History of Science
Why This 18th-Century Naturalist Believed He’d Discovered an Eyewitness to the Biblical Flood
Smithsonian paleontologist Hans Sues recounts a colossal tale of mistaken identity
The Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of the Decade
Breakthroughs include measuring the true nature of the universe, finding new species of human ancestors, and unlocking new ways to fight disease
The Ten Best Science Books of 2019
New titles explore the workings of the human body, the lives of animals big and small, the past and future of planet earth and how it's all connected
How Dan the Zebra Stopped an Ill-Fated Government Breeding Program in Its Tracks
At the centennial of the death of this captive animal, an archaeozoologist visited collections at the Smithsonian to examine human-animal relationships
How Scientists Resolved the Mystery of the Devil's Corkscrews
Smithsonian paleontologist Hans-Dieter Sues tells the tale of a fossil find that bedeviled early 20th-century researchers
One Hundred Years Ago, Einstein's Theory of General Relativity Baffled the Press and the Public
Few people claimed to fully understand it, but the esoteric theory still managed to spark the public's imagination
How Charlotte Moore Sitterly Wrote The Encyclopedia of Starlight
The "world’s most honored woman astrophysicist" worked tirelessly for decades to measure the makeup of the sun and the stars
Why Scientists Are Making Vodka in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
It’s perfectly safe to drink, according to a new report
The Oldest Film of a Solar Eclipse Has Been Restored and Released Online
In 1900, magician, astronomer and filmmaker Nevil Maskelyne used a special adapter to film the astronomical event in North Carolina
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
The Nerdiest Christmas Cards Ever May Be These Microscope Slides Composed of Shells
The unusual holiday exchange, which lasted decades during the early 20th-century, hints at the drama between the two colleagues
The Scientist Grover Krantz Risked It All. . .Chasing Bigfoot
The dedicated anthropologist donated his body to science and it’s on display, but his legacy is complicated
When the U.S. Government Tried to Make It Rain by Exploding Dynamite in the Sky
Inspired by weather patterns during the Civil War, the rainmakers of the 1890s headed to west Texas to test their theory
The Mysterious Origins of the Smallpox Vaccine
Though the disease was declared eradicated in 1980, the era of smallpox is far from over
Captain Cook’s 1768 Voyage to the South Pacific Included a Secret Mission
The explorer traveled to Tahiti under the auspices of science 250 years ago, but his secret orders were to continue Britain’s colonial project
How Scientists Discovered Helium, the First Alien Element, 150 Years Ago
First found only on the sun, scientists doubted the mysterious element even existed for more than a decade
How Saddam and ISIS Killed Iraqi Science
Within decades the country’s scientific infrastructure went from world-class to shambles. What happened?
The 18th-Century Lady Mathematician Who Loved Calculus and God
After writing a groundbreaking math textbook, Maria Agnesi quit math for good
How Soviet Bomb Tests Paved the Way For U.S. Climate Science
The untold story of a failed Russian geoengineering scheme, panic in the Pentagon, and a Nixon-era effort to study global cooling
Why Scientists Name Species
From the Beyonce fly to the David Attenborough possum, the names we bestow on animals have real conservation impacts
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