Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Health

New Research

Dog Genome Project Reveals Secrets of Canine Family Tree

Researchers have been barking up the same tree for over 20 years

The Innovative Spirit fy17

In an Emergency, You’ll Want This Hi-Tech First Aid Kit

Ram Fish, founder and CEO of 19Labs, talks about developing his clinic-in-a-box

Ensilicated proteins

Innovation for Good

Keeping Vaccines Safe in Tiny “Cages”

By encasing vaccines in silica, researchers could eliminate the need to refrigerate them during transportation

Hemingway led a life of adventure and, sometimes, violence. The author is shown here holding a tommy gun aboard the Pilar in 1935.

Multiple Concussions May Have Sped Hemingway’s Demise, a Psychiatrist Argues

The troubled author may have suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, the disease that plagues modern football players

A baby in Ghana rests underneath a mosquito net. Ghana will become one of three African countries to pilot the new malaria vaccine in 2018.

Trending Today

Hundreds of Thousands of Babies Will Receive World’s First Malaria Vaccine

The pilot program will focus on Kenya, Ghana and Malawi—countries at the center of the global malaria crisis

This map of London shows it around the time of John Gaunt's work.

People Have Been Using Big Data Since the 1600s

A humble hatmaker was among the first to compile data on how Londoners lived—and died

Watch the Causes of Death Change Across America

The patterns highlight key social and economic issues in the country

New Research

Social Networks May Give Runners a Motivational Leg Up to Hit the Pavement

Friends’ running habits may have more influence on your workouts than you might think

Trauma surgeon Sarah Murthi tests an AR headset prototype, which uses a Microsoft HoloLens and custom software with an ultrasound, on a volunteer "patient."

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Augmented Reality Could Change Health Care—Or Be a Faddish Dud

Doctors and engineers at the University of Maryland team up to build a tool that projects images and vital information right above a patient

Mmmmmm ... pretzels.

New Research

Salty Food Might Make You Drink Less, Not More

You can thank a future trip to Mars for a surprising new theory on how salt affects the body

The Tsavo lions' teeth bore marks indicating that they ate soft food, similar to those seen on the teeth of captive lions today. Wild lions, like these pictured in South Africa's Greater Kruger National Park, show different microwear patterns.

New Research

Man-Eating Lions of Tsavo Did Indeed Eat People, Teeth Reveal

Dental clues confirm some rumors about the ravenous cats of Tsavo, while also raising new questions

A new safety test for foodborne pathogens involves an interaction between a droplet and bacterial proteins that can be seen through a smartphone camera.

Can a Camera, a QR Code and Some Bubbles Test For E. Coli In Our Food?

MIT researchers are pursuing a newer, faster test for foodborne pathogens

A new study recommends that the peanut-allergic try consuming other nuts—but only under the supervision of a licensed allergist.

New Research

Tree Nut Allergies May Be Massively Overdiagnosed

But don’t go for the jar of almond butter just yet

Researchers can remotely detect buried land mines using a bacterial sensor and a laser-based scanning system.

How Glowing Soil Can Help Find Land Mines

Using genetically engineered bacteria and lasers, Israeli scientists have devised a unique way to detect buried explosives

In the years after the Surgeon General confirmed the link between smoking and cancer, smoking cessation aids blossomed.

This Patented Smoking Deterrent Made Little Coughing Noises

The history of smoking cessation aids has a few funny detours like this one

The Eighteenth-Century Founder of Homeopathy Said His Treatments Were Better Than Bloodletting

Samuel Hahnemann was trying to fix the unscientific field of medicine

The mechanical lung would function outside the patient's body.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

An Artificial Lung That Fits In a Backpack

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are developing a device that works like the sophisticated organ

Bevo, Anheuser-Busch's "cereal beer" or "near-beer," was the most popular of non-alcoholic malt beverages sold during Prohibition.

How Some Breweries Survived Prohibition

It mostly involved playing to their non-alcoholic strengths

New Research

Why Do So Many Hollywood Villains Have Skin Conditions?

A new study cautions that the scars and warts that afflict many movie villains could contribute to social stigmas

Birth weights declined near the Paradise Fossil Plant in Kentucky during the 1980s.

New Research

Coal-Fueled Power Plants Linked to Lower Birth Weights in Tennessee Valley

When nuclear power plants pressed pause, coal stepped in—and birth weights began to decline

Page 64 of 121