Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

New Research

Stuttering affects roughly 1 percent of the world's population, yet it is not well researched.

What Causes Stuttering? A Large DNA Analysis Study Offers New Clues, Uncovering Links to 48 Genes

Scientists analyzed data from more than one million users of 23andMe and found associations between certain genes and stuttering

In The Night Watch, Rembrandt included a small dog crouching in the shadows.

Cool Finds

The Mystery of the Small Dog in Rembrandt’s Monumental Masterpiece ‘The Night Watch’ Has Officially Been Solved

When a curator spotted a strikingly similar image of a dog by a lesser-known Dutch artist, she wondered if it could have inspired the pup in Rembrandt’s famous 1642 painting

A male blue jay on the left, a female green jay on the right and a hybrid offspring of the two species in the center.

Strange Bird Spotted in a Texas Backyard Is the First Known Hybrid Between a Blue Jay and a Green Jay

The ranges of the two parent bird species have expanded due to climate change and now overlap around San Antonio, researchers say

A jaguar, not the one documented in the new study, swims in the Pantanal in Brazil.

A Jaguar in Brazil Makes the Longest Recorded Swim by the Species, Traversing at Least 0.79 Miles Through Water

The new record could help conservationists strategize ways to consider feline movements during construction of hydroelectric dams

Chimpanzees in Uganda's Kibale National Park love eating figs, which scientists found had the highest level of alcohol at the site.

Chimps Consume the Equivalent of 2.5 Alcoholic Drinks per Day by Eating Fermented Fruit, Study Finds

Scientists report that chimpanzees consume about 14 grams of alcohol daily and suggest the result might help explain humans’ interest in booze

The slice was taken from an area of the trunk roughly three feet above the ground.

New Research

By Counting Growth Rings, Researchers Solve the Mystery of the Sycamore Gap Tree’s Age

A new analysis shows that the historic tree was at least 100 to 120 years old in September 2023, when two men illegally chopped it down

The Scarlet Sunrise is a new, crack-resistant grape tomato variety developed by researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Researchers Just Developed a Tasty New Tomato Called the Scarlet Sunrise

The snackable grape variety is the brainchild of scientists at Rutgers University, who have spent more than a decade trying to produce a firm, crack-resistant fruit with a vibrant reddish-yellow color

Quasi-moons follow heliocentric orbits, centered around the sun, that are similar to Earth's.

Cool Finds

Astronomers Say Earth Has a Newly Discovered ‘Quasi-Moon,’ a Companion That Shares Its Orbit Around the Sun

Researchers are discussing 2025 PN7, a small celestial body that’s following a similar orbital path to our planet’s without being gravitationally tied to Earth

A fly trapped in a studied amber sample. 

Cool Finds

112-Million-Year-Old Amber Samples Preserve a Snapshot of an Ancient Forest

The deposits from the time of the dinosaurs contain fragile insects and a spider’s web

A healthy volunteer takes the Fastball test in his home alongside lead researcher George Stothart.

Three-Minute Take-Home Test May Identify Symptoms Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease Years Before a Traditional Diagnosis

Researchers say the experimental tool has huge implications for public health, especially in conjunction with Alzheimer’s drugs that are most effective in the disease’s early stages

An illustration of a Pterodactylus hatchling struggling in a tropical storm

Baby Pterosaur Fossils Reveal Mid-Flight Injury and Watery Death, Helping Solve a Paleontological Mystery

A 150-million-year-old fossil hotspot in southern Germany yields an astounding number of well-preserved juvenile pterosaurs, and scientists wondered why it contained fewer adults

Subtly different brain areas light up in response to viewing certain colors, a new study suggests.

Do We See the Same Colors as Others? Study Suggests Brains Respond to the Same Hues in Similar Ways

Using MRI scans, researchers found that participants’ patterns of brain activity were alike when looking at certain colors. But people can still experience those colors differently

Researchers directly dated dinosaur eggs, which had filled with calcite crystals, in China.

Paleontologists Directly Date Dinosaur Eggs for the First Time, Shedding Light on the Cretaceous World 85 Million Years Ago

Using uranium-lead dating, researchers calculated the age of the eggs, rather than the sediments around them, at the Qinglongshan site in China

The Cato who aided Hercules Mulligan might have been a man enslaved by the powerful Schuyler family.

Untold Stories of American History

Did an Enslaved Chocolatier Help Hercules Mulligan Foil a Plot to Assassinate George Washington?

New research sheds light on the possible identity of Cato, the Black man who conveyed the tailor’s lifesaving intelligence to the Americans during the Revolutionary War

The researchers studied the genomes of thousands of ant specimens stored in museum collections.

Fiji’s Ants Are Struggling. Scientists Say They’re Part of the Broader ‘Insect Apocalypse’

New research finds that 79 percent of Fiji’s endemic ant species—those that are native to and only found on the archipelago—are in decline

A common octopus (Octopus americanus) raises its arm in southern Florida.

Scientists Map the Ways Octopuses Use Their Complex Arms, Revealing Preferences for Certain Tasks

The cephalopods appear to favor using their front arms, according to a new study, though their back arms help with locomotion

Some of the barrels off the coast of Los Angeles are surrounded by mysterious white halos in the sediment.

Metal Barrels Dumped Off the Coast of Los Angeles Are Encircled by Mysterious White Halos—and Scientists Think They Finally Know Why

At least some of the barrels contain caustic alkaline waste, which has made the surrounding ecosystems inhospitable to most life forms, a new study suggests

A sheep jaw bone was one of the samples analyzed in the new study.

New Research

Large Groups Came Together for Grand Feasts at the End of the Bronze Age in Britain

After analyzing bone fragments found in millennia-old trash piles, researchers say that people may have brought livestock from far and wide to consume in the south

An illustration of the ultrasound helmet

New Helmet-Shaped Device Could One Day Treat Conditions Such as Parkinson’s Without Invasive Surgery, Scientists Suggest

In a first-of-its-kind achievement, researchers non-invasively and precisely directed ultrasound beams to target a location deep within the brain

GRB 250702B was spotted in July.

Astronomers Discover Unusual, Long-Lasting Gamma-Ray Explosion Outside Our Galaxy That Appeared Several Times Throughout a Day

The burst seems to have been caused by a highly extraordinary event, but scientists don’t yet know exactly what that could be

Page 21 of 296