Blogs

Product shot of the Lytro

Can This Invention Save Cameras?

With the Lytro camera, you no longer have to bother with focusing an image. Plus, your photos become interactive

Triceratops was one of the last dinosaurs. What would the descendents of this ceratopsid look like if they were alive today?

The Dinosaurs That Never Were

If the non-avian dinosaurs hadn't died out 65 million years ago, what would they look like today?

Note the shocking price of this basket of fruit at a roadside stand in New Zealand

New Zealand and Other Travel Locales That Will Break the Bank

New Zealand is worth visiting, but I'm not sure how long I can keep traveling here while claiming to be "on the cheap"

Thin Mints

When Did the Girl Scouts Start Selling Cookies?

What are your favorite varieties, and what do they say about you? And did you sell the cookies as a kid?

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How the Ubermensch Got Into Harvard

Friedrich Nietzsche philosophizes on where luck and skill come into play

(L-R) Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan and Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' drama "The Great Gatsby," a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Coming Attractions for 2012: The Great Gatsby in 3D!!

Films both new and old that we look forward to in the coming year

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Introducing Ask Smithsonian

Now, with 'Ask Smithsonian,' the magazine gives you the chance to ask your own questions—and have them answered by Smithsonian experts

Cro-Magnon was one of the first fossils of an ancient human ever discovered.

Meet the Contenders for Earliest Modern Human

Scientists have several candidates for the title of earliest Homo sapiens

Tyrannosaurus faces off against Triceratops at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. Some early 20th century paleontologists thought the size and weapons of these creatures indicated that dinosaurs were degenerates due for extinction.

The Way of the Dinosaur

"Going the way of the dinosaur" is a popular phrase, but one drawn from bizarre 20th century ideas that dinosaurs were due for an extinction

Theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss

A Q&A with Physicist and Author Lawrence Krauss

A renowned theoretical physicist comes to speak at the Natural History Museum

Tasting Shackleton’s Whisky

The replication of a historic whisky might reflect merely our fascination with artificial artifacts---but the whisky yielded a surprise

Could the Death Star Destroy a Planet?

Students in England concluded that the Star Wars space station could easily have destroyed an Earth-like planet

The New York subway system's moving sidewalk of the future by Goodyear (1950s)

Moving Sidewalks Before The Jetsons

The public's fascination with the concept of "movable pavement" extends back more than 130 years

Brushtailed possums, shown here in their native Australia, are among the most destructive pests in New Zealand.

Waging War on Mammals in New Zealand

The family spent days in a cabin eating food, provided by the New Zealand Department of Conservation, which requested to stomp on kiwi-killing vermin

A Parasaurolophus at the Natural History Museum of Utah

Dinosaurian Snorkels, Air Tanks and Tubas

Parasaurolophus is one of the most perplexing dinosaurs - what did it use its huge crest for?

Still from Ali Kazma's "O.K.," 2010

The Hirshhorn Turns Labor Into Art with “Black Box: Ali Kazma”

Turkish video artist Ali Kazma captures the actions of a man who seems to be the most efficient stamper of paper ever at the Hirshhorn's Black Box Theater

A sample of highly enriched uranium

What Is Enriched Uranium?

Naturally occurring uranium doesn't have enough of the fissile isotope U-235 to set off a nuclear reaction, but scientists found ways to increase the stuff

Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

How to Plan a Party Based on Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party

I'm putting on my event planner hat to offer up the following ideas for a party inspired by an Impressionist painting

Izzy Einstein (left) and Moe Smith share a toast in New York City

Prohibition’s Premier Hooch Hounds

A Corythosaurus with skin impressions--similar to this one on display at the American Museum of Natural History--was lost when a German military vessel sank the SS Mount Temple on December 6, 1916.

Charles H. Sternberg’s Lost Dinosaurs

On December 6, 1916, a German military vessel sunk a highly-valued shipment of Canadian dinosaurs

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