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Ask Smithsonian: What’s Up With Willpower and Why Don’t I Have It?

Want better willpower? Learn how to just say no with this step-by-step guide on boosting your self-control

Small town travel, the Monuments Men, Chernobyl and Stonehenge were all among reader favorites in 2014

Our Top Stories of 2014

From weird red waterfalls to the pleasures of small-town America, these were the most read articles on Smithsonian.com this year

A Christmas tree decorated with iconic spacecraft is on view on the first floor of the Air and Space Museum

Christmas Day is the Only Day of the Year You Can’t Go to the Smithsonian

For those missing your Smithsonian fix, here’s some holiday cheer until the doors open on December 26

Researchers found that human joint-bone density remained pretty high until recently in our evolutionary history, around the same time that humans began switching from hunting and gathering to farming.

Switching to Farming Made Human Joint Bones Lighter

A more fragile skeleton evolved about 12,000 years ago, probably driven by a shift from hunting to agriculture

Following the end of "The Colbert Report," the National Portrait Gallery will hang Stephen Colbert's portraits-within-a-portrait.

A Stephen Colbert Portrait Returns to the Smithsonian, With Even More Stephens

As the Comedy Central host’s show ends, his likeness(es) head to the National Portrait Gallery

From the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

There Are 120 Years of Lakota History on This Calendar

The visual recording of life in the nation sheds light on a vanished culture

How Did Right-Handedness Evolve? And More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Asked to choose one artifact, the Smithsonian's Undersecretary for Arts, History and Culture Richard Kurin selected this spinning wheel from the collections of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

For Every Object, There Is a Story to Tell

A Smithsonian curator is asked to select just one artifact

Earth's layers.

What We Can Learn by Digging Up the Secrets of Earth’s Deep Carbon

Diamond computers and subsurface life are just some of the topics being investigated by scientists in the Deep Carbon Observatory network

One of three instruments Coltrane would use as he blazed through the next two years, reinventing himself—and jazz music— at a pace many found exhausting.

Fifty Years Ago This Month, John Coltrane Recorded One of the Greatest Jazz Tracks of All Time

This Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone was one of three instruments that John Coltrane played to reinvent himself—and Jazz music

A fossilized leaf from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum sits in the Wyoming snow.

Anthropocene

Ancient Earth Warmed Dramatically After a One-Two Carbon Punch

A period of intense warming 55 million years ago is an even better case study for modern climate change than previously suspected

"Joe" and "Josephine" inThe Measure of Man posters, authored by Henry Dreyfuss, designed by Alvin R. Tilley, 1969

The Smithsonian Design Museum Tells the Story of User-Centered Design Through 120 Beautiful Products

A thermostat, a wheelchair, a prosthetic arm and razors are all a part of “Beautiful Users,” now on display in New York City

Handaxe #5 and Blade #9, BC-AD Contemporary Flint Tool Design series, designed by Dov Ganchrow and Ami Drach, 2011

Nearly Two Million Years of Innovation, As Told Through Tools

Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum, will exhibit 175 objects that range from Paleolithic tools to space-age satellites

Andrew Carnegie built his mansion on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 91st Street, asking for the “most modest, plainest, and most roomy house in New York.”

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Makes Its Grand Re-Opening in New York City

The old and the new crash into each other beautifully in the former Carnegie mansion

G. Wayne Clough

Anthropocene

Why Engineering Will Be Vital in a Changing Climate

Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough offers personal insights on the realities of climate change and the best ways for society to adapt

Mid-century Santa and Mrs. Claus on candy canes skis.

The Evolving Face of Santa, As Seen in the Smithsonian’s Vast Collections

A look into Smithsonian’s vast archives reveals that Father Christmas tends to get a makeover with every generation that embraces him

The mind behind Simon was the innovator Ralph H. Baer.

The Not-So-Simple Simon Proved the Young Were Swifter Than the Old

In 1978, the new blinking, bleeping toy ushered in the era of computer games

German-American game developer Ralph Baer, in 2009, showing the prototype of the first games console.

Remembering the “Father of Video Games,” Innovator Ralph Baer

The lab, where the inventor of the video game and the electronic game Simon, goes on view at the American History Museum next summer

Prelorán left Argentina and eventually settled in Los Angeles. He's shown here during the filming of Casabindo in 1977.

Rescuing Jorge Prelorán’s Films From Storage And Time

The Smithsonian’s Film Archives is reintroducing the world to the influential work of the Argentine-American filmmaker

“Hatcher,” a large Triceratops, greets visitors exploring the National Museum of Natural History’s new exhibition, “The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World.”

What Can the Dinosaurs’ Final Years Tell Us About the Biodiversity Crisis Today?

Failed ecosystems led to the demise of the dinosaurs. Today, plant and animal species are disappearing at exponential rates.

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