Articles

Jason Moore, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, David Pepley, a doctoral student studying mechanical engineering, and Yichun (Leo) Tang, an undergraduate student studying mechanical engineering, work with the needle simulator training device.

This New Needle Simulator Could Train Medical Students To Have a Steady Hand

Penn State researchers have developed a device that could help future doctors perfect their needle insertion technique—before they start on people

Stanford Ovshinsky, 2008

Stanford Ovshinsky Might Be the Most Prolific Inventor You’ve Never Heard Of

A new book calls attention to the 20th-century genius with more than 400 patents to his name

Feast your eyes on the blind Somalian cavefish, which has—like mammals—mysteriously lost the ability to use light to fix damaged DNA.

Blind Cavefish Shed Light on the Dark Days of Mammalian Evolution

Like mammals, these cave-dwelling creatures have discarded a solar-powered system that repairs UV-damaged DNA

Raising a block of buildings on Lake Street, Chicago, in 1857

How Chicago Transformed From a Midwestern Outpost Town to a Towering City

The Windy City spurred its miraculous growth by building canals, laying sewers and jacking up buildings

Scientists used modified egg and stem cells to create female mice with two mothers. These fatherless mice grew up to have babies of their own (through more typical means of conception).

Scientists Break the Rules of Reproduction by Breeding Mice From Single-Sex Parents

By tinkering with the genes of sperm and egg cells, it's possible to breed mice from two females—and even from two males

Roberto Clemente made the National League All-Star team 11 times in his 18 seasons.

Roberto Clemente: The King of Béisbol

The sports superstar and humanitarian transcended baseball's borders

Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong in First Man.

Smithsonian Curator Reflects on What 'First Man' Gets Right About Neil Armstrong's Journey to the Moon

The new film lays bare the personal sacrifice and peril that accompanied NASA's historic mission

Plastic Whale organizes boat tours along Amsterdam's canals to collect garbage--in particular plastic--which it then recycles and uses the repurposed material to build boats.

Fishing for Plastic Is the Latest Way to Clean Up Amsterdam’s Canals

Plastic Whale offers visitors an opportunity to see the city by boat while also cleaning up its waterways

"Light Up" is the winner of a biannual competition for green energy-generating public art sponsored by the Land Art Generator Initiative.

Art Meets Science

This Golden Canopy Could Power 500 Homes

Architects propose a new sustainable landmark on a Melbourne beach that is both public art and a power plant

A blue whale, the largest known creature in Earth's history, dives into the St. Lawrence river in Quebec, Canada.

Today's Whales Are Huge, But Why Aren't They Huger?

Most giant cetaceans only got giant in the past 4.5 million years, suggesting they could have room to grow

The Diplodocus dinosaurs were some of the largest to walk the planet.

Tiny Skull Illuminates the Lives of Giant Dinosaurs

The skull of a juvenile <i>Diplodocus</i> is one of the youngest of these dinosaurs ever found

In the Pheidole genus of ants, some insects grow into soldiers with disproportionately large heads, while others grow to be smaller workers.

This "Useless" Organ Determines Which Ants Grow Into Large Soldiers

Rudimentary wing discs in ant larvae, which only grow to wings in queens, appear to influence growth into a soldier or worker

The bow of the ship, believed to be of the snake carving on the Lake Serpent.

Underwater Archaeologists May Have Discovered the Oldest Shipwreck in Lake Erie

After an ill-fated journey hauling boulders sank it, the Lake Serpent is at last ready to tell its story

Traylor's works (above: Man with Yoke, detail) are drawing fans worldwide for their exuberant modern composition and design.

Bill Traylor Depicted His Brutal Lifetime With Vibrant Art

A new Smithsonian show, seven years in the making, takes a deep dive into the life of a self-taught artist and former slave

The bendable patch consists of a thin elastomer sheet with small “islands” of electrodes and piezoelectric transducers that create ultrasound waves from electricity.

This Ultrasound Patch Monitors Blood Pressure in Deep Arteries

The flexible wearable could be an alternative to current invasive methods of measuring central blood pressure within the human body

Dynamoterror was about 30 feet long, hunting prey during the Late Cretaceous.

Newly Discovered Tyrant Dinosaur Stalked Ancient New Mexico

The <i>Dynamoterror</i>, a relative of <i>Tyrannosaurs rex</i>, lived millions of years before other known species of tyrannosaur

Angelina Eberley fires off the cannon at the agents attempting to move the archives from her hometown of Austin.

The Fascinating Story of the Texas Archives War of 1842

Far from consequential, the battle over where the papers of the Republic of Texas should reside reminds us of the politics of historical memory

The beginning of excavations at Çatalhöyük.

Ancient Proteins From Unwashed Dishes Reveal the Diets of a Lost Civilization

Material pulled from ceramic sherds reveals the favored foodstuffs in the 8,000-year-old city of Çatalhöyük in Turkey

The Good Work film crew captures the annual re-plastering of the historic adobe morada in Abiquiu, New Mexico.

In a New Film, Master Artisans Share Their Passion for the Labors They Love

Award-winning filmmakers, Smithsonian folklorist Marjorie Hunt and Paul Wagner, explore impact of craft in <em>Good Work</em>, airing now on PBS

Artist rendering of the National Mall entrance following the seven-year renovation

What’s Open and What’s Not During the National Air and Space Museum’s Seven-Year Renovation

Visitors might be inconvenienced, but the much-loved Washington, D.C. museum is undergoing a massive revitalization

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