History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places Smithsonian Magazine

The new suits will actually be all white, but Axiom Space showed off its prototype with a dark gray cover material.

See the New Moonwalk Spacesuit Designed for NASA's Artemis Program

The space agency has tapped private company Axiom Space to develop the sleek new attire for its moon-bound astronauts

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located in the Norwegian Arctic on the remote island of Spitsbergen.

Take a Virtual Tour of the 'Doomsday' Seed Vault

Smart News

Burning Space Junk Creates Mysterious Lights in California Sky

March 20, 2023 2:12 p.m.

Paintings by Rescue Dog Named van Gogh Raise Thousands for Charity

March 20, 2023 1:55 p.m.

You Can Apply for Free 'Masterclass of Happiness' in Finland

March 17, 2023

The 2019 Notre-Dame Fire Revealed Iron Staples Holding the Cathedral Together

March 17, 2023

This Dinosaur Had a 50-Foot-Long Neck, Scientists Say

March 17, 2023

One of Europe's Last Free-Flowing Rivers Declared a National Park

March 17, 2023

Latest Features

Salmon spread is a common snack across Alaska.

Salmon Spread Might Just Be the Most Alaskan Food

March 20, 2023 2:55 p.m.

Jews wearing yellow stars at the Kistarcsa concentration camp in Hungary in 1944

The Long History of Forcing Jews to Wear Anti-Semitic Badges

March 20, 2023 8:15 a.m.

To collect a saliva sample, technicians instruct a person to tilt their head for two to five minutes and spit the accumulated saliva into a sterile tube. The saliva-filled tube is kept on ice and sent to the laboratory to test for the presence of biomarkers for cancer or other diseases.

Is Saliva the Next Frontier in Cancer Detection?

March 17, 2023

“Spirit in the Dark: Religion in Black Music, Activism and Popular Culture,” (above: Nina Simone by G. Marshall Wilson, 1959) is on view at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture through November 2023.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Movements Capturing the Spiritual Roots of Black Culture

March 17, 2023

“Marie Antoinette,” a new series premiering in the United States on March 19, is the first major English-language television show to tell the French queen’s story.

Why Marie Antoinette's Reputation Changes With Each Generation

March 17, 2023

The adaptive lighting cooked up by Camilla Rathsach and Mette Hvass would automatically adjust to the availability of moonlight, tweaking this church’s lighting automatically to balance visibility and darkness. This mock-up shows how the church would be lit under a full moon.

This Danish Church Is a Beacon for How to Protect Wildlife From Artificial Light

March 16, 2023

A cockatoo uses a sharp stick to poke through a membrane before using a scoop to fish out the cashew inside the box.

Like Humans and Chimps, Cockatoos Can Use a Set of Tools to Get a Meal

March 16, 2023

Carrie Coon (left) as Jean Cole and Keira Knightley (right) as Loretta McLaughlin in the Boston Strangler movie

The Tenacious Women Reporters Who Helped Expose the Boston Strangler

March 16, 2023

Current Issue
March 2023

Smithsonian magazine March 2023 issue cover

Most Popular

1.

See the New Moonwalk Spacesuit Designed for NASA's Artemis Program

The space agency has tapped private company Axiom Space to develop the sleek new attire for its moon-bound astronauts

2.

Scientists Spot Recent Volcanic Activity on Venus

The findings in 30-year-old radar image data all but confirm that volcanoes on Earth’s hellish sister planet are still active today

3.

Is Corned Beef Really Irish?

The rise and fall and rise of the traditional St. Patrick's Day meal

4.

The True History Behind Hulu's 'Boston Strangler' Movie

A new film explores Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole's efforts to unmask a serial killer believed to have murdered 13 women between 1962 and 1964

5.

These Five Abandoned Mines Have Been Transformed into Subterranean Wonderlands

Zip line through darkness or relax in a serene saline pool deep underground

Special Report

The sun sets over the Susquehanna River in northern Pennsylvania.

America's Waterways: The Past, Present and Future

Scientists endlessly study lakes and rivers, historians document them, artists paint them, and travelers continue to explore them. In a series of articles, Smithsonian magazine highlights all that draws our eyes to our nation's fresh and coastal waters.

