Articles

When the moment came to ring the Freedom Bell alongside President Obama and the First Lady, Ruth Bonner was overjoyed.

Ruth Odom Bonner, Who Rang the Freedom Bell With President Obama, Passes Away at 100

Looking back on the redoubtable woman who helped inaugurate the African American History Museum

The first Labor Day was hardly a national holiday. Workers had to strike to celebrate it.

Striking Union Workers Turned the First Labor Day Into a Networking Event

The end-of-summer holiday was designed to spur overworked Americans to meet up, picnic and call for fairer labor laws

Eleanor Roosevelt's Surprising Connection to a Dire Town

When first lady Eleanor Roosevelt first visited the mining town of Scotts Run, she was stunned by the poverty she encountered

Link Wray

'Rumble' Aims to Upset the Rock 'n' Roll Canon

A documentary based on a Smithsonian exhibition is wowing festival audiences

19 Fall Festivals in Canada to Get You Excited for Sweater Weather

Enjoy autumn with our neighbors to the North

Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park

See the Most Northerly Active Sand Dunes in the World

The Athabasca Sand Dunes are a geological oddity in northern Canada

The Queen's Head, Yehliu Geological Park

Taiwan's Yehliu Geopark Is Like Disneyland for Rock Lovers

These mushroom-like mounds are some of the country's greatest geological treasures

Hitler Youth members burn books. Photograph dated 1938.

A Brief History of Book Burning, From the Printing Press to Internet Archives

As long as there have been books, people have burned them—but over the years, the motivation has changed

To the naked eye, the Albireo star system looks like a single, brilliant star. In reality, this binary system consists of two stars, similar to the ones witnessed by Korean astronomers nearly 600 years ago.

New Research

The Secret Lives of Cannibal Stars Revealed, Thanks to 15th Century Korean Astronomers

For the first time ever, astrophysicists observe the entire life cycle of a binary star system

It's too early to know the sexes of the baby armadillos, but one thing is clear: they're darling.

Once You See These Brand New "Screaming Armadillo" Pups, You'll Be Screaming Too

No armor is impervious to this cuteness now at the National Zoo

Printed graphene supercapacitor

Future of Energy

Flexible Batteries May Soon Be Printed Right On Your Clothes

Graphene supercapacitors, printed directly on textiles, could power medical devices, wearable computers, even phone-charging shirts

What is it about cheap eats, long hours, counters, and booths that so consistently captures the American imagination?

The Mystique of the American Diner, From Jack Kerouac to “Twin Peaks”

Freedom, fear and friendliness mingle in these emblematic eateries

This Minor Parking Violation Revealed the Son of Sam Killer

The tip that led to the arrest of the Son of Sam killer came in unusual circumstances: a Brooklyn woman saw him near his car, which was parked illegally

A member of the Myrmoteras genus of trap-jaw ants, with mandibles deployed.

Prying Apart the Mighty Bite of a Malaysian Trap-Jaw Ant

Its mandibles strike in a fraction of a blink of an eye, but how does it do it?

Frozen waterfalls inside Austria's Eisriesenwelt.

Austria

Descend into the World’s Iciest Gateway to Hell

Austria's Eisriesenwelt, the world's largest ice cave, mixes science with folklore

A convict hangs on to a bucking bronco c. 1940

Desegregation Came Early at the Texas Prison Rodeo

Before Brown vs. Board of Education, the “convict cowboys” of the Texas prison system showed off their bucking bronco skills

Ai Weiwei worked with Amnesty International and other groups to collect the stories of people imprisoned in 33 countries.

Ai Weiwei Depicts the Brutality of Authoritarianism in an Unusual Medium–Legos

The renowned Chinese Artist finally gets to see his work about political prisoners at the Hirshhorn

Costa Rica's Guanacaste region is among the country's many beautiful ecological zones—and the waste from local juice company is helping keep it that way.

Costa Rica Let a Juice Company Dump Their Orange Peels in the Forest—and It Helped

How a controversial experiment actually bore fruit

The Koh-i-Noor diamond set at the front of the crown made for the Queen Mother Elizabeth, set on her coffin in April 2002.

The True Story of the Koh-i-Noor Diamond—and Why the British Won't Give It Back

A star of London’s Crown Jewels, the Indian gem has a bloody history of colonial conquest

This Man Is the Father of Modern American Suburbia

By 1951, two thirds of Americans lived in urban areas. Enter William Levitt, who would utilize construction techniques he learned to build affordable homes

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