Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

Maria Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has spent much of the last year in hiding and has not been seen publicly since January.

María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s ‘Iron Lady,’ Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Machado, who leads the Vente Venezuela opposition party against President Nicolás Maduro, was lauded for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela”

Scientists converted a Type A kidney to a Type O kidney, then transplanted it into a brain-dead patient.

New Research

Scientists Converted a Kidney’s Blood Type, Then Implanted It Into a Brain-Dead Patient for the First Time

This area of research is still in the early stages, but it could someday help reduce wait times for patients needing kidney transplants

The researchers found that tango is especially good at slowing brain aging. 

Creative Hobbies Like Tango Dancing or Playing Musical Instruments May Help Keep Your Brain Young, Study Finds

Scientists discovered that talented experts had “younger” brains than those of their less experienced counterparts, and even those who only dabbled in creativity reaped benefits

The European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured images of 3I/ATLAS on October 3.

A Rare Interstellar Comet Just Flew by Mars—Here Are the Photos Captured by an Orbiting Spacecraft

The images offer the closest view yet of comet 3I/ATLAS, famous for being only the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system

The stone is dedicated to soldier Sextus Congenius Verus.

Cool Finds

A Married Couple in New Orleans Found a Stone in Their Backyard. It Turned Out to Be an Ancient Roman Soldier’s Gravestone

The piece bears a Latin inscription describing the legionary’s service aboard a warship

"Nigerian Modernism" will run through May 10, 2026, at the Tate Modern. 

Nigeria’s Independence From England Brought Artistic Revolution. For the First Time, England Is Showcasing It

“Nigerian Modernism,” a new exhibition at the Tate Modern, celebrates 50-plus artists spanning half a century

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) moves closer to the sun, as captured on October 2.

Here’s How to See Two Comets and a Meteor Shower Light Up the Sky This Month

Skywatchers are anticipating prime viewing conditions for an annual showing of shooting stars and two comet flybys

László Krasznahorkai, seen here in Spain in 2018, won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature.

This Hungarian Author Once Wrote a 400-Page Book With a Single Period. Now, László Krasznahorkai Is a Nobel Prize Winner

The 71-year-old recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature is known for his long, winding sentences

An egg with a human skin cell nucleus before fertilization

Scientists Made Functional Human Eggs With Skin Cells in ‘Proof of Concept’ for Advancing Fertility

The research could open up avenues for fertility treatments after additional refinement and trials, but it also raises ethical concerns

The goats are expected to clear roughly 25 acres of the ski area.

This Ski Area Hired a Herd of Goats and Sheep to Help With Landscaping

Jay Peak Resort in Vermont brought in a team of hungry ungulates to help tame overgrown vegetation on its slopes before the snow flies

A superb fairy-wren calls to a Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo. Brood parasites like cuckoos lay eggs in other birds' nests and leave them behind for the host birds to raise.

Birds Make an Alarm Call That Spans Species and Continents—and May Offer Insight Into the Evolution of Human Language

More than 20 species make a nearly identical noise to warn nearby birds of brood parasites, a behavior that bridges the “sharp division between animal communication systems and human language”

One of the artifacts on display is an urgent order for four windows that dates to between 1295 and 1186 B.C.E.

This New Exhibition Explores the Lives of Ancient Egyptian Makers

These talented craftspeople specialized in ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, stonemasonry, coffin decorating and other art forms

Members of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry hold a model of a metal-organic framework during the 2025 prize announcement in Stockholm on October 8.

Architects of a New Kind of Molecular Structure Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Metal-organic frameworks can store huge amounts of gas in a tiny space—enabling advances that could help humans fight climate change and tackle other challenges

The 1863 Paris Salon rejected Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe, or The Luncheon on the Grass.

Paris Museum Puts Édouard Manet on Mock Trial for Painting a Scandalous Scene of a Nude Woman

“The Luncheon on the Grass” caused a stir when it made its debut in 1863. A century and a half later, students defended the French artist against obscenity charges

Projections of portraits and quotes grace the main concourse.

A Massive Art Installation by the ‘Humans of New York’ Creator Has Taken Over Grand Central Terminal

For two weeks, “Dear New York” will grace the train station’s walls, screens and ad space

Students will have a chance to study the mysterious artifacts in a new course slated to launch in the fall of 2026.

Cool Finds

Someone Donated These Mysterious Artifacts to a Thrift Shop. Experts Think They Might Date to Medieval Times

A shopper who said he was an archaeologist spotted the 11 rings and two medallions and alerted a volunteer

Pine martens are shy, solitary creatures, but they play an important role in woodland habitats.

Watch These Shy, Adorable, Nocturnal Creatures Explore Their New Home After Being Reintroduced in Southwest England

Wildlife biologists recently released 19 pine martens into Exmoor National Park, where they’ve been locally extinct for more than a century

Nobel Committee member Göran Johansson explains elements of quantum mechanics during a press conference to announce the winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics on October 7 in Stockholm.

Three Scientists Receive Nobel Prize in Physics for Pioneering Work That Put Quantum Mechanics on a ‘Human Scale’

The trio’s research in the 1980s demonstrated a bizarre quantum phenomenon in a way people could see and hold

The North Wing features two William Hogarth murals, The Pool of Bethesda and The Good Samaritan.

For the First Time Ever, You Can See Stunning, Centuries-Old Murals at England’s Oldest Hospital

The biblical scenes by William Hogarth are a highlight of the North Wing at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, which is now open for public tours

Jace Tunnell, director of community engagement at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's Harte Research Institute, spotted more than ten pink meanies while wandering the beach in late September.

Rare ‘Pink Meanie’ Jellyfish Are Blooming Off the Coast of Texas

The large, vibrantly hued creatures can weigh up to 50 pounds and have tentacles up to 70 feet long

Page 78 of 1143