Smithsonian Blogs: Latest News, Features and Insights

A new study shows the tiny insects orient themselves by the stars.

African Dung Beetles Navigate At Night Using the Milky Way

A new study shows the tiny feces ball-rolling insects orient themselves by the stars

January 24, 2013

Q+A: How To Save the Arts in Times of War

From Iraq to Libya, Corine Wegener works to preserve priceless objects of human history

January 24, 2013

Painting of an Inuit woman with face tattoos, 1654. See a film by an Inuit director attempting to reclaim this tradition in “Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos.” Author unknown.

Events January 25-27: Persian Drama, Inuit Face Tattoos and Schubert’s Fantasy

January 24, 2013

Who Designed the Seal of the President of the United States?

We see it on the President's lectern and in the Oval Office, but who came up with the look and feel of it in the first place?

January 23, 2013

Scientists Dismiss Geo-Engineering as a Global Warming Quick Fix

A new study shows that dispersing minerals into oceans to stem climate change would be an inefficient and impractical process

January 23, 2013

Learning From Nature How to Deal With Nature

As cities like New York prepare for what appears to be a future of more extreme weather, the focus increasingly is on following nature's lead

January 23, 2013

Origami: A Blend of Sculpture and Mathematics

Artist and MIT professor Erik Demaine makes flat geometric diagrams spring into elegant, three-dimensional origami sculptures

January 23, 2013

This sign just north of Tumbes is a clear sign, if the mangroves aren’t, that one is entering the muggy, and in some ways dangerous, tropics.

Ecuador, Land of Malaria, Iguanas, Mangoes and Mountains

The author leaves Peru behind and crosses into Ecuador, where he encounters his first sign of a mosquito

January 23, 2013

Men Commit Scientific Fraud Much More Frequently Than Women

According to a new study, they're also much more likely to lie about their findings as they climb the academic ladder

January 23, 2013

Herald Square circa 1907, when Ida Wood first moved into the Herald Square Hotel.

Everything Was Fake but Her Wealth

Ida Wood, who lived for decades as a recluse in a New York City hotel, would have taken her secrets to the grave—if here sister hadn't gotten there first

January 23, 2013

Two New Prehistoric Bloodsucking Species Found in Montana

Forty-six million-year-old fossils help identify mosquito species from an ancient insect hot spot

January 23, 2013

Roy Wilkins (left) with Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House on November 29, 1963

NAACP Leader Roy Wilkins Predicts: “We’ll Elect A Negro President”

In 1970, the civil rights activist shared his prescient optimism about the future of race relations in the United States

January 22, 2013

What Happens When You Give an Orangutan an iPad?

A new program at the National Zoo transports the great apes to the 21st century

January 22, 2013

Tile art in Iran. Learn how to make ornate designs like this — from carving to installation — in Tuesday night lessons at the Ripley Center.

Events January 22-24: Persian Tile Lessons, Arts & Craft Beer and MLK Book Signing

This week, learn to be a Persian artist, get crafty in Renwick Gallery and pick up an illustrated copy of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s most famous speech

January 22, 2013