Articles

What Do the Most Innovative Chefs Keep in Their Fridges?

A new book gives a peek inside the home refrigerators—and minds—of some of Europe's top culinarians

Electric eels are really shocking biologists.

New Research

Electric Eels Curl Up to Double Their Shock Value

The predators take down difficult prey by curling up their bodies to create a powerful electric dipole field

Shoppers flock to a stall to purchase organically grown produce, a rarity on the island of Mauritius. As incomes rise here, so does the demand for organic, but only a handful of farmers have figured out how to balance organic growing with the special demands of a tropical climate.

Age of Humans

Against All Odds, This Indian Ocean Island Is Trying to Go Organic

Mauritius is one of many places suddenly seeking organic produce. But as local farmers are finding, it's not that easy

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Venice

The Beauty of Venice's Everyday

Instagram photographer Alvise Giovannini discovers Venice beyond its iconic symbols and places

Ask Smithsonian

Ask Smithsonian: How Do You Make a Mummy?

Mummification has been practiced for eons and the Egyptians are the best known, but not the only practioners

A Rabari tribal elder, Rajasthan, 2010.

Steve McCurry's New Photography Book on India Has Been Decades in the Making

A conversation with the renowned photographer about his latest book of photographs

An artist's rendering shows an acoustic hologram trapping a particle over a levitation device.

New Research

This Acoustic Tractor Beam Can Levitate Small Objects With Sound

The device allows researchers to float and manipulate targets with just a single array of ultrasound emitters

Boss Tweed and the Tammany Ring, caricatured by Thomas Nast, c. 1870

To Stop an Endless Cycle of Corruption, History Says Fix the System, Not the Politician

A turn-of-the-century muckraker named Lincoln Steffens understood the true problem with a "throw the bums out" strategy

Mary Seton Corboy, founder of Greensgrow Farm in Philadelphia, took a Superfund site 20 years ago and turned it into a thriving urban oasis.

Age of Humans

Inner-City Farmers May Have Toxic Soil on Their Hands

Lead is a particular risk as people try to turn potentially contaminated urban sites into productive and sustainable farms

This 3D printed tooth could kill germs in your mouth

These 3D Printed Teeth Fight Bacteria

Researchers in the Netherlands are making dental implants that kill microbes that settle on them

Light reflecting off Saturn illuminates the plumes shooting out of Enceladus in this 2013 Cassini image.

New Research

NASA Spacecraft Heads for Deepest Ever Dive Into Saturn Moon's Plumes

Cassini will plunge into the watery geysers to search for evidence of hydrothermal vents and other clues about the moon's hidden ocean

James Monroe (L) and Alexander Hamilton (R) nearly dueled each other, but an unlikely political ally stepped in

That Time When Alexander Hamilton Almost Dueled James Monroe

And it was an unlikely ally who put a stop to their petty dispute

Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is one of the cities that could pass a heat and humidity threshold that would make outdoor conditions unlivable for humans.

Age of Humans

Killer Heat Is Expected in the Persian Gulf by the End of This Century

If no efforts are made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Middle East may experience heat that is intolerable to humans

HyperCam

This Camera Sees What Your Eyes Can't

HyperCam, an affordable hyperspectral imaging camera, can tell if your food's gone bad, among other things

Craft beer sales grew by 17.6 percent last year compared to a rate of just 0.5 percent in overall beer sales.

There's No Stopping The Craft Beer Craze

How innovations in the craft brewing industry have changed (and improved) our taste in beer

Friuli-Venezia Giulia’s vineyards benefit from the breezy, sunny microclimate created by their equidistance from the Austrian Alps to the north and the Adriatic Sea to the south.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Venice

The Best Italian Wine Region You’ve Never Heard Of

The world does not yet come to the Friuli region, and so much the better

Europe

The Real-Life Places That Inspired Frankenstein

How Mary Shelley used ideas, events and places to invent her famous monster

Burn Calories Just By Wearing This New Sports Gear

Here's an idea: A New York University medical student is integrating resistance bands into clothing

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Ask Smithsonian

Ask Smithsonian: Is the World Due for Another Massive Plague Outbreak?

It is highly unlikely, experts say, but a plague-based bioterror assault is another matter

This Bronze Age skull is from the Yamnaya culture, which later developed into the Afanasievo culture of Central Asia, one of the peoples that carried early strains of plague.

New Research

Plague Was Infecting Humans 3,300 Years Earlier Than Thought

DNA from Bronze Age victims helped pinpoint mutations that allowed the disease to go from localized illness to deadly pandemic

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