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A pair of African wild dogs at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, the largest privately owned nature reserve in South Africa, near the Botswana border.

Science

Africa’s Wild Dogs Are the Most Hated Carnivores on the Continent. Here’s How Some Conservationists Are Saving Them Anyway.

Meet the team that closely monitors the playful canines, who need help to form diverse packs and stop their numbers from dwindling

Helen Sullivan
Photographs by Marcus Westberg

At its peak, the movement grew to include more than 130 participating restaurants. Today, 111 authentic trattorias still promote regional cuisine in this special way.

Travel

In Some Trattorias in Italy, Diners Can Enjoy a Meal and Take the Plate It Was Served on Home as a Souvenir

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Smithsonian magazine Summer 2026 issue cover
The “Ether Dome” at Massachusetts General Hospital is now a National Historic Landmark.
Science Theater of Relief
Medical procedures used to be a scream-filled endurance test until doctors at this Boston institution learned to tame the pain of patients
The view from Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, New York.
Travel Rediscovering America’s Original Grand Tour
Follow along as we retrace the route one journalist laid out in “The Fashionable Tour,” from New York City to Niagara Falls, when memories of the fight for independence were still fresh
Missing Caption
History How to Build a Character
Silence Dogood. Richard Saunders. Benevolus. Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim. All were pen names that allowed Franklin to say things he couldn’t have otherwise said
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History

When a Carpenter in California Found a Nugget of Gold, It Started a Rush Toward Nothing Less Than the Modern World

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At the Smithsonian

See the Cutest Photos of Three Red Panda Cubs Born at the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute This Year

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Smart News

Scientists Gave Dogs MRIs and Learned That They’re Surprisingly Good at Distinguishing Between Human Emotions, Even Some Negative Ones

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Smart News

Archaeologists Have Found Thousands of Intact Ancient Human Brains. Scientists Say They’ve Figured Out Why the Organs Don’t Always Rot

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Voices

These Photos Visualize the Legacy of Peter Spencer, Founder of America’s First Independent Black Church

Photo of the Day

End of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race, Nome, Alaska. I visited the remote and very interesting town of Nome in Alaska at the end of my Canada-Alaska cruise and took photos there of buildings and streets that seemed remarkable to me as a German traveler.

End of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race, Nome, Alaska

By Johann P. Gebhardt

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The Remarkable, Amazing Stories of Route 66 Reflect the Twists and Turns of 100 Years of Americana

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The Remarkable, Amazing Stories of Route 66 Reflect the Twists and Turns of 100 Years of Americana

April 23, 2026 | 34 minutes

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April 9, 2026 | 32 minutes

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History

A series of floods devastated medieval Europe.

Centuries Ago, Europeans Were Plagued by Constant Flooding, With 16 Major Events That Killed Thousands Over the Course of Just Three Years

When researchers went looking for information about the legendary Magdalena Flood, they were surprised to discover that it was just one of many extreme weather events that ravaged the region in the early 1340s

This 18th-Century British Queen Turned King Arthur Into a P.R. Strategy, Drawing on Myth to Promote Her Dynasty’s Claim to the Throne

When an American Airplane Crashed Into a School in 1944, an English Village Lost Almost All of Its Youngest Children. Why Has WWII’s Worst Civilian Aviation Accident Been Forgotten?

More History

Science

A view of Pluto from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows the planet’s signature heart-shaped feature.

Once the Solar System’s Ninth Planet, Pluto Was Reclassified 20 Years Ago. Here’s Why Planetary Scientists and the Public Alike Love the Small Icy Body

Pluto is now the most well known of the outer worlds beyond Neptune—and the darling of the solar system

Earth’s Organisms Developed Via Evolution. Some Theorists Wonder: What if the Entire Cosmos Did, Too?

Marine Biologists Solved a Wildlife Mystery From the Walkway of the Golden Gate Bridge: How the Harbor Porpoise Mates

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Innovation

Of the estimated 899 species of ticks worldwide, about 90 are found in the continental U.S.; however, only four species are responsible for most of the infections found in the U.S. today.

The First At-Home Test for Infected Ticks Could Improve Lyme Disease Diagnosis

LymeAlert will hit the market in August. The latest tool against the tick-borne illness could become a medicine cabinet staple

A Brief History of Hold Music, From Early Patents to the Soundtrack of Customer-Service Purgatory

How A.I. Will Reshape Radiology—Without Replacing Radiologists

More Innovation

Travel

At Nona Manis, dining guests can enjoy a prix-fixe menu that may include any of these dishes: ikan pindang patin (braised fish), steak semur (steak with kecap manis sauce), laksa (seafood curry soup), oyster sambal matah and oyster gulai Aceh (oyster on the half shell with Balinese sambal and Aceh curry).

A New Generation of Chefs Reimagines Indonesian Cuisine in the Netherlands to Tell the Stories of Its Origins

The shift reflects a larger cultural moment, with chefs asking whether the cuisine should remain tied to colonial nostalgia or evolve into a reflection of modern Indonesian identity

Before Cultural and Natural Wonders Earn UNESCO World Heritage Status, They Are Put on a ‘Tentative’ List. Here Are Five Nominees Worth Visiting Now

For Three Hours Every Day, Open Ocean Transforms Into Australia’s ‘Ghost’ Reef

More Travel

Arts & Culture

When did summer "beach reads" become a part of our culture? Book historian Donna Harrington-Lueker takes us back to mid-19th-century leisure.

The History of the Beach Read, From 19th-Century ‘Moral Debasement’ to BookTok

The still-popular genre got its start 150 years ago, when publishers profited off the rise of travel in the United States during an otherwise slow publishing season

How Artist Nick Cave Memorializes His Ancestors Through ‘Mammoth’ Work

Fires and Financial Trouble Leave the Fate of Two Arts Buildings Uncertain in This Scottish City—Including a Century-Old Masterpiece

More Arts & Culture

At the Smithsonian

A view of Pluto from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows the planet’s signature heart-shaped feature.

Once the Solar System’s Ninth Planet, Pluto Was Reclassified 20 Years Ago. Here’s Why Planetary Scientists and the Public Alike Love the Small Icy Body

Pluto is now the most well known of the outer worlds beyond Neptune—and the darling of the solar system

See the Cutest Photos of Three Red Panda Cubs Born at the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute This Year

How the Boogie Board Became One of Summer’s Most Popular Toys

More At the Smithsonian