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Scientists explored a tiny portion of the site during more than 30 dives with a submersible.

Scientists Discover the World’s Largest, Deepest Whale Graveyard, Where Cetacean Remains Have Been Piling Up for Five Million Years

The massive necropolis, located deep in the southeastern Indian Ocean, is teeming with marine life supported by the whale carcasses, including many suspected new species

Human development—such as roads—affects wildlife. But so does the presence of people.

The Mere Presence of Humans—Not Just Our Changes to the Land—Can Alter Wild Animals’ Behaviors, a New Study Suggests

Researchers examined GPS tracking data from thousands of animals representing 37 species and anonymized cellphone location data from 2020, a year of Covid-19 lockdowns, and the previous year

Entomologist Mark Moffett photographed cone ants climbing onto and cleaning harvester ants.

These Tiny Ants Crawled All Over Larger Ants and Licked Them Clean. Scientists Aren’t Sure How This Behavior Benefits Any of Them

After witnessing the interactions in an Arizona desert, a Smithsonian researcher suggests that the little ants picked off tasty treats and that the big ants got thoroughly groomed in hard-to-reach places

One of blue crabs' biggest threats seems to be members of their own species.

Cannibalistic Blue Crabs Are Eating Their Younger Peers in Part of the Chesapeake Bay

The findings by Smithsonian researchers could help experts better manage this crustacean’s population. The creatures play important roles in the local ecosystem and food industry

A set of children’s building blocks (Anker-Steinbaukasten) that belonged to Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein Played With These Building Blocks as a Child. Here’s How They Helped Shape His Magnificent Mind

The 19th-century German toy pieces, made with quartz sand, chalk and linseed oil, allowed kids to create realistic structures

The Van Allen Probes spent seven years studying two donut-shaped rings of radiation around the Earth.

A 1,300-Pound Spacecraft Might Be Plummeting Through Our Atmosphere Right Now

The debris poses minimal risk of harming anyone

Seabird poop, along with food waste, feathers and carcasses, accumulates as guano, which is prized as a nutrient-rich fertilizer.

Seabird Poop May Have Fueled This Pre-Inca Kingdom’s Rise to Power in South America

The Chincha Kingdom used nutrient-rich seabird guano as fertilizer for maize, according to a new study

New life may have evolved surprisingly fast after a famous mass extinction event about 66 million years ago.

After the Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Wrecked the Planet, Life May Have Bounced Back Surprisingly Fast

The steady rate of falling space dust helped researchers recalibrate the timeline

The JADES-ID1 protocluster

Astronomers Spot a Huge Cluster of Galaxies Forming Earlier in Cosmic History Than Thought Possible

The young galaxy cluster existed about 12.8 billion years ago and has an estimated mass 20 trillion times that of the sun

Paleontologists removed roughly 3,000 pounds of rocks and fossils from the site between mid-September and mid-October 2025.

Dinosaur National Monument Construction Work Turns Up New Fossils, Leading to the First Excavation at One Site in More Than a Century

Recent digs revealed roughly 20 feet of a long-necked dinosaur’s skeleton, and paleontologists suspect even more bones are lurking underground

Shenzhou-15 spacecraft debris streaked across the sky above California in April 2024. 

Sonic Booms and Earthquake Sensors Can Help Researchers Track Space Junk as It Plummets to Earth

Falling debris can travel at about 30 times the speed of sound, creating sonic booms that shake the ground

People line up for rations of beans and water in Japan following the country's defeat in World War II, in September 1945.

A Batch of Undelivered WWII Letters Intended for Japanese Soldiers Ended Up in an Oregon Museum Decades Later. Now, Experts Are Returning the Lost Correspondence to Their Families

An organization devoted to returning artifacts as a way to heal the emotional wounds left by the war is helping the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum send these deeply personal items to the writers’ descendants

In 1947 New Jersey, leaders of the New York-based YIVO open crates of salvaged artifacts from Europe.

These Irreplaceable Yiddish Artifacts Would Have Been Lost to History If They Weren’t Evacuated to New York After World War II

The founding of a research institute 100 years ago has helped to provide insight on Yiddish culture in the United States and around the world

Pages from the diary of Yitskhok Rudashevski

The Discovery of a Jewish Teenager’s Holocaust Diary Reveals How Songs, Jokes and Stories Served as Cultural Resistance

Yitskhok Rudashevski documented his life while hiding from Nazis, as well as folklore told in his community that “must be collected and preserved as a treasure for the future”

A popular display in the Whatcom Museum’s Hall of Birds features several owls.

Meet the Taxidermists Who Care for the Animals at Your Favorite Museums

Only a few U.S. museums still employ the specialists. The rest rely on a small group of highly skilled contractors

Researchers from the University of Washington conducted an initial experiment of cloud brightening technology in Alameda, California, on San Francisco Bay.

A Secretive Experiment Released Salt Crystals Over San Francisco Bay—Could It Help Curb Warming?

The technology could make clouds reflect more sunlight, cooling the Earth below. But even the scientists leading the study say letting go of fossil fuels is a much-preferred response to climate change

Members of the National Negro Opera Company pose backstage during a 1941 performance of Aida.

Women Who Shaped History

The Founder of This Trailblazing Opera Company Put Black Singers at Center Stage

Mary Cardwell Dawson created unprecedented opportunities for aspiring Black musicians

Cover of the autobiography of Beba Epstein written in the 1933-34 school year, with a picture of her.

Smithsonian Voices

How the Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Girl Inspired an Exhibition

The discovery of a forgotten document leads to a deep dive into a Jewish family’s Eastern European history that was all but lost

In makeshift home laboratories, a team of scientists discovered that cotton flannel is the optimal fabric, and their latest study says that the moisture from our breath makes the mask more effective.

How to Build a Better Homemade Face Mask, According to Science

When Covid-19 hit, Smithsonian researchers set up makeshift home laboratories to conduct groundbreaking studies on mask fabric materials

David Copperfield has sold more tickets than any other solo performer in history.

How Harry Houdini and David Copperfield’s Jewish Heritage Shaped Their Craft

The illusionists join Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Steven Spielberg in the National Museum of American Jewish History’s hall of fame

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