries-Old Tradition of Military Quilting Is Getting Its First Exhibition in the U.S.

The display celebrates the art and craft of soldiers at war and offers insight into life in the military

'Vasa' can be visited today at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Bizarre Story of ‘Vasa,’ the Ship That Keeps On Giving

‘Vasa’ sunk in front of horrified onlookers on this day in 1628, claiming 30 lives

Page 651 of 1116