Articles

The handbones seen in the whale model in the center of this image tell the curious story of how whales went from land to water.

Ask Smithsonian

What’s a "Missing Link"?

While some still use the term, experts abhor it because it implies that life is a linear hierarchy

Did a falling apple really influence Newtonian physics?

Sometimes, a Scientific “Eureka!” Moment Really Does Change the World

Your plastic credit card, microwaveable popcorn and erection enhancers all owe to a fortuitous moment of connection

Manta Rays Use Tiny Fish to Help Them Stay Clean

Wrasse perform a vital cleaning function for other fish, by ridding their bodies of dead cells and parasites

Choctaw chief Greenwood LeFlore had 15,000 acres of Mississippi land (above, his Mississippi home Malmaison) and 400 enslaved Africans under his dominion.

How Native American Slaveholders Complicate the Trail of Tears Narrative

The new exhibition 'Americans' at the National Museum of the American Indian prompts a deeper dive for historic truths

"Now," says the American Indian Museum's director Kevin Gover (right with Lonnie Bunch, director of the African American History museum) "some of these institutions are able to produce excellent scholarship that tells a vastly different story from what most Americans learn.”

Two Museum Directors Say It’s Time to Tell the Unvarnished History of the U.S.

History isn’t pretty and sometimes it is vastly different than what we’ve been taught, say Lonnie Bunch and Kevin Gover

Predictive policing is built around algorithms that identify potential crime hotspots..

Artificial Intelligence Is Now Used to Predict Crime. But Is It Biased?

The software is supposed to make policing more fair and accountable. But critics say it still has a way to go.

Anna Murray Douglass helped Frederick escape from slavery, and continued to support his abolitionist work for the rest of her life.

Women Who Shaped History

The Hidden History of Anna Murray Douglass

Although she’s often overshadowed by her husband, Frederick Douglass, Anna made his work possible

Only 18 Alfa Romeo 4Cs Are Created Per Day. Here's Why.

Producing the Alfa Romeo 4C supercar is a process that the automaker refuses to rush

More women than men were left standing after the war and pandemic.

Women Who Shaped History

How the 1918 Flu Pandemic Helped Advance Women’s Rights

While the virus disproportionately affected young men, women stepped into public roles that hadn't previously been open to them

A large female Greenland shark observed near the community of Arctic Bay, Nunavut.

New Research

The World's Most Ancient, Elusive Sharks Were Finally Caught on Video

Greenland sharks, which can live more than 400 years, reveal how little we know about life in the coldest oceans

Raw Footage of the China Airlines Flight 120 Explosion

On the morning of August 20, 2007, a devastating fire broke out on China Airlines Flight 120 which had just landed in Naha airport

President Lyndon Johnson constituted the Kerner Commission to identify the genesis of the violent 1967 riots that killed 43 in Detroit and 26 in Newark (above, soldiers in a Newark storefront), while causing fewer casualties in 23 other cities.

The 1968 Kerner Commission Got It Right, But Nobody Listened

Released 50 years ago, the infamous report found that poverty and institutional racism were driving inner-city violence

Ruth (Woodworth) Creveling, US Navy Yeoman (F), 1917-1920

During World War I, Many Women Served and Some Got Equal Pay

Remembering the aspirations, struggles and accomplishments of women who served a century ago

Kinorhynchs (aka mud dragons) range in size from about 0.13 to one millimeter. Like other meiofauna species, they are integral parts of marine food chains in sediments throughout the world.

King of the Mud Dragons

Robert Higgins has spent his career dredging out tiny creatures from dirt and obscurity

An endocast revealing the brain of an Iguanodon, an herbivorous dinosaur of the early Cretaceous period. This was the first fossilized dinosaur brain found by modern scientists, announced in 2016.

Women Who Shaped History

The Woman Who Shaped the Study of Fossil Brains

By drawing out hidden connections, Tilly Edinger joined the fields of geology and neurology

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Women Who Shaped History

Women Who Shaped History

Collecting the stories of women who forever changed the course of the American story

The Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial in Knoxville is a start to what should be a nationwide trend.

Women Who Shaped History

Why We Need to Start Building Monuments to Groundbreaking Women

The brilliant female codebreakers of WWII were forgotten to history, but would that have happened had they been recognized with the same fervor as men?

The Heinous 1961 KKK Attack on the Freedom Riders

On May 4, 1961, a bus carrying black and white anti-segregation activists called the Freedom Riders rolled into Alabama and was immediately attacked

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders director Kelli Finglass (left) peruses the donated materials with current DCC captains Jinelle (middle) and KaShara (right). Foregrounded are the original uniform sketches of designer Paula Van Wagoner.

A Classic American Cheerleading Troupe Tumbles to Smithsonian Immortality

"America's Sweethearts" are as dedicated to social service as they are to the Dallas Cowboys

A scene from Hulu's "The Looming Tower"

There’s Great Drama Within the Truths of “The Looming Tower”

How filmmaker Alex Gibney brought a documentarian’s eye to the story of the 9/11 attacks

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