View Full Report

Featured Stories

How 'Daylighting' Buried Waterways Is Revitalizing Cities Across America

What Makes the Buffalo River the Jewel of the Ozarks

See Thousands of Sandhill Cranes Gather in Nebraska

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Smithsonian Channel

Preview thumbnail for video 'Unfathomable Cruelty at the Heart of Hitler’s Russian Invasion

Unfathomable Cruelty at the Heart of Hitler’s Russian Invasion

Preview thumbnail for video 'African-Americans Came out of the Civil War and Ran into Jim Crow

African-Americans Came out of the Civil War and Ran into Jim Crow

Preview thumbnail for video 'Drones Now Play an Active Role in Sea Turtle Census

Drones Now Play an Active Role in Sea Turtle Census

Photo of the day

Hummingbird feeding off of an African Lily flower.

Evening Cocktail

History

“Marie Antoinette,” a new series premiering in the United States on March 19, is the first major English-language television show to tell the French queen’s story.

Why Marie Antoinette's Reputation Changes With Each Generation

A new television series portrays the French queen as a feminist, drawing criticism from historians

Jews wearing yellow stars at the Kistarcsa concentration camp in Hungary in 1944

The Long History of Forcing Jews to Wear Anti-Semitic Badges

Carrie Coon (left) as Jean Cole and Keira Knightley (right) as Loretta McLaughlin in the Boston Strangler movie

The Tenacious Women Reporters Who Helped Expose the Boston Strangler

Science

A male (silver) and female (brown) common European adder meet prior to mating. Scientists are just beginning to understand female sexual anatomy in snakes.

Why Did Scientists Wait So Long to Study the Snake Clitoris?

The delay is representative of a major problem in biology: Female and intersex animals are understudied compared with their male counterparts

A cockatoo uses a sharp stick to poke through a membrane before using a scoop to fish out the cashew inside the box.

Like Humans and Chimps, Cockatoos Can Use a Set of Tools to Get a Meal

Industrialization changed Italy’s Bagnoli Bay. Analyzing the DNA that was trapped in sediment offers a record of what was lost—and a clue as to how to get it back.

DNA Buried in Sediment Helps Scientists Picture Past Ecosystems

Innovation

The strategy an animal uses to track a scent depends upon a number of factors, including the animal’s body shape and the amount of turbulence in the odor plume.

Scientists Are Trying to Figure Out How Animals Follow a Scent to Its Source

Uncovering the varied strategies that animals employ could help engineers develop robots that accomplish similar tasks

A $25 million plan to uncover 1,100 feet of Jordan Creek and build three bridges is moving forward in Springfield, Missouri.

How 'Daylighting' Buried Waterways Is Revitalizing Cities Across America

Magnets can levitate over superconductors, which expel a magnetic field.

This Breakthrough Could Make Longer-Lasting Batteries and Better Power Grids—if It Works

Arts & Culture

Edward Brooke-Hitching's The Madman Gallery spotlights such artworks as John Singer Sargent's Portrait of Madame X, a statue of Glycon and Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's Character Heads.

The Most Enigmatic Works in Art History

A new book highlights 100 artistic curiosities, from the nude "Mona Lisa" to portraits of a dog-headed saint

On the show, experts give contestants advice about Vermeer’s lost paintings.

Dutch Artists Compete to Paint Like Vermeer in New Reality Show

A 1903 photograph of Paul Laurence Dunbar

The Brief but Shining Life of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a Poet Who Gave Dignity to the Black Experience

Travel

A $25 million plan to uncover 1,100 feet of Jordan Creek and build three bridges is moving forward in Springfield, Missouri.

How 'Daylighting' Buried Waterways Is Revitalizing Cities Across America

Urban centers are exhuming creeks and streams once covered up to control floodwater—and bringing life back in the process

The sun sets over the Susquehanna River in northern Pennsylvania.

America's Waterways: The Past, Present and Future

More than 3,000 lunchboxes are on display inside the World's Largest Lunchbox Museum.

A Nostalgic Trip Awaits at the World's Largest Lunchbox Museum

At the Smithsonian

“Spirit in the Dark: Religion in Black Music, Activism and Popular Culture,” (above: Nina Simone by G. Marshall Wilson, 1959) is on view at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture through November 2023.

Movements Capturing the Spiritual Roots of Black Culture

A new exhibition of rarely seen images and artifacts chronicles the African American religious experience

During World War II, Executive Order 9066 authorized the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans (above: In Los Angeles in April 1942, dozens of families wait for a train to Manzanar War Relocation Center in Owens Valley, California).

Japanese American Artists Recall the Trauma of Wartime Incarceration

"The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist" premieres Friday, March 3 at 9 p.m. ET on MTV, and on the Smithsonian Channel Tuesday, March 7 at 9 p.m.

Behind the Scenes of the New Reality Series, ‘The Exhibit’