Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

The White House's

How a Groundbreaking Interior Designer Helped Jackie O. Change the White House

Sister Parish is credited with creating American country style, a recognizable and quirky mix of old and new

Text an Emoji and the SFMOMA Will Respond with a Picture of Art

A new text messaging service lets users explore the museum’s vast collection

A family walks towards the entrance of Disneyland, circa 1960.

Disneyland’s Terrible First Day Didn’t Stop the Crowds From Coming

Nothing was ready. But by the end of the first week, more than 100,000 people had visited

"Dodge's Ridge"

At 100, Andrew Wyeth Still Brushes People the Right (and Wrong) Way

The centennial of his birth offers galleries and critics the opportunity to reconsider one of America’s most famous painters

A tardigrade, seen here with an scanning electron microscope, is one of Earth's most durable creatures

How to Kill Nature’s Most Indestructible Creature

Only the boiling away of Earth’s oceans could bring about the extinction of these tiny water bears

View of a skeleton reaching 6'2'' from a grave dating back to 5,000 years ago, at the excavation site of the Jiaojia ruins in Jiaojia village, Zhangqiu district of Ji'nan city, east China's Shandong province

Graveyard of “Giants” Found in China

Many of the 5,000 year-old skeletons measured 5’ 9” or longer, making the Neolithic humans exceptionally tall for that period

Cool Finds

Lioness Spotted Nursing a Leopard Cub in Tanzania

It is the first time that a wild cat has been observed “adopting” another species—but the interaction may not have a happy end

Not a birdbrain.

New Research

Like Humans and Apes, Ravens Can Plan for the Future

The birds were able to choose and hold onto a tool that could unlock an eventual reward

Barkley L. Hendricks, "Icon for My Man Superman (Superman Never Saved any Black People – Bobby Seale)," 1969

Trending Today

Revolutionary Black Artists of the Civil Rights Era Get Exhibition in the UK

“Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power” features iconic works alongside pieces that have long been overlooked by the mainstream

The Mackenzie (Dehcho) River is the second-largest river system in North America.

How One Quest for the Northwest Passage Ended at the Icy Mouth of Disappointment River

The Mackenzie River, as it’s know today, is North America’s second-largest river system–but it wasn’t what its namesake was looking for

Engineer Mark Rober posing with his Super Soaker creation

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Ex-NASA Engineer Builds World’s Largest Super Soaker

More than a mere toy, this water gun can slice through glass and watermelons

Sixty Years After Its Discovery, a Hut in Scotland Has Been Linked to St. Columba

Radiocarbon dating has proved that the site could have been built and used during the lifetime of the revered saint

The July 14, 1868 patent for a tape measure included these two drawings.

How Hoop Skirts Led to Tape Measures

Eighteenth-century ladies would recognize some things about the modern contractor’s tool

New Research

Scientists Store Video Clip in DNA of Living Cells

This first could lead to health-monitoring molecular recorders inside cells

Sacco and Vanzetti were anarchists at a time when that movement was very different than it is today.

The Biggest Trial of the 1920s Continues to Resonate

Sacco and Vanzetti were on trial for their Italianness and their political leanings as much as for their alleged crimes

The flea-market Enigma machine

Cool Finds

WWII Enigma Machine Found at Flea Market Sells for $51,000

The legendary coding machine was first unearthed by a mathematician with a careful eye who purchased it for roughly $114

Cool Finds

Watch the Sri Lankan Navy Rescue an Elephant Stranded at Sea

It took 12 hours for a team of navy personnel, divers and wildlife officials to pull the creature back to shore

New Research

How Fire Ants Build Incredible Writhing Towers

Using X-rays, researchers find simple rules help the ants raise each other up, which could be useful in robotics

London Tube Scraps ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ Announcements

Officials say they want all passengers to feel welcome on the Underground

Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann reads from the words of Liu Xiaobo when he was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Xiaobo was imprisoned and unable to accept the award.

Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo Dies at Age 61

The human rights activist spent his final years in Chinese custody

Page 659 of 1116