Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Trending Today

Louisville, Kentucky.

Trending Today

Officials Figure Out What Was Making Louisville Stink

A musty smell permeating the city can be blamed on a naturally-occurring chemical largely responsible for the smell of dirt

NASA's Curiosity rover caught this image of its drill just days before a short circuit caused it to shut down.

Trending Today

Mars Rover Is Out of Commission (For Now)

Short circuit halts Curiosity in its tracks

A herd of domesticated beefalo in Montana. After interbreeding, free-ranging beefalos currently causing problems in the Grand Canyon appear both physically and genetically close to native bison.

Trending Today

A Beefalo Invasion Is Causing Trouble in the Grand Canyon

Hundreds of the hybrid animals are drying up water resources and messing with the ecosystem, eliciting calls for culling

Trending Today

Chilean Volcano Erupts in the Early Morning

The 9,000-foot volcano spewed ash, smoke and lava high into the air

Smokey the bear being given a fire helmet by Washington Fire Departments’ deputy fire chief, M.H. Sutton in 1950

Trending Today

The Real Smokey Bear Has A New Biography

It’s officially licensed by the Forest Service and written from Smokey’s point of view

A nine-banded armadillo.

Trending Today

How Armadillos Can Spread Leprosy

These tank-like creatures are the only animals besides us known to carry leprosy

Spanish cruise ship 'Gemini' enters Havana Harbor. Americans are now legally able to book a cruise to Havana through a Canadian cruise line.

Trending Today

It’s Now Legal to Book a Cruise to Cuba

A Canadian cruise line is allowing Americans to legally book a trip around Cuba

Two spots shine like beacons from the dwarf planet Ceres

Trending Today

The Dawn Spacecraft Is About to Reach Its Next Destination—the Dwarf Planet Ceres

We might just learn what the mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet are—and much more

Trending Today

Would You Live in an Antarctic Penguin Post Office?

Applications soar at post office in Port Lockroy, Antarctica

Trending Today

Adultery Is Now Legal in South Korea

62 years after the passage of a morality law, spouses can’t be prosecuted for extramarital affairs

Trending Today

The FCC Just Voted to Preserve Net Neutrality

FCC passes “Preserving the Open Internet” rules by 3-2 vote

Trending Today

How One Doctor Proposes to Conduct the First Human Head Transplant

An Italian neuroscientists says that the surgery could be ready in as few as two years, but the scientific community remains very skeptical

Trending Today

Germans Brace for the Re-Release of ‘Mein Kampf’

Is Hitler’s 90-year-old manifesto too dangerous to be on bookshelves?

Hiram Rhodes Revels

Trending Today

The First African American Senator Was Sworn in 145 Years Ago Today

Hiram R. Revels made history when, amid the tensions of Reconstruction, he became a senator from Mississippi

Trending Today

Young People Mistrust Government So Much They Aren’t Running for Office

The advancing age of Congress isn’t just due to reelection rates

Trending Today

Amsterdam Is Out of Bike Parking

The city will create 40,000 new bike parking spaces by 2030

Trending Today

See the Winter of Our Discontent…From Space

NASA photo of the eastern United States confirms it’s really, really cold out there

Trending Today

Should You Speculate in Flower Bulbs?

Move over, real estate—there’s a new bubble in snowdrop bulbs

None

Trending Today

Mark World Pangolin Day With a New Video About the Quirky Creatures

Awareness about this animal underdog is climbing, yet an estimated 10,000 pangolins still fell victim to the illegal wildlife trade last year

Russian ice breaker Kapitan Khlebnikov breaks through pack ice in the Southern Ocean

Trending Today

Antarctic Sea Ice Sets A New Record, But the Climate is Still Changing

Climate change deniers, sit back down

Page 84 of 128