Science

Mid-19th Century specimens collected in Latin America by Alfred Russel Wallace include parrot wings and marsupial pelts.

The Great Feather Heist

The curious case of a young American’s brazen raid on a British museum’s priceless collection

For all their flaws, lab mice have become an invaluable research model for genetics, medicine, neuroscience and more. But few people know the story of the first standardized lab mice.

Women Who Shaped History

The History of Breeding Mice for Science Begins With a Woman in a Barn

Far more than a mouse fancier, Abbie Lathrop helped establish the standard mouse model and pioneered research into cancer inheritance

Thanks to its neutral taste, cricket flour hides well in oatmeal and baked goods. But a Canadian grocery chain isn't hiding its unusual ingredient: it's putting a picture of a cricket on its logo.

Why Canada Wants You to Know You’re Eating Crickets

In some countries, insects may finally be getting their due as affordable, nutritious protein sources

The towering, 2,500-year-old “Mother of the Forest” (second from left) died after its bark was stripped for display in New York in 1855.

How California's Giant Sequoias Tell the Story of Americans' Conflicted Relationship With Nature

In the mid-19th century, "Big Tree mania" spread across the country and our love for the trees has never abated

How Do You Make Beer in Space?

Strap on your beer goggles and join us on a hops-fueled rocket ride

In Asia, the biggest threat to elephant survival isn't ivory poaching but habitat loss. Here, men ride Asian elephants in Thailand.

New Research

In a Horrifying New Twist, Myanmar Elephants Are Being Poached For Their Skin

In Asia, the biggest threat to elephant survival has long been habitat loss. That may be changing

This Videographer Strikes Gold with a Dwarf Minke Whale

An experienced cinematographer hoping to capture close-up footage of dwarf minke whales has to rely on a trick or two to lure them close

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute archaeologist Ashley Sharpe contemplates the Ceibal site in Guatemala—one of the oldest Maya sites known.

Dogs Were Transported Across Great Distances for Ancient Maya Rituals

A new paper uses chemistry to shed light on the management of Maya animals

A Honey Badger Cracks Open a Thick Ostrich Egg

Ostrich eggs can weigh up to three pounds and have some of the hardest shells around. This honey badger, however, isn't about to let any of that get in the

Can you spot Sheila?

Women Who Shaped History

How Smithsonian Helped Solve the Twitter Mystery of the Unknown Woman Scientist

Sheila Minor was a biological research technician who went on to a 35-year-long scientific career

A Honey Badger and Mole Snake Fight to the Death

A hungry honey badger and a fearless mole snake are locked in a deadly battle, with survival at stake

These black- and red-colored pigments reveal that humans were using pigments, potentially to communicate status or identity, by around 300,000 years ago.

New Research

Colored Pigments and Complex Tools Suggest Humans Were Trading 100,000 Years Earlier Than Previously Believed

Transformations in climate and landscape may have spurred these key technological innovations

Small differences account for a shooter’s consistency.

The Math Behind the Perfect Free Throw

A basketball computer program simulates millions of trajectories in search of the ideal shot

How to Calculate the Danger of a Toxic Chemical to the Public

The risk of any toxin depends on the dose, how it spreads, and how it enters the body

How It All Began: A Colleague Reflects On the Remarkable Life of Stephen Hawking

The physicist probed the mysteries of black holes, expanded our understanding of the universe and captured the world's imagination, says Martin Rees

The Proliferation of Happiness

A professor of consumer culture tracks the history of positive psychology

An artist's interpretation of two giant pterosaurs in the Late Cretaceous.

New Research

What Doomed the Pterosaurs?

Killed off in their prime, the leathery fliers may have been living too large for their own good

At the time of capture, the Smithsonian's coelacanth specimen weighed about 160 pounds and measured a little less than five and a half feet long.

How the Smithsonian’s Coelacanth Lost Its Brain and Got It Back Again

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the discovery of a fish believed to have gone the way of the dinosaurs 70 million years ago

Human evolution is ongoing, and what we eat is a crucial part of the puzzle.

How Cheese, Wheat and Alcohol Shaped Human Evolution

Over time, diet causes dramatic changes to our anatomy, immune systems and maybe skin color

Could Lab-Bred Super Coral Save Our Reefs?

Scientists are exploring a bold new plan that could help protect the world's coral reefs. Using selective breeding, they aim to produce a new strain

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