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A single counterfeit component in the supply chain is all it takes to turn a fine-tuned aircraft launching system from an asset to a safety hazard.

How Nanoscale ‘Signatures’ Could Keep Counterfeit Parts Out of Military Equipment

Navy scientist Alison Smith will describe her novel authentication system at Smithsonian’s Military Invention Day

To all the looney lunar landing deniers and conspiracy theorists out there, NASA has just four words to say: "Apollo: Yes, We Did."

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

Yes, the United States Certainly DID Land Humans on the Moon

Moon-landing deniers, says space scholar and former NASA chief historian Roger Launius, are full of stuff and nonsense

The Lee Lincoln Scarp, one of the potentially active faults on the Moon.

New Research

The Moon Is Slowly Shrinking, Which May Be Causing ‘Moonquakes’ on Its Surface

Analysis of seismic data collected on the Apollo missions shows the moon is probably tectonically active

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Are Birds Dinosaurs and Your Other Questions Answered

Cat-loving paleontologist answers your questions in the National Museum of Natural History’s YouTube series, “The Doctor Is In.”

Marion Donovan demonstrates the "Boater," around 1950.

Meet Marion Donovan, the Mother Who Invented a Precursor to the Disposable Diaper

The prolific inventor with 20 patents to her name developed the “Boater,” a reusable, waterproof diaper cover in the late 1940s

Norma Miller photographed in 2015

Norma Miller, the ‘Queen of Swing,’ Has Died at 99

An electric performer of the Lindy Hop, Miller dazzled audiences on stage and screen

Francis Rogallo (above, in 1959 in a wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia) along with his wife Gertrude, originally conceived of their paraglider in the mid-1940s to make aviation more practical and economically available to more aviators.

The Paraglider That NASA Could Have Used, but Didn’t, to Bring Astronauts Back to Earth

Francis Rogallo’s invention would have brought returning space vehicles in for a runway landing, instead of an ocean splashdown

Chinese laborers at work with pick and shovel wheelbarrows and one horse dump carts filling in under the long secret town trestle which was originally built in 1865 on the Present Souther Pacific Railroad lines of Sacramento.

The Transcontinental Railroad Wouldn’t Have Been Built Without the Hard Work of Chinese Laborers

A new exhibit at the National Museum of American History details this underexamined history

Folk musician Pete Seeger performing at the Bread and Roses III benefit concert in 1979.

From the Archives: Pete Seeger on What Makes a Great Protest Song

To mark the centennial birthday of the late folk icon, Smithsonian Folkways has released a six-CD collection featuring 20 previously unreleased tracks

Lead curator Tom Joyce traveled to Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, the Republic of Bénin and Togo (above: blacksmiths Kao Kossi and Ide Essozimna) to conduct research, film a half-dozen videos and help amass the 225 objects in the show.

How Blacksmiths Forged a Powerful Status Across the Continent of Africa

Iron tools, weapons, musical instruments and sculptures tell a tale of centuries of the craft’s influence

The fossil Eremotherium was from south Georgia. And it was an important one, since it firmly establish the presence of the giant ground sloth, which had previously been unknown in the United States.

A Giant Sloth Mystery Brought Me Home to Georgia

A new book from former Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough describes his journey into the collections in search of connections to his heritage

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Smithsonian Voices

Museum Sleepovers and Other Things to Do at the Smithsonian in May

Quilting, chamber music, garden tours and lectures

"My job as an artist is to inspire and heal," he says. "Around the election, my listeners were so distraught and I was distressed, too... so I felt compelled to create a piece of music ["Marigolds"] that would heal and educate."

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

Kishi Bashi on Turning Hard History Into Memorable Music

Plus, listen to an exclusive debut of ‘Marigolds’ off his new album, ‘Omoiyari’

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Smithsonian Voices

Was the Loch Ness Monster a Plesiosaur and Other Questions From Readers, Including Slash (Yes, THE Slash)

Cat-loving paleontologist answers your questions in the National Museum of Natural History’s YouTube series, “The Doctor Is In”

In 1904, Joseph Kekuku, inventor of the Hawaiian steel guitar, left Hawaii to perform on the American West Coast. Newspaper critics called him the “world’s greatest guitar soloist.”

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed American Music

The season finale of Sidedoor tells the story of an indigenous Hawaiian instrument with a familiar sound and unexpected influences

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Smithsonian Voices

The Treaty That Forced the Cherokee From Their Homelands Goes on View

Negotiated in 1835 by a few, disavowed by a majority and challenged by a legally elected government, the Treaty of New Echota began the Trail of Tears

Julie Packard (detail) by Hope Gangloff

Women Who Shaped History

Fishes Were Julie Packard’s Wishes for Her New Smithsonian Portrait

National Portrait Gallery unveils a painting honoring the renowned ocean conservationist and director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium

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Smithsonian Voices

How the Geologic History of the Earth Provides Clues for Our Future

For Earth Day, Smithsonian paleobiologist Scott Wing reminds us that we can look to the fossil record to better understand human-caused global changes

An image of a lion, like the designs on Lydian coins during the Iron Age

What Was the World’s First Currency and More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions, we’ve got experts

Smithsonian Voices

A Smithsonian Art Historian Reflects on American Artists and Their Fascination With Notre-Dame

Senior curator Eleanor Harvey on why the cathedral has been beloved by American artists for years

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