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Photography

Iron-thiocyanate complex, droplet on surface

Art Meets Science

Time-Lapse Photos Reveal the Beauty of Metal Crystals Growing

Photographer Emanuele Fornasier spends hours capturing the intricacy of chemical reactions

Andreas Velten and his lab at the University of Wisconsin use this setup, complete with a fog chamber, to test their camera.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Camera Can See Around Corners

How a superfast, supersensitive camera could shake up automotive and exploration industries, as well as photography as we know it

This colorful pattern is actually the cells inside a zebrafish embryo.

Cool Finds

Prize-Winning Videos Capture Mesmerizing, Microscopic World

Everything looks cooler when it’s viewed through the lens of a microscope

Two supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment demonstrate in August 1980.

Cool Finds

These Photos Bring the Women’s Movement to Life

Catching the Wave dramatizes the large and small moments of second-wave feminism

Art Meets Science

The Best “Art Meets Science” Books of 2016

Eight sumptuous books from the past year that meet at the intersection of science and art

Carl Kress, performer of "Heat Wave" on Volume I, focuses absolutely on his guitar-playing.

How Countless Hours of Live Jazz Were Saved from Obscurity

The Savory Collection breathes fresh life into jazz

Left to right: Newton Poolaw (Kiowa), Jerry Poolaw (Kiowa), Elmer Thomas Buddy Saunkeah (Kiowa). Mountain View, Oklahoma, ca. 1928

A Rare Insider’s View of Native American Life in Mid-20th-Century Oklahoma

Horace Poolaw’s photography is unearthed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian

Activists picketing at a demonstration for housing equality while uniformed American Nazi Party members counterprotest in the background with signs displaying anti-integration slogans and racist epithets.

This Photo Book Is a Reminder That the Civil Rights Movement Extended Far Beyond the Deep South

Public historian Mark Speltz’s new book is full of images that aren’t typically part of the 1960s narrative

"Ginzer" Kiki Smith, 2000 Aquatint, drypoint, and burnishing etching on paper. Smith placed the corpse of her cat on the plate and traced the outline to produce the image of the etching before burying him to create the etching.

Cool Finds

A Massive Collection of Cat Art Is up for Auction

The results of an art teacher’s passion project are for sale

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

A Photojournalist Captures Dramatic Portraits of Dancers in the Streets of Cuba

For Gabriel Davalos, photography is about storytelling

Trending Today

National Geographic’s Iconic “Afghan Girl” Arrested in Pakistan

Sharbat Gula was recently detained on charges of having a fake I.D.

Gemasolar Thermasolar Plant, 37.560755°, –5.331908° This image captures the Gemasolar Thermosolar Plant in Seville, Spain. The solar concentrator contains 2,650 heliostat mirrors that focus the sun’s thermal energy to heat molten salt flowing through a 140-metre-tall (460-foot) central tower. The molten salt then circulates from the tower to a storage tank, where it is used to produce steam and generate electricity. In total, the facility displaces approximately 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

Art Meets Science

These Photographs From Space Show What Humans Have Done to the Earth

In new book, vivid satellite images of the planet evoke what astronauts call “the overview effect”

"Bird," 1990, David Hammons, painted metal, wire, basketball and feathers.

This $1.4 Million “Bird” Makes an African-American Art Collection Soar to New Heights

With his first major contemporary acquisition, the Detroit Institute of Arts’ new director is reinvigorating the museum

First photo from space, 1946

Trending Today

American Scientists Took the First Photo of Earth From Space Using Nazi Rockets

70 years ago, researchers at White Sands Missile Base strapped a movie camera to a V2 rocket to get a bird’s-eye view of our planet

Eviction attempt. Winner, birds. Ganesh H. Shankar, India. Indian rose parakeets try to remove a monitor lizard from their nesting hole in India’s Keoladeo National Park

Cool Finds

London’s Natural History Museum Selects Best Wildlife Photos of the Year

From crows in the local park, to fish in the Pacific and lions in Africa, this year’s images show the variety and beauty of life on earth

Zak van Biljon photographed Kennedy Lake in British Columbia using infrared film.

Art Meets Science

Looking at Nature Through Infrared Film Will Have You Seeing Red

See the world on a whole different spectrum

A four-day-old zebrafish embryo captured by Dr. Oscar Ruiz at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. 10x magnification, confocal

Art Meets Science

Prize-Winning Photos Capture the Big Beauty of a Microscopic World

Nikon’s Small World Photography Competition celebrates the gorgeous details of nature

Just look at that vampiric cutie.

How Bats Ping On the Wing—And Look Cute Doing It

Researchers reveal how bats turn echolocation signals into a 3-D image of moving prey

DFB 45, Arès, Brandon Ballengée, 2008. Scanner photograph of cleared and stained multi-limbed Pacific Tree frog from Aptos, California in scientific collaboration with Dr. Stanley K. Sessions. Title in collaboration with the poet KuyDelair.

Art Meets Science

With Deformed Frogs and Fish, a Scientist-Artist Explores Ecological Disaster and Hope

A 20-year retrospective of Brandon Ballengée’s artwork explores humans’ connection to cold-blooded creatures

One of the largest sprite bursts to ever be caught on camera flashes in the sky over Puerto Rico, October 1, 2016.

Vibrant Lightning Sprites Spark Above Hurricane Matthew

A photographer’s good eye captures an elusive phenomenon

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