Articles

The Ant planetary nebula. Ejecting gas from the dying central star shows symmetrical patterns unlike the chaotic patterns of ordinary explosions.

A Celestial News Bureau

Three Smithsonian astronomers run a worldwide news service about what is happening overhead

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The Grandeur That Was Rome

A new exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art showcases the Eternal City as the artistic and cultural capital of 18th-century Europe

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Petal Power

Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire

Fire on the Mountain

"The Basque History of the World" By Mark Kurlansky

Earning a Halo Can Stink to High Heaven

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When War Called, Davis Answered

The first modern war correspondent, Richard Harding Davis covered the first modern wars

Catacombs of Paris

Empire of the Dead

Birds, Bees and Even Nectar-feeding Bats Do It

Across our fields, orchards and backyard gardens, the pollinators we rely on for the food we eat are facing threats on many fronts

Bone Specialist On Call

A Smithsonian anthropologist applies his expertise to cases of missing children and disaster victims

This SeaWiFS view reveals the colourful interplay of currents on the sea's surface

Evidence for a Flood

Sediment layers suggest that 7,500 years ago Mediterranean water roared into the Black Sea

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Wanted, Dead or Alive

When scientists go scavenging at a bioblitz, anything they can find that's organic is considered fair game

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The Biggest One That Didn't Get Away

A real fish tale hangs on a monster marlin caught nearly a half-century ago

Beirut city skyline in the early 2000s

Beirut Rises from the Ashes

After surviving a civil war, the city is once again a mecca for artists, a landscape covered with architecture and a wonderland of discoveries

Jeweler Harry Winston donated the famous Hope Diamond—the largest-known deep blue diamond in the world—to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. It arrived in a plain brown package by registered mail, insured for one million dollars. Surrounded by 16 white pear-shaped and cushion-cut diamonds and hanging from a chain with 45 diamonds, the rare gem attracts 6 million visitors a year to the Natural History Museum.

The Hope Diamond

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In Praise of Pianos and the Artists Who Play Them

MASS MoCA

A Unique Home for Cutting-edge Art

MASS MoCA, the nation's newest and largest center for the contemporary arts, has brought a blue-collar New England town back to the future

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Two for Tea

America's only commercial tea crop is grown on an island with plants more than a century old

Bonding through Books

A good read gives mothers and daughters much more to talk about than just the plot

The Tulip: The Story of the Flower That Has Made Men Mad

Review of 'The Tulip: The Story of a Flower That Has Made Men Mad'

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