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Theories and Discovery

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The Robot Revolution Is for the Birds

Look up for robotic ravens and cyborg pigeons

A chronology of NFL helmets

Leatherhead to Radio-Head: The Evolution of the Football Helmet

From hand-cobbled beginnings, the football helmet has shifted to become one of the most highly designed pieces of equipment in all of sports

Hydrologic Commonwealths for the American West, proposed by John Wesley Powell, 1879

Design for a Water-Scarce Future

Design strategies for arid regions go back centuries, but in the face of climate change, drylands design is a whole new ballgame

A thermal infrared image of orchard water levels

Drones: The Citrus Industry’s New Beauty Secret

In the future, farmers will use unmanned drones to improve the appearance of their crops

Testing the Tango at the University of California Citrus Breeding Program

Design Specs for a Genetically Ideal Snack

How plant geneticists are growing convenience food on trees

A dragon statue in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Where Did Dragons Come From?

In honor of the Year of the Dragon, we take a look at some potential inspirations for the dragon myth

"We're just seeing the start of matching patients with the right drug and seeing rapid improvements," says Dr. Brian Druker.

A Triumph in the War Against Cancer

Oncologist Brian Druker developed a new treatment for a deadly cancer, leading to a breakthrough that has transformed medicine

Movies, such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and conspiracy theorists insist we are not alone.

Ready for Contact

Humans have searched for extraterrestrial life for more than a century. What will we do when we find it?

Art historian Henry Adams contends that Pollock created Mural around his name, discernible as camouflaged letters.

Decoding Jackson Pollock

Did the Abstract Expressionist hide his name amid the swirls and torrents of a legendary 1943 mural?

A group of biologists suggests that disease ultimately determines much of who we are and how we behave.

The Culture of Being Rude

A new biological theory states that cultural behavior is not just a regional quirk, but a defense against the spread of disease

The ocean's boundless energy (von Jouanne near Oregon's Otter Rock Beach) could furnish up to 6.5 percent of U.S. electricity.

Catching a Wave, Powering an Electrical Grid?

Electrical engineer Annette von Jouanne is pioneering an ingenious way to generate clean, renewable electricity from the sea

Frederick Cook and Robert Peary both claimed they discovered the North Pole.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Who Discovered the North Pole?

A century ago, explorer Robert Peary earned fame for discovering the North Pole, but did Frederick Cook get there first?

A juvenile tapetail in the process of becoming an adult grows a huge liver.

A Fish Tale

A curator discovers that whalefishes, bignose fishes and tapetails are all really the same kind of fish at different life stages

Black jaguars, like the cub on the left, have a mutation that causes them to produce more of the pigment melanin than spotted jaguars do.

Evolution in Black and White

The alternative color forms of some animals are providing new insights into how animals adapt and evolve

"Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history," Darwin (c.1880) said of a future in which his hard-won findings would be tested.

What Darwin Didn’t Know

Today’s scientists marvel that the 19th-century naturalist’s grand vision of evolution is still the key to life

Carved sarsens-enormous blocks of hard sandstone-were used to build the towering trilithons that dominate the landscape of Salisbury Plain in southern England. But archaeologists Timothy Darvill and Geoffrey Wainwright believe the smaller so-called bluestones hold the key to unraveling Stonehenge's mystery.

New Light on Stonehenge

The first dig in 44 years inside the stone circle changed our view of why—and even when—the monument was built

Bright idea: Wolfgang Ketterle (in his M.I.T lab) hopes to discover new forms of matter by studying ultracold atoms.

The Coldest Place in the Universe

Physicists in Massachusetts come to grips with the lowest possible temperature: absolute zero

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Abandoned Ship: The Mary Celeste

What really happened aboard the Mary Celeste? More than a century after her crew went missing, a scenario is emerging

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Down to Earth

Anthropologist Amber VanDerwarker is unraveling the mysteries of the ancient Olmec by figuring out what they ate

“It’s not unfair to say that we have been completely misled” by studying mostly museum-quality specimens, says O’Dea (gathering fossils in Bocas del Toro along Panama’s Caribbean coast).

Shell Fame

Paleobiologist Aaron O’Dea has made his name by sweating the small stuff

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