Articles

Ballast from the first historically documented ship carrying enslaved Africans that wrecked off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa in December 1794.

Breaking Ground

Few Artifacts of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Still Exist. These Iron Blocks Help Tell That Gut-Wrenching Story

A profound symbol of the horrific conditions aboard a slave ship is the ballast used as a counterweight for human cargo

Two skulls belonging to extinct marine mammal herbivores used in the new study, both from the Smithsonian's collections.

When Did Today’s Whales Get So Big?

More recently than you might think, say scientists who scoured the fossil record

Ten-year veteran of the Smithsonian's protective services office, Sargeant Nadia Tyler is master of the wildly popular Pokémon Go.

Gotta Catch ‘Em All on the National Mall

Sergeant Nadia Tyler, a security guard at Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, is collecting Pokémon creatures daily

Illustration of Gualicho shinyae hunting with its jaws, not arms.

Arm Day at the Gym Apparently Not a Thing for Newly Found, Tiny-Armed Dino

Turns out <i>T. rex</i> doesn’t have a copyright on those adorably awkward, itty-bitty arms

The Fight for the "Right to Repair"

Manufacturers have made it increasingly difficult for individuals or independent repair people to fix electronics. A growing movement is fighting back

A male greater sage-grouse dances for a female.

Age of Humans

New Schemes Pay You to Save Species—But Will They Work?

Programs being set up in the American West are taking a radical new approach: paying landowners to preserve animal habitat.

An astrophysicist makes the case that it might be worthwhile to revisit the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 to safeguard the practice of science on the lunar surface.

Can There Be Real Estate on the Moon?

A Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist thinks a legal crisis is waiting for us on the surface of the moon.

Participants in "The Leading Strand" project share their prototypes with each other.

Art Meets Science

Here's What Happens When Neuroscientists and Designers Team Up to Explain Scientific Research

A new interdisciplinary project results in a moving sculpture, an animated piece, a song that evolves and more

After the Deepwater Horizon oil blowout in 2010, rescuers rushed to save birds, like this pelican. In the end, it didn’t really matter, most birds died.

Age of Humans

Why We Pretend to Clean Up Oil Spills

Six years after Deepwater Horizon spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico, we still have no idea what we're doing

A fetal skull that was dissected in the 1800s, originally held in the University of Cambridge Anatomy Museum.

New Research

How Fetus Dissections in the Victorian Era Helped Shape Today’s Abortion Wars

Besides teaching us about disease and human development, they molded modern attitudes of the fetus as distinct entity from the mother

What Gives "Seinfeld" Its Staying Power?

In a new book, pop culture writer Jennifer Keishin Armstrong analyzes how the show about nothing changed everything

Seven Magic Mountains

Six Monumental New Outdoor Art Installations to See This Summer

Skip the museum and head to one of these large-scale installations instead

Crowd outside the 1924 Republican National Convention in Cleveland listen to speeches broadcast from inside the hall via an early “public address system.”

100 Years of Women at the Ballot Box

Women Ruled the Floor When the GOP First Came to Cleveland

The 1924 Convention was the first to feature female delegates, and they made their presence known

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on His Love of History, Youth Sports and Which Books Everyone Should Read

The basketball legend has always had a writer's touch

Portrait of paleontologist Mary Anning and her trusty assistant, Tray.

These Paleo Pets Made Fossil Hunting Less Lonely

In the solitary hunt for bones, furry companions provide company, act as field assistants and sometimes even make the ultimate sacrifice

The Brain-Freezing Science of the Slurpee

More than 60 years ago, a broken soda fountain led to this cool invention

The Hurricane Turn pulls out of the station at Talkeetna.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Alaska

For a Truly Authentic Alaskan Experience, Hop Aboard America's Last Flag-Stop Train

Reaching off-the-grid homesteads and cabins, the Hurricane Turn train stops for anyone who flags it down

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Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Alaska

Eskimo Yo-Yos, Muskox Knitting Yarn and Other Unique Gifts to Buy in Alaska

Inspiration comes not only from nature but also from the instinct to use what’s close at hand

New research is causing the original keystone species, the ochre sea star Pisaster ochraceus, to lose some of its supposed ecosystem-controlling powers.

Tide Shifts Against the Concept of a Keystone Species

Starfish challenge a key ecological concept, ushering in a slightly-more democratic era for tide pools everywhere

The Colonial Settlement That Vanished Into Thin Air

An entire colony of English settlers disappeared from Roanoke Island, just outside North Carolina's Outer Banks

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