Smart News

Lillian Randolph in It's A Wonderful Life, with a dusting of fake snow made from foamite, sugar, water and soap.

The Crazy Tricks Early Filmmakers Used To Fake Snow

Cornflakes, flour and, uh, asbestos were all used in early movies

Cool Finds

Check Out NASA's Picks for This Year's Best Images of Earth

From sunsets to city lights, the images capture the beauty of our ever-changing planet

Shell's Polar Pioneer drilling platform

Trending Today

Obama and Trudeau Protect Millions of Acres From Drilling in the Arctic and the Atlantic

But questions remain about the permanency of the act in the arctic

Uniformed Letter Carrier with Child in Mailbag

Smithsonian Podcast

A Brief History of Children Sent Through the Mail

In the early days of the parcel post, some parents took advantage of the mail in unexpected ways

Crossword puzzles have been around for over one hundred years. In that time, they've gone through fads.

Why Crossword Puzzles Are Still Mostly Written By Humans

Computers can write sports articles, replace stock brokers and help diagnose patients. But they can’t write good crosswords

Poland's Sjem, or lower house of parliament, was the site of a recent showdown on press freedoms.

Trending Today

Poland Has Lifted Its Media Ban

It’s the latest in an ongoing saga about press freedoms in the populist-led country

Dwarf minke whale

New Research

Unidentified Complex Sound From Earth's Deepest Trench May Be New Whale Call

Known as the Western Pacific Biotwang, researchers believe it may be a previously unrecoreded call from a dwarf minke whale

Phuket Horned Tree Agamid, Acanthosaura phuketensis, found in Phuket,Thailand

Cool Finds

Meet the Klingon Newt, Ziggy Stardust Snake—Two of the 163 New Species Discovered in the Mekong

A new reports details the dozens of new animal and plant species scientists found in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong in 2015

The Westinghouse Atom Smasher in its prime.

The Strange Story of the Westinghouse Atom Smasher

The giant bulb was an important part of early American nuclear history. Now it’s part of a miniature railroad

Eggnog is connected to a medieval drink called posset.

The Long, Rich, Boozy History of Eggnog

This December, we’re exploring the drink’s storied history

Anne Frank in 1940, four years before her arrest and deportation.

Trending Today

Anne Frank May Not Have Been Betrayed

New evidence suggests the family was not specifically targeted, but rather discovered during an investigation related to illegal ration coupons

Flickering images can induce seizures in people with epilepsy.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Why Do Flashing Images Cause Seizures?

For people with epilepsy, a flashing screen can be more than a passing annoyance

The first edition of A Christmas Carol. The illustration on the left is of Mr. Fezziwig's ball, one of Scrooge's good memories.

Why Charles Dickens Wrote 'A Christmas Carol'

The beloved story sold 6,000 copies in its first week in print and 15,000 in its first year

Trending Today

Watch Rare Footage of the Mysterious Ghost Shark Gliding Through the Deep

Researchers spotted the grey-blue creature off the coast of California—far from its usual haunts in the Southern hemisphere

Barbara Sherwood Lollar sampling dissolved hydrogen and sulfate found in the oldest-known pool of water.

New Research

Scientists Discover the Oldest-known Pool of Water

But you wouldn’t want to drink from it

A photo of Bill Clinton taken in 1993, the first year of his presidency.

Presidents Can Be Impeached Because Benjamin Franklin Thought It Was Better Than Assassination

The founding fathers struggled with the idea of whether the top leader should be impeachable

Cool Finds

Each Christmas, Iceland’s Yule Cat Takes Fashion Policing to the Extreme

The Jólakötturinn will make you thankful for those Christmas socks

South Texas is among the most inhospitable places to cross the border—and is now the most popular.

Cool Finds

New Database Helps Families ID People Who Died Crossing the Border

<i>I Have a Name/Yo Tengo Nombre</i> offers a devastating glimpse of those who are gone—and a glimmer of hope to those who want to find them

Trending Today

Most Expensive Science Book Sells for $3.7 Million

An anonymous buyer paid triple the estimated sale price for this first-edition copy

New Research

The Pokémon GO Craze Had Health Benefits—For a Little While

Though avid players walked about 11 extra minutes per day, the boost only lasted around six weeks

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