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Latest Features

Food has an undeniable way of breaking down barriers, whether it’s through learning about another culture’s culinary traditions or simply talking with others over a meal. 

TRAVEL

How to Build Cross-Cultural Connections Over Food This Holiday Season

A young girl puckers up to plant a kiss on a plastic Santa.  

ARTS & CULTURE

Ho, Ho, Ho! 15 Festive Photos of Santa Claus to Get You Into the Christmas Spirit

Stories in a wide variety of scientific disciplines made our list this year.

SMART NEWS

The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2024

Birds (Cranes), Tamami Shima, woodblock print, 1959

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

See the Groundbreaking Work of 20th-Century Printmakers Who Formed an Innovative Arts Society in Japan

By age 16, “being on some occasion made ashamed of my ignorance in figures, which I had twice failed in learning when at school,” Benjamin Franklin wrote, “I took Cocker’s book of arithmetic and went through the whole by myself with great ease.”

HISTORY

After Failing Math Twice, a Young Benjamin Franklin Turned to This Popular 17th-Century Textbook

Air Ring 48 attaches to the base of a construction helmet, providing crucial airflow to the sweatiest areas of the head and neck.

INNOVATION

Could This New Wearable Device Reduce Heat Stress in Construction Workers?

This year's list includes Emergency Quarters, The Iguanodon's Horn and Ernő Rubik and His Magic Cube.

SMART NEWS

The Ten Best Children's Books of 2024

Our most-read stories of the year featured photographer Vivian Maier, underwater caves in the Yucatán Peninsula, auroras and more.

SMART NEWS

Ten Top Smithsonian Stories of 2024, From a Mysterious Underground Chamber to Dazzling Auroras

Current Issue

Smithsonian magazine December 2024 issue cover

Most Popular

1.

Smart News

On This Day in 1951, Four Illuminated Lightbulbs in Idaho Were Evidence of the First Time a Nuclear Power Plant Generated Electricity

Although it was just a byproduct of developing a new type of reactor, the generation of electricity from nuclear energy signaled a bright future ahead

2.

Smart News

Check Out 14 Hilarious Winners From the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards Contest

From an "awkward" smiling frog to embarrassing owl parents, this year's winners of the entertaining annual competition won't let you down

3.

Smart News

Scientists Just Dissected the World's Rarest Whale in New Zealand. Here's What They Found

Only seven spade-toothed whales have ever been identified, and the species has never been seen alive. After one washed ashore last summer, researchers have made new discoveries—including that the animal had nine stomach chambers and vestigial teeth

4.

Smart News

Squirrels Are Displaying 'Widespread Carnivorous Behavior' for the First Time in a California Park, New Study Finds

The familiar rodents, known for eating nuts and seeds, have been spotted hunting and decapitating voles in a gruesome dietary adaptation. Scientists say it might signal resiliency in face of future environmental pressures

5.

Smart News

A New Dark Sky Park in Colorado Offers a Front-Row Seat to the Cosmos

This week, Browns Canyon National Monument, a 21,586-acre protected natural area in central Colorado, achieved International Dark Sky Park certification

Smithsonian Voices
Smithsonian Associates

Earn a Smithsonian World Art History Certificate Online in 2025

National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Read Some of the Most Exciting Stories From the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in 2024

National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Read Some of the National Zoo’s Most Amazing Animal Stories of 2024

Smithsonian American Women's History Museum

What Drives Their Support? Our Donors Share the Stories

Your IMPACT | Your Smithsonian

An Icon Tells New Stories

National Museum of Natural History

Newly Described Fossil From Wyoming Sheds Light on When Frogs and Toads Lost Their Teeth

See All

Special Report
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Our Sustainable Future

A hub dedicated to the latest on how global change affects life on Earth today and on what solutions scientists, including those at the Smithsonian, are researching to build a more sustainable planet

View Full Report

Featured Stories

In Miami, the Nation’s First Chief Heat Officer Charts a Course for Surviving on a Warming Planet

Inside the Effort to Save Earth's Biocrusts

Can the Noise in Sports Arenas Be Turned Into Electricity?

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Smithsonian Videos

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10 Fun Facts About Jellyfish

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Preview thumbnail for video 'The Ultimate Skywatching Guide for Every Season

The Ultimate Skywatching Guide for Every Season

Preview thumbnail for video '10 Enchanting Butterfly Facts Revealed!

