Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Cool Finds

Here's what Earth looked like on January 15.

Check Out Breathtaking Images From NOAA’s Newest Satellite

In a word: wow

Anger is no match for Patience—no matter how large her sword.

Cool Finds

Here’s What Happens in a “Comic Book” Drawn by Medieval Monks

Psychomachia pits vice against virtue in a battle for human souls

Millions of immigrants passed through Castle Garden on as they entered the United States.

Cool Finds

America’s First Immigration Center Was Also an Amusement Park

Castle Garden went from fort to pleasure grounds to precursor of Ellis Island

Israeli-based SpaceIL is one of five teams given the green light for the Google LunarX Prize.

Cool Finds

One of These Five Finalists Could Make It to the Moon in 2017

The clock is ticking for a trip to the moon and a $20 million prize

"Container Trade Object"

Cool Finds

New Exhibition Highlights Art Inspired by Standing Rock

Art as a lens to understand the protest

Samuel Clemens often told stories to his children, but only one has survived.

Cool Finds

New Mark Twain Fairy Tale Unearthed

The previously unknown—and unfinished—story was hiding in plain sight

A piece of gold, believed to be a small ring, found in the Hoard

Trending Today

Researchers Finish Separating World’s Largest Celtic Coin Hoard

It took nearly three years to separate the more than 68,000 coins

Cool Finds

This Map Shows Over a Century of Documented Lynchings in the United States

Mapping the history of racial terror

Cool Finds

A London Music Hall Hid a Long-Forgotten Storeroom Packed With Condiments

Construction workers uncovered the tasty trove while excavating its foundations

A reconstruction of Ötzi the Iceman at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

Cool Finds

Ötzi the Iceman’s Last Meal Included Goat Bacon

Analysis of the 5,300-year-old mummy’s stomach contents shows he ate dry-cured meat from a mountain ibex

Microscope not included.

Cool Finds

This Necklace Contains All of the World’s Languages

Because cultural preservation never goes out of fashion

A 1952 report on a flying saucer sighting in East Germany housed in the CIA's recently released archive suggests that the truth is, perhaps, out there.

Cool Finds

Over 12 Million Pages of CIA Documents Are Now Accessible Online

Coups, clairvoyants, invisible ink

The bow-shaped wave on Venus

New Research

Scientists Spot Massive Wave in Venus’ Atmosphere

The 6,200-mile long bow-shaped wrinkle may have been caused by gravity waves

The Saalfelden hermitage

Austria

Austrian Town Seeks Professional Hermit

The beautiful locale makes up for the spartan lifestyle expected of successful applicants

When it comes to representation, this coin is more than worth its weight in 24-karat gold.

Cool Finds

New $100 Coin Features First-Ever African-American Lady Liberty

She’ll put a new face on a familiar allegory

A ruby seadragon, Phyllopteryx dewysea that washed up on the Point Culver cliffs in Western Australia.

Cool Finds

Watch the First Footage of the Rare Ruby Seadragon Alive in the Wild

The sneaky critter has never been seen in its natural habitat before

Cool Finds

Austin Is Looking for Its First Artist-in-Residence

Winning artists will be embeded in city agencies to help bring in new eyes to reconsider old problems

Now, writers can find inspiration in the historic library of one of America's most famous authors.

Cool Finds

You Can Write Inside Mark Twain’s Library

Commune with Clemens in his historic home

Cool Finds

A Physicist Figured Out the Best Way to Get Ketchup Out of the Bottle

Tapping the “57” has nothing to do with it

Illustration of the hyolith Haplophrentis

New Research

Tiny Cone-Shaped Creature Gets a Twig on the Tree of Life

Hyoliths have confused scientists for 175 years, but researchers have finally worked out a few of their close relatives

Page 107 of 282