Meilan Solly

Meilan Solly

 

Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's senior associate digital editor, history.

From L to R: Frances H. Arnold was recognized for her work in the directed evolution of enzymes, while George P. Smith and Sir Gregory Winter were honored for the phage display of peptides and antibodies

Three Evolutionary Scientists Share This Year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Frances Arnold, George Smith and Gregory Winter employed principles seen in evolution to develop proteins that tackle global chemical problems

Sloths' slow-paced lifestyle is a survival strategy, not a sign of laziness

Sloths Don't Just Live in Slow-Mo, They Can Put Their Metabolism On Pause

Unlike most mammals, sloths don't use vast amounts of energy when it's hot, instead opting to slow down and conserve power, more like birds or reptiles

Swedish researchers used phase-contrast imaging to examine the soft tissue of a 2,400-year-old mummified hand

Now We Don't Have to Unravel Mummies to Study Them at a Cellular Level

Phase-contrast imaging enabled researchers to non-invasively examine a mummified hand's blood vessels, skin layers and connective tissue

Altar Frontal (1741), Isfahan. Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin

The Met’s Latest Show Traces Armenia’s Cultural Evolution

<i>Armenia!</i> features more than 140 artifacts, including gilded reliquaries, illuminated manuscripts, textiles

Philip James de Loutherbourg's 19th-century depiction of the Battle of Bosworth Field highlights the chaotic nature of the clash

Local Council Approves Plan to Turn Portion of Battle of Bosworth Site Into Driverless Car Testing Track

The 1485 clash between Richard III and Henry VII precipitated rise of Tudor dynasty

Urban cats are more likely to hunt down birds, mice than rats

Cats Are Surprisingly Bad at Killing Rats

Over a 79-day period, feral felines killed just two rats, instead opting to hunt less challenging prey

Scientists analyzed 3D scans of entheses, or scars left at points where muscle attaches to bone

Neanderthals Used Their Hands for Precision, Not Just Power

Researchers suggest that the early human ancestors’ hand usage places them in line with tailors, painters rather than brute-force laborers

Smith spotted the elusive creature while searching for rare flowers in the Wondiwoi mountain range

Elusive Tree Kangaroo Spotted for First Time in 90 Years

An amateur botanist spotted the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo in the remote mountains of West Papua, New Guinea

The dazzling pink and yellow fish is the only member of its genus known to reside in the Atlantic rather than the Pacific

Newly Discovered Neon Fish Species Is Named After Greek Goddess of Love

Researchers were so entranced by the pink and yellow fish that they failed to spot a sixgill shark swimming just above their heads

Michael D’Antuono, "The Talk"

NYC Pop-Up Exhibition Traces Broken Windows Policing’s Toll

The show explores how the policing of minor crimes has caused an uptick in racial profiling, particularly targeting African American and Latino communities

London Stone sat largely unnoticed behind this iron grill for roughly 50 years

London’s Lucky Stone—Referenced by Shakespeare, Blake—Set to Return to Rightful Place

It's been identified as a remnant of an ancient Roman monument, the altar employed in Druidic human sacrifice, even the stone that yielded Excalibur

Females that inherited two copies of a mutated gene developed antenna and claspers similar to males, rendering them unable to lay eggs or bite their prey

Gene Drive Technology Eliminates Malaria-Transmitting Mosquito Population

Researchers introduced a sterilization mutation that wiped out lab populations in seven to 11 generations

The unabashed depiction of violence seen in Caravaggio's "Judith Beheading Holofernes" underscores its creator’s bestial inclinations

Caravaggio May Have Died of Infected Sword Wound, Not Syphilis

The Italian Old Master had a notoriously mercurial temperament and was forced to flee Rome in 1606 after killing his rival in a duel

Researchers produced the immature egg cells (seen in pink) out of stem cells created using human blood

Scientists Create Immature Human Eggs Out of Blood Cells For the First Time

The lab-grown eggs were not advanced enough for fertilization, but researchers say this next step in the future of reproduction could arrive soon

An aerial view of the razed Mackintosh building following the June 2018 fire

Glasgow School of Art Will Be Rebuilt, But Construction Could Last Up to a Decade

In June, an inferno blazed through the Scottish school's historic Mackintosh Building, which was under renovation following a 2014 fire

Researchers first discovered Dickinsonia fossils back in 1946.

The World's Earliest Known Animal May Have Been a Blob-Like Undersea Creature

Traces of fat found on a 558-million-year-old fossil suggest <em>Dickinsonia</em> was an animal rather than fungus, plant or single-celled protozoa

Ptil Tekhelet sells tzitzit, or fringes attached to the corners of Jewish prayer shawls, colored with dye from the Murex trunculus snail

Jerusalem Museum Untangles History of the Color Blue, From Biblical Hue to Ancient Royalty

The show inks out the history of the enigmatic sky blue dye known as ‘tekhelet’

This 1860 portrait of Abraham Lincoln, believed to be by John C. Wolfe, depicts the young presidential nominee without his signature beard

More Than 700 Lincoln Collectibles Are Set to Go on Auction

Historian Harold Holzer amassed his extraordinary collection of lithographs, prints and assorted Lincolniana over the course of half a century

Faced with rising floodwaters that threaten to top their 19-inch absorption limit, the open-air pits could pose a significant environmental and health hazard

Florence Fall-Out Threatens to Release Waste Stored in Dozens of North Carolina Hog Lagoons

As of noon Wednesday, the Department of Environmental Quality had identified 21 flooded lagoons actively releasing hog waste into the environment

SpaceX released an updated rendering of the Big Falcon Rocket launching into the solar system

Elon Musk Is Sending a Japanese Billionaire to the Moon, and He’s Taking a Group of Artists With Him

Yusaku Maezawa hopes to recruit six to eight artists for the week-long mission, which is expected to launch as early as 2023

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