Articles

A Tense Encounter Becomes a Perfect Polar Bear Photo Op

A local guide from Churchill, Manitoba, is on a late night walk, hoping to spot a polar bear. He strikes gold when a large male appears

Mónico Márquez plays a Hohner button accordion with Venezuelan band Mestros del Joropo Oriental at the 2009 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

The Remarkable Rebirth of the Button Accordion

Musician Gilberto Reyes redesigned the instrument to meet the needs of Latino musicians

The Enduring Romance of Mistletoe, a Parasite Named After Bird Poop

Nine things you should know about our favorite Christmas plant

Little Redfish Lake at night with the Sawtooth Mountains in the background.

The U.S. Now Has Its First Dark Sky Reserve

The 2007 midwinter solstice illumination of the main altar tabernacle of Old Mission San Juan Bautista, California.

How the Sun Illuminates Spanish Missions On the Winter Solstice

Today, the rising sun shines on altars and other religious objects at many Spanish churches in the U.S. and Latin America

Kono Yasui at Tokyo University.

Women Who Shaped History

How a Pioneering Botanist Broke Down Japan’s Gender Barriers

Kono Yasui was the first Japanese woman to publish in an academic journal, forging a new path for women in her country

MICRO's Smallest Mollusk Museum is inside the central branch of Brooklyn Public Library.

Putting Miniature Museums Where You Are Likely To See Them

The nonprofit MICRO is on a mission to meet people where they are, staging small exhibitions in busy, public places

Female Polar Bears Need an Extra 220 Lbs. for Pregnancy

During seal hunting season, a female polar bear strives to put on up to 300 pounds of fat. That weight gain is a necessity

Until now, no one had been able to show at a microscopic level that the turkey vulture’s larger olfactory bulbs conferred advantage in the smell department.

Turkey Vultures Have a Keen Sense of Smell and Now We Know Why

Inside the brains of this olfactory king of the roost is a powerful cellular mechanism for detecting carrion from hundreds of feet away

Large animal skeletons at the Finnish Natural History Museum.

The Hidden Biases That Shape Natural History Museums

Here's why museum visitors rarely see lady animals, penis bones or cats floating in formaldehyde

A townsperson walks around as Gryla, the Christmas Witch

Why Iceland's Christmas Witch Is Much Cooler (and Scarier) Than Krampus

With roots dating back to the 13th century, Gryla is not to be messed with

A still from Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas

This Cult Classic Christmas Special Is Quintessential Jim Henson

Although it features few of the usual Muppets, ‘Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas’ brings the holiday spirit to the whole family

Inventing the Jet Engine Came With a Few Disasters

The invention of the jet engine was the crowning achievement of engineer Frank Whittle. But the path to glory was littered with countless obstacles

Femme en Extase (Woman in Ecstacy) (detail) by Ferdinand Hodler, 1911

Around the Globe, Revered Artist Ferdinand Hodler Receives His Due, the Portrait Gallery Joins In

A swirl of dance portraits complement a single Swiss loan of Hodler’s Italian dancer

Thomas Cole's The Course of Empire: Desolation, 1836

The Next Pandemic

How Climate Change and Plague Helped Bring Down the Roman Empire

We can learn crucial lessons by examining the natural forces that shaped Rome's rise and fall

Ephraim McDowell is memorialized in the U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall Collection

This American Doctor Pioneered Abdominal Surgery by Operating on Enslaved Women

Glorified with a statue in the U.S. Capitol, Ephraim McDowell is a hero in Kentucky, but the full story needs to be told

Conveyor bridges to Bin Structure.

These Photos of the Abandoned Domino Sugar Refinery Document Its Sticky History

A new photography book uncovers the last days (and lasting legacy) of a New York institution

The black-necked spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis) that sprayed venom into Wandege’s eye.

When Science Means Getting Cobra Venom Spat Into Your Eye

How a reptile mix-up and a fortuitous dose of breastmilk helped researchers tap into biodiversity in Africa’s eastern Congo

Artist’s representation of “neglected story on Smithsonian.com.”

The Ten Stories You Didn't Read in 2017 But Should Have

From music behind prison bars to a San Francisco building with a dark past, here are the top 10 pieces we published last year that deserve another look

Shan Dou (from left), Jonathan Ajo-Franklin, and Nate Lindsey were on a Berkeley Lab team that, in collaboration with researchers from Stanford, used fiber optic cables for detecting earthquakes and other subsurface activity.

Could Fiber Optics Detect Earthquakes?

By monitoring every grumble, shiver and burp our planet makes, researchers hope to be more prepared to take action when things go awry

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