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“If I go look for dinosaurs, I will find them, because there’s tons of them out there,” says Kirk Johnson, the director of the National Museum of Natural History and the star of a new Nova series "Making North America."

Smithsonian’s Kirk Johnson Steps Up to Be the Rock Star of Geology

The new PBS science series “Making North America” features the director of the National Museum of Natural History

Girl Behind Bottle (Jean Patchett) by Irving Penn, New York, 1949, printed 1978

A Major Retrospective of Photographer Irving Penn Includes Previously Unseen Works

At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, view works from the master photographer’s 70-year career

Breaking Ground

Watch the African American History Museum Became a Giant Movie Screen

With state-of-the-art projection imagerie, acclaimed filmmaker Stanley J. Nelson’s 3D video transformed the museum for three nights in November

Tabulae Anatomicae Clarissimi Viri..., Bartolomeo Eustachi, 1722

Halloween

The Grisly Details of Early Anatomy Textbooks

These images detail the inner workings of human bodies in all their gruesome glory

Ask Smithsonian

Ask Smithsonian: How Do You Make a Mummy?

Mummification has been practiced for eons and the Egyptians are the best known, but not the only practioners

Boss Tweed and the Tammany Ring, caricatured by Thomas Nast, c. 1870

To Stop an Endless Cycle of Corruption, History Says Fix the System, Not the Politician

A turn-of-the-century muckraker named Lincoln Steffens understood the true problem with a “throw the bums out” strategy

Craft beer sales grew by 17.6 percent last year compared to a rate of just 0.5 percent in overall beer sales.

There’s No Stopping The Craft Beer Craze

How innovations in the craft brewing industry have changed (and improved) our taste in beer

None

Ask Smithsonian

Ask Smithsonian: Is the World Due for Another Massive Plague Outbreak?

It is highly unlikely, experts say, but a plague-based bioterror assault is another matter

Nikiko Masumoto works with raisins on her family's farm.

Age of Humans

Where Will Our Future Food Come From? Ask a Farmer

Two farmers with different viewpoints talk about organic farming, GMOs and farm technology

An artist’s rendering shows a white dwarf star shredding a rocky asteroid.

New Research

Dead Star Shredding a Rocky Body Offers a Preview of Earth’s Fate

The stellar corpse spotted by a NASA telescope backs up a theory that white dwarf stars eat planetary remnants

Ask Smithsonian

Why Do Astronauts on the International Space Station Float and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

The pivotal accuser at the trials, Tituba, would go down in history as a purveyor of satanic magic. An 1880s engraving depicts her in the act of terrifying children.

Secrets of American History

Unraveling the Many Mysteries of Tituba, the Star Witness of the Salem Witch Trials

No one really knows the true motives of the character central to one of America’s greatest secrets

Pepin has recently announced his donation of the menu from that long-ago meal when he dined with Julia Child at her home shortly before her kitchen was dismantled and delivered to the Smithsonian Institution.

Jacques Pépin Donates a Hand-Painted Menu From His Last Supper With Julia Child

This month the modern traditionalist chef is honored with the first-ever Julia Child Award

Robert Kondo, Remy in the Kitchen, "Ratatouille," 2007

The Art and Design Behind Pixar’s Animation

A new exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt in New York City draws on the rich backstory of what it takes to give computer-animated life to pen and ink sketches

This portrait of Patti Smith, a photograph by Lynn Goldsmith, was taken in 1976, a year after Horses, Smith’s breakout album.

Poetry Matters

Poet and Musician Patti Smith’s Endless Search in Art and Life

The National Portrait Gallery’s senior historian David Ward takes a look at the rock ‘n’ roll legend’s new memoir

Powers with a model of his cold war-era U-2, known as the "Dragon Lady." He was freed in an exchange for a Soviety spy in Germany in 1962.

Gary Powers Kept a Secret Diary With Him After He Was Captured by the Soviets

The American fighter pilot who’s the focus of Bridge of Spies faced great challenges home and abroad

Last week, Twitter and Facebook fans of Smithsonian.com were invited to send in their questions for the new Smithsonian Secretary.

Ask Skorton Anything

The Smithsonian’s New Secretary David Skorton Takes Questions From the Crowd

The secretary is creating a new teen advisory board, networking with D.C. arts and science leaders and getting to know the collections

Invisible, 1971, by Giovanni Anselmo

Playful Artworks at the Hirshhorn Get the Better of One Mystified Observer

A group of international mid-century artists built a number of kinetic experiments into their abstract art

The title of Gardner's photograph (taken with Timothy O'Sullivan) Field Where General Reynolds Fell, Gettysburg, July 1863 was added later to capitalize on the famous general's heroism.

Alexander Gardner Saw Himself as an Artist, Crafting the Image of War in All Its Brutality

The National Portrait Gallery’s new show on the Civil War photographer rediscovers the full significance of Gardner’s career

Heart Valves at the National Museum of American History

Innovative Spirit Health Care

A Man With a Lot of Heart Valves Donates His Unusual Collection

Minneapolis entrepreneur Manny Villafana says his collection at the American History Museum is filled with stories of both failure and success

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