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Science
Gimme Shelter
Best Friends Animal Society has a sprawling campus in the canyons of Utah, but its influence has grown to reach almost every shelter in the country
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The Nation’s Biggest Animal Sanctuary Operates Under a Mantra to ‘Save Them All.’ How Could That Be Controversial?
Best Friends Animal Society has a sprawling campus in the canyons of Utah, but its influence has grown to reach almost every shelter in the country
Smart News
Researchers Discover the Shocking Age of the Mysterious Pecos River Rock Art
Fabergé Egg Gifted by Russia’s Last Czar Breaks World Record, Selling for $30.2 Million at Auction
Claude, San Francisco’s Beloved Albino Alligator and ‘Unofficial Mascot,’ Dies at Age 30
Here’s What the World Health Organization Had to Say About GLP-1s in its First-Ever Guideline on the Drugs
Archaeologists Say These Conch Shells May Have Been Used as Early Musical Instruments 6,000 Years Ago
Latest Features
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History
The Lost City of the Silk Road
Researchers are uncovering what they think is the metropolis of Marsmanda, an iron-making city that could rewrite the history of the famed trade route
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History
A Grand New Design
A train wreck that caused the death of more than a dozen commuters near the turn of the 20th century was the impetus behind a monumental project that changed the urban landscape
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Most Popular
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Special Report
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America’s 250th Anniversary
To mark the 250th anniversary of America’s founding on July 4, 1776, Smithsonian magazine is highlighting the people, places and events that shaped the United States’ fight for independence from Great Britain
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Photo of the Day
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Nallihan Colorful Mountains
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Podcast
Smithsonian Podcast: There’s More to That
Smithsonian magazine covers history, science and culture in the way only it can — through a lens on the world that is insightful and grounded in richly reported stories. In There’s More to That, meet the magazine’s journalists and hear how they discover the forces behind the biggest issues of our time.
Latest Episodes
The ‘Edmund Fitzgerald’ Sank Half a Century Ago. We’re Still Fascinated.
November 6, 2025 | 28 minutes
History
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Go Behind the Scenes at an Iconic Irish Library as Staff Move 700,000 Historical Treasures Into Storage
Trinity College Dublin’s Old Library will close for restoration and construction in 2027. What does that mean for the medieval manuscripts and books housed there?
Science
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The Ten Best Science Books of 2025
From “experimental archaeology” to the mysterious appeal of exploration, the wide-ranging subjects detailed in these titles captivated Smithsonian magazine’s science contributors this year
Innovation
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Two College Students Are Building a Robot to Replant Burned Forests
Marta Bernardino and Sebastião Mendonça invented Trovador, a six-legged, A.I.-powered robot that can plant trees in hard-to-reach, wildfire-damaged terrain
Travel
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Meet the Daredevils Chasing Down Speed Records at the Bonneville Salt Flats
Race officials, tinkerers and competitors converge in Utah every fall to test both metal and mettle
Arts & Culture
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A Famed Street Photographer Chronicled What Christmas Looks Like Across America Over the Course of Decades
Lee Friedlander’s new book, “Christmas,” collects his work from all over the country on the topic of our sentimental and materialistic connection to the holiday
At the Smithsonian
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See Amazing Images That Reveal the Strange, Otherworldly Beauty Hidden in American Factories
Photographer Christopher Payne provides a peek into the surreal aesthetics of industry in the United States