January 2015
Smithsonian magazine delivers trusted and incisive reporting on history, science, nature, culture and travel.
Features
Hanging by a String
The theory that the universe is made up of invisible “strings” rocked physics 30 years ago. Does it still have any pull?
From Selma to Ferguson
Biographer Taylor Branch makes a timely argument about Martin Luther King Jr.’s true legacy
The Lady Vanishes
Whenever someone advances a new claim about Amelia Earhart—such as the recent one that a piece of her plane had been identified—the farther she seems to recede into myth
The Year that the Stars Fell
A pictographic calendar evokes the lost world of the Lakota
PTSD: The Civil War's Hidden Legacy
One hundred and fifty years later, historians are discovering some of the earliest known cases of post-traumatic stress disorder
Darwin's Forgotten World
Australia’s Blue Mountains influenced the great thinker’s understanding of evolution as profoundly as the Galápagos
When Dinosaurs Were Doomed
Canada’s badlands are the place to see fantastic dinosaur fossils (and kitsch)—and eye-opening new evidence from the eve of their destruction
Bill Nye on the Risks of Not Debating With Creationists
Bill Nye the Science Guy has a book out on evolution. Here’s what he has to say
Evotourism: Great Places to Celebrate Evolution Around the Globe
From lemurs to Neanderthals, here's our latest guide so you can travel the globe to enjoy what Darwin famously called "endless forms most beautiful"
Mountain of Life
A hike to the “Top of Texas,” the world’s most famous fossil reef, leads to a new sense of the sublime
Departments
Small Talk: Kevin Ashton
The consumer sensor expert who coined the phrase "the Internet of Things" has a new book, How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery
Virtually Alive
Through OpenWorm, scientists are hoping to allow anyone with a computer to unlock the secrets of animal behavior