Discoveries

A technician takes an X-ray fluoroscope of a female patient. Fluoroscope exams delivered much more radiation exposures than modern X-rays.

Just Months After Its Discovery, the X-Ray Was in Use in War

The public was also fascinated by the fact it was possible to take pictures of somebody’s insides

Named for photographer Barry Brown, meet the newly discovered scorpionfish Scorpaenodes barrybrowni.

On a Deep Dive in a Custom-Built Submarine, a New Species of Scorpionfish Is Discovered

A Smithsonian scientist dives deep to a coral reef and finds much to discover

Researcher Unearths a Trove of New Shakespeare Documents

Archival papers show the Bard was interested in improving his social status

Treating 5-year-old Barbara Bowles required doctors who were “on a mission, looking for something brand-new.”

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

You'll never guess how researchers found this fossil of the petite terrestrial crocodile Hoplosuchus kayi.

These Are Some of the Weirdest Ways Paleontologists Find Fossils

Sometimes you pee on them, sometimes you’re just trying to get away from other paleontologists. Here are the discovery stories scientists won’t tell you

This first-person account by B.C. Franklin is titled "The Tulsa Race Riot and Three of Its Victims." It was recovered from a storage area in 2015 and donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

A Long-Lost Manuscript Contains a Searing Eyewitness Account of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

An Oklahoma lawyer details the attack by hundreds of whites on the thriving black neighborhood where hundreds died 95 years ago

"Red and Green II" Georgia O'Keeffe, 1916 Watercolor on paper, laid down on paper.

A Painting Georgia O’Keeffe Wanted Destroyed Is on Display for the First Time in Nearly 60 Years

O’Keeffe’s watercolor returns to the town where she painted it

This photograph of Harper Lee was taken in 1961, one year after she wrote for the Grapevine.

Exclusive: Read Harper Lee’s Profile of 'In Cold Blood' Detective Al Dewey That Hasn’t Been Seen in More Than 50 Years

Reprinted here for the first time, the article was published five years before Truman Capote’s best-selling book

This photograph of Harper Lee was taken in 1961, one year after she wrote for the Grapevine.

Biographer Uncovers Unsigned Feature Article by Harper Lee

The 'To Kill a Mockingbird' author published a profile of a Kansas investigator in an FBI magazine while helping Truman Capote research 'In Cold Blood'

Astrophysicist Kip Thorne dared to dream of a machine to find gravitational waves.

The Detection of Gravitational Waves Was a Scientific Breakthrough, but What’s Next?

Scientists are sitting on top of the world after this monumental discovery and are eager to keep exploring the universe

Conestoga (AT 54) at San Diego, circa January 1921

With the Discovery of the USS Conestoga, Researchers Have Solved a Mystery That Was Nearly 100 Years Old

Even a century later, the news has brought relief to the families of the sailors who went down with their ship

A reconstruction of the horse-sized tyrannosaur Timurlengia euotica, named for the charismatic Central Asian ruler Tamerlane, shows the species' long, slender legs, large head and teeth built sharp like a steak knife.

The Discovery of a Tiny Tyrannosaur Adds New Insight Into the Origins of T. Rex

The horse-sized dino species had smarts and a keen sense of smell, setting the stage for the evolution of the enormous predator

Missouri Mathematicians Discover New Prime Number

At more than 22 million digits, it’s the longest prime yet

Superheavy elements round out the seventh row of the periodic table. (Editor's Note, November 23, 2021: Image updated to reflect most accurate and up-to-date version of the periodic table.)

Four New Elements Are Added to the Periodic Table

Superheavy elements round out the seventh row of the periodic table

Overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Bethsaida was a day’s walk from Nazareth. When Jesus returned to his boyhood hometown to preach, the Gospels say he was rejected by a mob.

Unearthing the World of Jesus

Surprising archaeological finds are breaking new ground in our understanding of Jesus’s time—and the revolution he launched 2,000 years ago

The site where workers found crypts just a few feet beneath the surface.

Construction Workers Find 200-Year-Old Bodies Buried Just a Few Feet Below Greenwich Village

Two crypts uncovered near Washington Square Park a reminder of New York City’s past

The World's Oldest Papyrus and What It Can Tell Us About the Great Pyramids

Ancient Egyptians leveraged a massive shipping, mining and farming economy to propel their civilization forward

Hawaii, three foot long egg mass, the product of a species of open ocean squid.

This Huge, Gooey Blob Could Be a Clutch of Squid Eggs

The blob was the size of a car...and completely baffling to a group of divers

Scientists have for the first time identified the four people buried in Jamestown's first church. They are (from left) minister Robert Hunt, Sir Ferdinando Wainman, Captain Gabriel Archer and Captain William West.

New Jamestown Discovery Reveals the Identities of Four Prominent Settlers

The findings by Smithsonian scientists dig up the dynamics of daily life in the first permanent British settlement in the colonies

A female specimen of the newly discovered Alto Tambo woodlizard.

New Dwarf Dragons Have Been Found in the Andes

It seems that every time herpetologists wander into the Andean cloud forests, they emerge with colorful lizard species in tow

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