Mind-Body Wellness | Smithsonian Magazine

Acelity scientists evaluate a new prototype at the company's Regenerative Medicine Laboratory in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

How Artificial Muscles Could Transform the Lives of Some Military Veterans

From pig muscle, scientists are developing an organic material that may help heal volumetric muscle loss

November 22, 2016

American Ingenuity Awards

Director David Lynch Wants Schools to Teach Transcendental Meditation to Reduce Stress

The acclaimed filmmaker has become the champion of the practice that's now been adopted by thousands of kids

December 2016

Heavy drinking can cause brain changes that make you want to drink more.

How a Genetically Engineered Virus Could Help the Brain Fight Alcohol Cravings

Heavy drinking can change the brain to make cravings worse. Can gene therapy change it back?

October 25, 2016

Ask Smithsonian: What’s the Longest You Can Hold Your Breath?

A dive into the science shows it is possible to override the system

October 25, 2016

How Bats Ping On the Wing—And Look Cute Doing It

Researchers reveal how bats turn echolocation signals into a 3-D image of moving prey

November 2016

Ask Smithsonian: What’s the Point of Earwax?

Earwax has a job to do; but many are not hearing the message

October 13, 2016

Ask Smithsonian: How Does the World Look to the Color Blind?

Most people who are color blind can see colors, they just have trouble distinguishing between specific kinds

September 13, 2016

Ask Smithsonian

Ask Smithsonian: What Is a Dimple?

Michael Jordan, Vanessa Hudgens and all those celeb dimples to die for? Just a result of a double zygomaticus major muscle

August 30, 2016

Scenes from the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

The Paris Olympics

The Rise of the Modern Sportswoman

Women have long fought against the assumption that they are weaker than men, and the battle isn’t over yet

August 18, 2016

Winners at last year's Google Science Fair

Google Thinks These 20 Teenagers Could Change Our World for the Better

These kids from around the globe have created innovative new technologies, from malaria-testing apps to water-saving agriculture systems

August 11, 2016

A Neuroscientist Tells You What’s Wrong With Your Brain

Dean Burnett’s new book, Idiot Brain, explains why your mind evolved to thwart you

August 2, 2016

This 3D model of a microbial community within the human gut allows researchers to study how bacterial changes influence overall health.

How Miraculous Microbes Help Us Evolve Better, Faster, Stronger

Invisible yet crucial, our microbial partners add a gene-swapping plot twist to evolutionary theory

July 26, 2016

Participants in "The Leading Strand" project share their prototypes with each other.

Art Meets Science

Here's What Happens When Neuroscientists and Designers Team Up to Explain Scientific Research

A new interdisciplinary project results in a moving sculpture, an animated piece, a song that evolves and more

July 13, 2016

Childhood Leukemia Was Practically Untreatable Until Dr. Don Pinkel and St. Jude Hospital Found a Cure

A half century ago, a young doctor took on a deadly form of cancer—and the scientific establishment

July 2016

Hospital staff in West Darfur receive the yellow fever vaccine.

Why We're Giving People 20 Percent Doses of the Yellow Fever Vaccine

Vaccine stores in Africa have repeatedly been depleted. The WHO's decision to allow mini-doses reflects a precarious—and cyclical—shortage

June 22, 2016

In this watercolor painting, the Zika virus (in pink) infects a cell (cell membrane and receptors in green, interior in blue). Blood plasma surrounds the viral particles.