Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Natural Sciences

Bei Bei, the National Zoo's youngest giant panda cub, during a veterinary exam when he was less than three months old.

The Long, Adorable History of Pandas in America

Su Lin was the first giant panda to come to America, landing in San Francisco in 1936

Radiocarbon dating has been used to determine of the ages of ancient mummies, in some cases going back more than 9000 years.

Age of Humans

Thanks to Fossil Fuels, Carbon Dating Is in Jeopardy. One Scientist May Have an Easy Fix

If only there were such an easy fix for climate change

The walrus diorama at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, photographed in 2009, includes a "realistic" marine background.

The History and Future of the Once-Revolutionary Taxidermy Diorama

In their heyday, these dead animal displays were virtual reality machines

The HAARP antenna array

Cool Finds

Calling All Conspiracy Theorists: Alaska’s “Mind-Control Lab” Is Hosting an Open House

Depending on who you ask, HAARP can control minds, weather, and even earthquakes

Just a handful of key animals—mostly charismatic megafauna and a few economically important species—make up the bulk of conservation research efforts.

Scientists Know They Should Really Study Important Bugs but OMG a Baby Cheetah

In conservation science, the cutest animals still get all the attention

A sketch of a Lycaeides melissa samuelis butterfly.

Art Meets Science

Vladimir Nabokov’s Butterfly Drawings Take Flight in This New Book

A little-known fact: The author of “Lolita” was also an avid lepidopterist

Dorset Horn sheep are one of eight heritage livestock breeds currently living at SVF. The gene bank currently contains 30 breeds.

For One Day Only, Visit the Farm and Cryogenics Laboratory Trying to Save Endangered Livestock Breeds

Enjoy a farm tour, cryogenics demonstration and a heritage-breed beef burger at Newport, Rhode Island’s Swiss Village Farm

The Keukenhof Floral Park in Lisse, The Netherlands.

Where to See Thousands and Thousands of Tulips

From the Netherlands to Kashmir, get lost in tulip mania

Important information about a cheetah can be found in its feces.

A Fecal Pellet’s Worth A Thousand Words

Scientists can learn a surprising amount about an animal just by analyzing its poop

The grand hall of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut—the wellspring of some the most distinguished scholarship of our times.

The Scientific Daredevils Who Made Yale’s Peabody Museum a National Treasure

When an award-winning science writer dug into the backstory of this New Haven institute, he found a world of scientific derring-do

Modern microscopes can image red blood cells in stunning detail.

Early Microscopes Revealed a New World of Tiny Living Things

A cloth merchant turned a device for checking his wares into an instrument fit for science

The Anna’s hummingbird is one of many species of birds that attract females with sounds generated by their feathers.

These Birds Can Sing Using Only Their Feathers

When feathers meet air in just the right way, birds can create distinctive sounds

T. rex had tiny arms. But that’s no reason to mock the dinosaur.

Stop Making Fun of Tyrannosaurs’ Tiny Arms

The stubby limbs may seem out of place, but they may have been key to the T. rex’s terrifying bite

These ancient amber fossils from Burma in Southeast Asia help complete the patchy record of lizard evolution.

New Research

Pint-Sized Lizards Trapped in Amber Give Clues to Life 100 Million Years Ago

The trove of Cretaceous reptiles includes an early relative of the chameleon—the oldest yet discovered

Cool Finds

Listen to the Sweet Sounds of Slime Mold

Two artists transform the bioelectricity of microorganisms into song

Cool Finds

The Ig Nobel Prize Turns 25

Celebrating a quarter-century of the goofiest work in science

A cereus in Arizona in 2009. These night-blooming flowers spring forth from cacti just one night a year, in concert with other nearby cereus. They usually wilt the next day.

Urban Explorations

See the Flowers that Bloom All At Once, One Night a Year

The mysterious night-blooming cereus just dazzled a garden in Tucson. Scientists still aren’t sure exactly how they bloom at the same time

Jeanne Villepreux-Power described how the Paper Nautilus grew its own shell

Cool Finds

A 19th Century Shipwreck Might Be Why This Famous Female Naturalist Faded to Obscurity

Jeanne Villepreux-Power invented the aquarium and studied cephalopods, but today few recognize her name

This dizzying crowd of Douglas fir trees gives off a refreshing scent.

How to Travel by Scent

We tend to privilege our sense of sight, but why not be led by your nose?

The ubiquitous shamrock has mythical origins.

No One Really Knows What a Shamrock Is

The three-leaf clover is what everyone wears, but what species is it?

Page 8 of 15