Articles

Pozzi and her team at the Washed Ashore project, achieve a remarkable and convincing array of textures.

Age of Humans

There’s a Bunch of Animals at the Zoo this Summer Made Out of Ocean Garbage

Delightfully whimsical, the sculptures drive home the message that there’s a whole lot of trash washing ashore

Front and back of the letter written by Charles Darwin to Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden on May 2, 1875

A Letter Written by Charles Darwin, Twice Stolen, Returns to the Smithsonian

After being snatched by an intern in the mid 1970s, the missive written by the scientist returns to Washington

A skin affliction on display at the Moulage Museum.

See Over 2,000 Wax Models of Skin Diseases at This Swiss Medical Moulage Museum

It's hard to look, and hard to look away, at this unique, and medically valuable, collection of wax blisters, hives and sores

Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) (video still), 2004

Six Critically Acclaimed African Artists Explore the Dimensions and Complexities of Time

Much more abstract than seconds, minutes and hours, time in the hands of artists becomes even more perplexing

These comical looking mollusks are common to the Caribbean. Their eyes poke out on stalks from inside large, pink, beautiful shells, and they move along one “step” at a time, with a lift and a flop, leaving tracks behind in the sand.

An Elegant Tool Called Squidpop That Scientists Want to Crowdsource

The device is so easy to use, researchers are asking for a “squidpop blitz” for World Oceans Day

To celebrate the company's 80th anniversary, Radio Flyer created the world's largest wagon, which weighs in at 15,000 pounds.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

How an Italian Immigrant Rolled Out the Radio Flyer Wagon Across America

Three generations and more than 100 years later, the company is still flying high

What Really Happened to Wilt Chamberlain's 100-Point Ball?

An NBA expert has interviewed over 150 people in a quest to track down the ball used in Wilt Chamberlain's 1962 100-point game

Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor at the National Museum of American History discusses the dining traditions at the Supreme Court.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor Dig Into the History of Food at the Supreme Court

The American History Museum and the Supreme Court Historical Society brought the justices together to share tales from the highest court

Studying Bacon Has Led One Smithsonian Scholar to New Insights on the Daily Life of Enslaved African-Americans

At Camp Bacon, a thinking person’s antidote to excess, historians, filmmakers and chefs gather to pay homage to the hog and its culinary renown

A reconstruction of Fruitachampsa, a Jurassic-era crocodile discovered in the Fruita Paleo Area and named in 2011. Small animals like Fruitachampsa help paleontologists reconstruct what life was really like in the Jurassic period.

In This Jurassic Boneyard, It's Not Size That Counts

A rich cache of fossils in Colorado is valuable not for the big dino bones but the relatively tiny fossils that are still being dug up.

Is the Internet an Enormous Work of Realist Art?

Journalist Virginia Heffernan makes a compelling case that it is in a new book

Collector urchins can protect themselves from the sun by covering themselves with bits of algae, coral and other detritus.

Urchin Sunscreen and Other Ways Animals Beat the Burn

Species have come up with a variety of ways to protect themselves from the sun

Telescope array

Think Big

The Hunt for High-Energy Photons Takes Place From a Mountaintop in Mexico

A new telescope built from water tanks might help answer some of the biggest questions in astronomy

The Spectacular Draw of Devils Tower National Monument

In the wilderness of Wyoming, there's a magnificent pillar of ancient lava so unique, that even geologists are at odds on exactly how it was formed

Age of Humans

Podcast: What Our Garbage Can Teach Us

In this episode of Generation Anthropocene, tracking trash and why there's so much garbage on the moon.

How Ferris Bueller's Day Off Perfectly Illustrates the Power of Art Museums

Three decades after it premiered, the coming-of-age film remains a classic

Enlightened Hawaiian chiefs as far back as the 14th century instituted what is called the moku-ahupua‘a system of management throughout the islands.

Finding Lessons on Culture and Conservation at the End of the Road in Kauai

In the remote, tropical paradise called Ha‘ena, the community is reasserting Native Hawaiian stewardship of the land and sea

Future of Energy

Tofu Power and Other Cool New Alternative Energy Sources

From fueling homes with tofu wastewater to lighting up bathrooms with the power of pee, these are some of the most unusual, hyperlocal fuel sources

Can Tree Rings Explain the Demise of a Lost Civilization?

Archaeologists look to trees to determine the destruction of a pre-Columbian civilization found in southern Illinois

Burgess will build on the unifying motifs of "Confluence" as he and his team craft their latest opus

Reimagining Portraiture Through Dance

Choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess joins forces with the National Portrait Gallery

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