Articles

This Company Just Added Auto-Pilot to Their Bulldozers

Construction equipment operators have to go through apprenticeships and training to learn to maneuver machines. But one company thinks that's all too hard

Much like bats and dolphins, some people have developed the ability to analyze bouncing sound waves to generate a picture of their environment.

How Human Echolocation Allows People to See Without Using Their Eyes

Mimicking bats and dolphins, some people have developed the ability to analyze bouncing sound waves to generate a picture of their environment

Photo courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection; Interactive by Esri; Text by Natasha Geiling.

American Cities: Before and After

What Did San Francisco Look Like in the Mid-1800s?

A look at a sailing chart of San Francisco and its bay, made in 1859 by the fledgling US Coast Survey

Photo courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection; Interactive by Esri; Text by Natasha Geiling.

American Cities: Before and After

When Real Estate Plotters Planned Out Denver

Bankers and speculators in the Colorado capital used this 1879 map to explore the Mile High City’s real estate potential

Photo courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection; Interactive by Esri; Text by Natasha Geiling.

American Cities: Before and After

Before There Could Be a Los Angeles, There Had to be Water

California’s first state engineer, along with a team of surveyors, created this hand drawn map in 1880 to explore Los Angeles’ water resources

Photo courtesy of David Rumsey Map Collection. Interactive by Esri. Text by Natasha Geiling.

American Cities: Before and After

When the Lincoln Memorial Was Underwater

James Keily’s 1851 map of Washington shows a considerably smaller district, before the Potomac River was filled in to make way for monuments

Photo courtesy of David Rumsey Map Collection. Interactive by Esri. Text by Natasha Geiling.

American Cities: Before and After

This Interactive Map Compares the New York City of 1836 to Today

Manhattan had a very different topography than the concrete jungle we know today

Interactive map courtesy of Esri. Text by Natasha Geiling.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

What Did Chicago Look Like Before the Great Fire?

This 1868 pocket map of Chicago shows the city in full-blown expansion, a mere 3 years before the infamous blaze

Lyme disease can be carried by ticks, like this deer tick.

Lyme Disease Is Ten Times More Common Than We Thought

A recent CDC release says 300,000 Americans get Lyme disease each year

Listen to the Pig Music Box Titanic Survivors Played While Waiting for Rescue

This was the song that those on Lifeboat 11 heard while the Titanic sunk

Atropine Is the Simplest Treatment for Nerve Gas Attacks, And Syria Is Running Low

For doctors on the ground, the question is less who used chemical weapons, and more how they are going to treat the victims

When job opportunities come through a mobile app

Think You’re Doing a Good Job? Not If the Algorithms Say You’re Not

Relying on data collected through smartphones, Gigwalk says it knows more about its workers than any company ever has

Seljalandsfoss is one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Iceland. Dropping from a 200-foot-high cliff to a deep pool below, this unusual waterfall of the Seljalandsá River has a unique indentation in the rock face that allows visitors to hike behind the picturesque falls. Lush greenery and a wide variety of colorful wildflowers surround the falls. As photographer Mike Reyfman describes, "Getting in touch with the natural wonders of Iceland can be a very exhilarating and enlightening experience. Located along the south coast is one of its most breathtaking waterfalls. To take a panoramic capture of the Seljalandsfoss, a photographer must be prepared for the intense mist and huge dynamic range."

25 Stunning Photographs of the Natural World

A collection of winning photographs from the Nature’s Best Photography competition, on display now at the Museum of Natural History

The symbol for chemical weapons

The U.S. Knew Iraq Was Using Chemical Weapons, Helped Out Anyway

Recently declassified documents detail the CIA's knowledge of Iraq's chemical weapon program in the 1980s

One Million Cockroaches Escaped from a Traditional Chinese Medicine Farm

The greenhouse where rochaes were being raised was destroyed by an unknown vandal - perhaps a neighbor not pleased about millions of cockroaches next door

How Old Are Dumplings?

Were cavemen making them?

Computer Programmer Creates Beautiful Watercolor Paintings With Code

Sometimes it’s astonishing how good computer programmers are at making computers do a whole number of things you might never imagine a machine should do

The Yosemite fire as photographed by astronaut Karen Nyberg on Saturday

Yosemite Is Burning, And California Hasn’t Even Hit Peak Fire Season

The peak of California's fire season is usually in September and October

Firefly (Photinus pyralis)

Biomimetic Design Means We’ll All Be Living A Bug’s Life

Researchers and designers looking to nature for inspiration have literally one million reasons to reveal the secrets of insects

Venus, a great place to take a few laps in orbit

The Lame Reason NASA Gave Up on Sending Astronauts to Venus in 1973

We had the technology, but not the will

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