10 Enchanting Butterfly Facts Revealed!

Photo of the day

I photographed this image with Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S, at 1/640 seconds,F8,ISO 800, focal length 560mm. 2024 is not good for bears in Alaska because of commercial overfishing which has caused a very low population of salmons. This bear was walking on the beach every early morning and late afternoon. I did not see he got any fishes but ate grass or grass roots during my 5 overcast days. Longing!

History

Our most-read stories of the year featured photographer Vivian Maier, underwater caves in the Yucatán Peninsula, auroras and more.

Ten Top Smithsonian Stories of 2024, From a Mysterious Underground Chamber to Dazzling Auroras

The magazine's most-read articles of the year included a close-up look at the adorable yet venomous pygmy slow loris, a profile of a little-known 20th-century street photographer and a majestic journey with divers into Mexico’s underwater caves

Charles de Gaulle talking to reporters in 1945

A Forgotten Collection of Charles de Gaulle's Personal Letters, Speeches and Manuscripts Has Been Discovered in a Safe

An 1812 illustration of a private from the Fifth West India Regiment. In the 1790s, the remaining members of the Carolina Corps became part of the newly established First West India Regiment.

These Black Soldiers Fought for the British During the American Revolution in Exchange for Freedom From Slavery

Science

A view of the soft-bottomed Los Angeles River below the 400-foot-long Taylor Yard Bridge in Elysian Valley. The newest Taylor Yard parcel, currently fenced off as it undergoes toxic remediation, can be seen on the far right.

How the Arrival of an Endangered Bird Indicates What’s Possible for the L.A. River

Could the waterway that the city was built around make a comeback?

By examining the fossils of ancient creatures, scientists are able to see the origins of features that make mammals different from other animals.

How to Make a Mammal in Nine Evolutionary Steps

A photo of Neptune, taken by the Voyager 2 probe, with the colors rebalanced to represent its truest appearance

The Six Most Amazing Discoveries We’ve Made About Neptune

Innovation

Air Ring 48 attaches to the base of a construction helmet, providing crucial airflow to the sweatiest areas of the head and neck.

Could This New Wearable Device Reduce Heat Stress in Construction Workers?

Architecture students at the University of Hong Kong invented a cooling apparatus that attaches to a construction helmet

The products range from programmable rovers to books that introduce the terminology of robotics and circuitry to childen.

Engineers Choose the Ten Best STEM Toys to Gift in 2024

The plant-based egg substitutes available today are less than perfect. Food scientists are working hard to improve them — and, maybe, make them better tasting and more nutritious than the real thing.

Scientists Are Trying to Crack the Recipe for the Perfect Plant-Based Eggs

Travel

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The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2024

These top titles of the year whisk readers away on adventures and remind us of the many wonders in this world

On the weekend when Catholics celebrate St. Martin’s Day, the beginning of the “reveling season” of winter, Mirano’s central square is completely transformed into a giant, 16th-century board game.

The Italian Town That Becomes a Giant, Goose-Themed Board Game Each Fall

Top: Rubble inside Notre-Dame Cathedral in 2019. Bottom: The cathedral's renovated interior (including the tabernacle designed by French artist Guillaume Bardet) in 2024

See Inside Notre-Dame Cathedral in These Breathtaking Images of Its Newly Unveiled Interior

Arts & Culture

The theme of this year's creepy doll contest at the History Center of Olmsted County is "Circus After Dark."

The Creepy Doll Contest Is Back—and It's Time to Cast Your Vote for the Most Terrifying Toy

Step right up and see the spooky circus dolls—from creepy clowns to frightening fortune-tellers—in a Minnesota museum's vintage toy collection

Mask, Jackson Pollock, 1941

Before He Created His Vibrant Drip Paintings, Jackson Pollock Took Inspiration From Pablo Picasso

The Ofaerufoss waterfall is part of the Nyrdri-Ofaera River, meaning the “impassable northern river.” The river flows into Eldgja, or the “Canyon of Fire.”  

Go Chasing Waterfalls With These 15 Awe-Inspiring Images

At the Smithsonian

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”

This year's list includes Clouds in Space, The Manicurist's Daughter and The Ministry of Time.

The Best Books of 2024, as Chosen by Smithsonian Scholars

A sculptor's rendering of "Lucy," Australopithecus afarensis, at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on August 28, 2007, in Houston, Texas.

What 'Lucy,' One of the World's Most Important Fossils, Has Taught Scientists in the 50 Years Since Her Discovery