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Ask Smithsonian: Why Do We Get Prune Fingers?

Some researchers say that, like tire treads, our fingers and toes could get better traction in wet conditions

A 4.5-by 3-inch paper notepad with the word THINK embossed on its leather cover resides in the Smithsonian Institution's collections.

Innovative Spirit Health Care

How a Five-Letter Word Built a 104-Year-Old Company

THINK—printed on signs, deskplates, business cards and notepads—was the seed from which the rest of IBM’s culture would grow

Portrait of James Smithson

When Congress Looked James Smithson’s Gift Horse in the Mouth

In 1835, the U.S. government debated what to do with the generous bequest coming from across the pond

Scientists have for the first time identified the four people buried in Jamestown's first church. They are (from left) minister Robert Hunt, Sir Ferdinando Wainman, Captain Gabriel Archer and Captain William West.

New Jamestown Discovery Reveals the Identities of Four Prominent Settlers

The findings by Smithsonian scientists dig up the dynamics of daily life in the first permanent British settlement in the colonies

The National Museum of American History in its new exhibition "American Enterprise," displays a prime example of Stephen Burrough's art—a $1 certificate on the Union Bank of Boston, dated 1807, signed by Burroughs as cashier, and later stamped COUNTERFEIT.

The Entertaining Saga of the Worst Crook in Colonial America

Stephen Burroughs was a thief, a counterfeiter and a convicted criminal. A rare piece of his fake currency is in the collections

Plaster cast of Greek Slave, 1843, by Hiram Powers

The Scandalous Story Behind the Provocative 19th-Century Sculpture “Greek Slave”

Artist Hiram Powers earned fame and fortune for his beguiling sculpture, but how he crafted it might have proved even more shocking

Activities are designed with 6 to 12-year olds in mind, and presented as open-ended questions focused on themes that rotate throughout the year.

Inspiring Invention the MacGyver Way

Visitors to the Smithsonian’s new Spark!Lab are challenged to solve problems with ingenuity and a pile of off-the-shelf items

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The Innovative Spirit

Teenage Inventor Alexis Lewis Thinks That Kids Have the Solutions to the World’s Problems

With a patent to her name and more likely on the way, the 15-year-old has made it her mission to inspire young innovators

Smithsonian Takes a Giant Step with Its First Kickstarter Campaign to Fund the Conservation of Neil Armstrong’s Spacesuit

On the 46th anniversary of the historic moonwalk, the spacesuit that made it possible is headed to the conservation lab

Dolores Huerta, Huelga or Strike, Delano, California, September 24, 1965

Commentary

The Farmworker’s Champion Dolores Huerta Receives Her Due, Even as the Struggle for Justice Continues

We must continue the struggle against present-day agricultural production and labor practices, says the director of the Smithsonian’s Latino Center

Ask Smithsonian

Ask Smithsonian: What Makes Us a Righty or a Lefty?

Scientists are interested in studying why some of us are non-right-handers because it might offer insight into how the brain develops

The Evolution of Money, From Feathers to Credit Cards

Coin collectors, and trinket lovers welcome back the National Numismatic Collections to its splendid new gallery at the American History Museum

Today, where the concept of “disruption” has become so popular in business, those developing apps and new startups can look to the Singer Sewing Machine as one of the original disruptive technologies.

How Singer Won the Sewing Machine War

The Singer Sewing Machine changed the way America manufactured textiles, but the invention itself was less important than the company’s innovative business

Sponsor: National Portrait Gallery

Which of These Baseball Players Should the Portrait Gallery Put on Display?

Vote for these all-stars in an entirely different kind of competition

One series of photographs in particular is exciting for the unique perspective. It was taken from an angle no one had seen before. “In his camera lens you can see the back of Clarence Darrow, and you can see the face of William Jennings Bryan,” historian Marcel Chotkowski LaFollette says.

The Scopes Trial Redefined Science Journalism and Shaped It to What It Is Today

Ninety years ago a Tennessee man stood trial for teaching evolution, a Smithsonian archives collection offers a glimpse into the rich backstory

Tissue samples in test tubes, like the one D.C. high school student Asia Hill is holding above, are wrapped tin foil and dropped into the team's portable liquid nitrogen tank.

These Scientists Hope to Have Half the World’s Plant Families on Ice By the End of Summer

Teaming up with botanical gardens, researchers at the Natural History Museum are digging deep into garden plant genomics

Lake Jökulsárlón shimmers with the reflection of a magnificent iceberg. This lake, located at the edge of Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest ice cap, formed slowly when part of the glacier began to recede in the 1920s. The glacier continues to calve (split), releasing more icebergs into the expanding lake.

A New Photo Exhibition Depicts Just How Dramatic Mother Earth Can Be

Iceland, the land of fire and ice, brings vivid focus to the raw power of a geophysically active Earth

The 7-by-6-foot video wall on view at the National Air and Space Museum closes the 93 million mile gap between the Earth and the Sun.

These Two Scientists Turned Data From the Sun Into a Work of Art

After collecting real-time data from the sun, two astrophysicists got to tinkering with video game components and the outcome is breathtaking

The rolling hydraulic bridge at London’s Paddington Basin built in 2004 curls up on itself like a pillbug.

A Look Into the Innovative Mind of One of the World’s Most Inventive Architects

A new show at the Cooper Hewitt reveals the process behind designer Thomas Heatherwick’s projects

Apple I computer, 1976, Steve Jobs (Patent no. 7166791) and Steve Wozniak (Patent No. 4136359). The Apple I computer became a leader in personal computing. Originally marketed to hobbyists only primarily as a fully assembled circuit board, purchasers had to add their own case and monitor in order to create a working computer.

Tracing the History of American Invention, From the Telegraph to the Apple I

More than 70 artifacts, from an artificial heart to an Etch A Sketch, grace the entryway to the American History Museum’s new innovation wing

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