Articles

The team has developed many different prototypes. Their latest iteration can display six characters at a time and images the text using an internal camera.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Device Translates Text To Braille in Real Time

Team Tactile hopes to create an inexpensive and portable device that can raise text right off the page

Frances Oldham Kelsey, a pharmacologist with the Food & Drug Administration, helped prevent a generation of children born with congenital deformities in the United States.

Women Who Shaped History

The Woman Who Stood Between America and a Generation of 'Thalidomide Babies'

How the United States escaped a national tragedy in the 1960s

Lillian as Princess Wenona, with beloved horse “Rabbit.” This was probably taken around 1915, while she was contracted with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West.

The Faux “Sioux” Sharpshooter Who Became Annie Oakley’s Rival

By reinventing herself as Indian, Lillian Smith became a wild west sensation—and escaped an unhappy past

Did a Flood Wipe Out the Mysterious Ancient City of Petra?

Why did the ancient Nabataeans desert the city of Petra? The answer lies in traces of white sand found in its rubble, suggesting a massive flood

Drinking fountain on the Halifax County Courthouse (North Carolina) in April 1938.

New Research

Racism Harms Children's Health, Survey Finds

Racism may not be a disease, exactly. But a growing body of research finds that it has lasting physical and mental effects on its victims

Portrait of James Otis (1725-1783)

Why the Colonies’ Most Galvanizing Patriot Never Became a Founding Father

James Otis, Jr. used his words to whip anti-British sentiment into a frenzy—so why isn’t he better remembered now?

“It's hard to imagine," says Smithsonian scientist Carlos Jaramillo,"that you could have the Caribbean ocean in the west Amazon."

A Vast and Now Vanished Amazon Sea Is Discovered

About 18 million years ago, the Caribbean Sea seasonally flooded inland forests, where enormous crocodiles and turtles roamed

Often called "military mascots," animals played pivotal roles during WWI. Pictured here is John Bull of the 77th Aero Force (sic). [165-WW-472A-49]

World War I: 100 Years Later

The Animals That Helped Win World War I

Newly digitized photos tell the story of animals that fought as soldiers during the Great War

Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark created these images using a new technique of structural color laser printing.

A New Color Printing Technique Borrows From Bird Feathers

Structural coloration, like that in peacock plumage, holds promise for images that don't fade away

From 1921 to 2000, no black jockeys competed.

How African-Americans Disappeared From the Kentucky Derby

Black jockeys won more than half of the first 25 runnings of the Kentucky Derby. Then they started losing their jobs

Environmental chemists are developing a method that could suck toxic metals out of marine environments.

How Electrified Steel Could Suck Toxic Metals From the Ocean

After a century of strip mining and deforestation, New Caldonia researchers are working to de-contaminate marine waters

Premature infant in a traditional incubator

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Will This Artificial Womb One Day Improve the Care of Preemies?

A new treatment, tested on lambs, involves letting fetuses mature in fluid-filled sacs

A Culinary Renaissance in the Israeli Countryside

Beyond Tel Aviv, towns are adopting enticing new approaches to cuisine that celebrate the history of the region and and the diversity of its people

Fruit bats are thought to be the natural host for the Ebola virus. Groups like USAID PREDICT regularly monitor such diseases in wildlife to prevent the jump from animal to humans.

The Next Pandemic

Can Saving Animals Prevent the Next Deadly Pandemic?

A global disease monitoring network is banking on the idea that healthier wildlife means healthier humans

What if you could unlock your smartphone this way?

Could a Doodle Replace Your Password?

Drawing your own unlock pattern on a touchscreen is faster and easier to remember than a password, and much harder to crack

On May 6, 1937, the German airship Zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg burst into flames in Lakehurst, New Jersey, while the airship was landing.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

What Really Felled the Hindenburg?

On the anniversary of the conflagration, mysteries still remain

Students for a Democratic Society was the largest – and arguably most successful – student activist organization in U.S. history.

What Was the Protest Group Students for a Democratic Society? Five Questions Answered

Todd Gitlin, former president of Students for a Democratic Society, shares his perspective on protest in the 60s and now

Is Champagne Still Champagne Without Bubbles?

In a storied part of France, a group of artisan producers is making this beloved wine the old fashioned way—sans fizz

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