Articles

Tang yuan fill the bowls of Asian households worldwide during Lunar New Year celebrations, the white, spherical desserts serving as edible representations of the moon shining overhead.  

A Lunar New Year Staple, Tang Yuan Are a 'Dose of Luck and Sweetness'

The chewy rice balls ooze with indulgent filling and layers of symbolism

A late-19th-century photograph of John Mason's mansion on Analostan Island, now called Theodore Roosevelt Island

Untold Stories of American History

This Peaceful Nature Sanctuary in Washington, D.C. Sits on the Ruins of a Plantation

Before Theodore Roosevelt Island was transformed into a tribute to the nation's "conservation president," a prominent Virginia family relied on enslaved laborers to build and tend to its summer home there

A Kronosaurus, one of the top predators in Cretaceous-era tropical oceans, prepares to feast on an ammonite.

Uncovering the Secrets of Colombia's Rich Fossil Deposits

Paleontologists are working hard to understand oceanic remains buried high in the Andes

Genealogy researchers use military records, birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, wills, legal and court documents, and census records to help piece together the past.

How the Smithsonian Is Helping Black Americans Trace Their Roots

Free sessions hosted by the National Museum of African American History and Culture offer visitors advice on researching their genealogy

Greenhouse gas emissions that result from burning fossil fuels drive climate change.

Six Big Ways Climate Change Could Impact the United States by 2100

Climate change is expected to affect all parts of the country in the coming decades, threatening everything from our food supply to our coastlines

The story of the successful mission, code-named Operation Washing, offers a masterclass in determination and daring worthy of Leonidas.

Millennia After Leonidas Made His Last Stand at Thermopylae, a Ragtag Band of Saboteurs Thwarted the Axis Powers in the Same Narrow Pass

A new book chronicles the 16-plus battles that took place in the Greek pass between the ancient era and World War II

This prototype of the Mars Ingenuity helicopter achieved the first successful free flight under simulated Martian conditions (on Earth) in 2016.

Prototype for Mars Helicopter Will Soon Be on Display at National Air and Space Museum

The surprisingly long-serving Ingenuity ended its historic service after breaking a rotor

A great white shark cruises through Atlantic waters.

Fifty Years After ‘Jaws,’ We’ve Learned a Lot About Great Whites

Though sport fishing tournaments and other activities led to population declines in the 1970s and 1980s, more recent science and conservation efforts have helped the sharks rebound

Ice worms spend most of the day burrowing their way through the cold, dark interior of the glacier, coming to the surface only in the afternoon to feed on algae and bacteria.

Alaska

This Eight-Day Festival Celebrates One of Alaska's Weirdest Worms

Welcome to the Cordova Ice Worm Festival, a quirky local tradition honoring the mysterious creatures that live in glacial ice

Captured mid-hop, the floppy feet of a white hare were indeed good luck for this photographer.

Smithsonian Photo Contest Galleries

Celebrate Winter in the Wild With 15 Photos of Animals Enjoying the Snow

These chilly but cute creatures will remind you what’s so wonderful about winter

A Parkinson’s patient in Nice, France, is prepped for a surgery to implant electrodes into the brain. The technique, called deep brain stimulation, is being used experimentally or in small studies to treat addiction.

Can a Brain Implant Treat Addiction?

Some experts tout deep brain stimulation as a lifeline for people struggling with opioid use. Others question the hype

Farmers have shown a renewed interest in planting coffee in the shade of other plants. The resulting farms are visited by a multitude of creatures from ants to birds to bats.

How Shade Coffee Aids Conservation

When managed in the right way, the farms that provide our morning brew can be a refuge for plant and animal biodiversity

Clockwise from top left: Molly Ringwald as Joanne Carson, Demi Moore as Ann Woodward, Naomi Watts as Babe Paley, Tom Hollander as Truman Capote and Diane Lane as Slim Keith in "Feud: Capote vs. the Swans"

LGBTQ+ Pride

The Real History Behind 'Feud: Capote vs. the Swans'

Ryan Murphy's new mini-series dramatizes the "In Cold Blood" author's betrayal of an insular group of Manhattan socialites

A rosy-faced lovebird

These Parrots Use Their Beaks to Swing Across Branches Like Monkeys

Scientists have documented the unusual movement, dubbed "beakiation," for the first time

A Lötschental Valley resident dressed as a Tschägättä strolls around the village of Wiler, in Valais, Switzerland moments before the annual Carnival Parade begins.

Discover the Beasts of Switzerland’s Lötschental Valley

During Carnival, villagers wearing wooden masks and dressing like fearsome “tschäggättä” terrorize the streets

During the Little Ice Age, which spanned roughly 1250 to 1860, average global temperatures dropped by as much as 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

These Paintings Reveal How the Dutch Adapted to Extreme Weather During the Little Ice Age

Artists like Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Hendrick Avercamp documented locals' resilience in the face of freezing winters and food shortages

An artist’s rendering of a pantheon of planets similar to Earth

This Planned NASA Telescope May Help Us Identify Worlds Like Our Own

The innovative Habitable Worlds Observatory will offer ways to detect signs of life on other planets

A pair of illustrations from Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White, which launched the sensation novel trend of the 1860s

The Sensation Novelist Who Exposed the Plight of Victorian Women

Wilkie Collins drew on his legal training to dramatize the inequality caused by outdated laws regarding marital and property rights

This small, bucolic waterfall in Western New York has one highly photogenic feature: a grotto lit by a dancing orange flame.

Seven Natural Phenomena Worth Traveling For

You need to be in the right place at the right time to see these celestial and earthly wonders

A church with a red roof and steeple sticks out against the sprawling landscape as the sun pokes through the hazy clouds.

Northern Europe and the British Isles

Get an Eyeful of Iceland in These 15 Photos That Capture Its Natural Beauty

These selections from the Smithsonian magazine photo contest will transport you to the small Scandinavian island

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