Smithsonian Magazine

Dam Removals Are Bringing Fish Back Across the Northeastern United States, Striking Down One Tiny Barrier at a Time

While the demolition of big dams in the West gets more attention, many of these often-obsolete obstructions are also coming ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Microplastics Have Been Linked With Myriad Human Health Problems. Scientists May Have Finally Figured Out How They Harm the Body

Lab experiments suggest that tiny bits of plastic can react with water inside us to produce highly reactive molecules. They ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Small Dogs Tend to Live Longer Than Big Dogs. Scientists Say They Might Finally Know Why—and It Goes to the Molecular Level

Larger breeds like Great Danes seem to accumulate changes to chemical tags on their DNA more quickly than tinier breeds, such ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Arthur Conan Doyle Based Sherlock Holmes on a Real-Life Scottish Surgeon Who Used Deduction to Diagnose Patients and Investigate Crimes

A new book chronicles the exploits of Joseph Bell, an Edinburgh lecturer whose lessons sparked the creation of the world's ...
Smithsonian Magazine

This Ancient Animal Looked Like a Platypus-Otter Hybrid. It’s Providing Clues About the Origins of Mammalian Suckling and Swallowing

The roughly two- to four-pound predator lived alongside dinosaurs some 165 million years ago. A fossil found in northern ...
Smithsonian Magazine

A Monumental 18th-Century Portrait of a Young Polynesian Man—a ‘Supreme Work of Art’—Visits the U.S. for the First Time

The massive "Portrait of Mai" depicts the first Pacific Islander to visit Britain, a young man who became a quasi-celebrity ...
Smithsonian Magazine

These 15 Photos Showcase the Intensely Brilliant Colors of Coral Reefs and the Creatures That Live Among Them

These images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest highlight the importance of the marine ecosystems and the many ...
Smithsonian Magazine

It’s Official: Timekeepers Have Gotten Rid of the Leap Second—and Introduced the Leap Hour Instead

Since 1972, experts have added 27 seconds to Coordinated Universal Time to keep it aligned with Earth's rotation, but it has ...
Smithsonian Magazine

This Soldier Kept a Diary in the Trenches of World War I. A Child Found It at the Dump Decades Later, Pierced by a Bullet and Stained With Blood

Corporal Claude Nuttall recorded his wartime experiences in the diary. Now, after decades of research, a museum curator is ...
Smithsonian Magazine

At the Bodega, Customers Can Get Pork Rinds, Plantains and Just About Anything They Need. Here’s How These Stores Became a ‘Community Anchor’ of Latino Life

For immigrants, bodegas provide daily necessities and cultural connections to the homelands they left behind. The recent book ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Venetian Artist Canaletto Merged Fantasy and Architectural Detail in This Previously Unseen Sketch, Heading to Auction This Month

The 18th-century painter was a key practitioner of "capriccio" artworks, which blended scenes of everyday life with bold, out ...
Smithsonian Magazine

On an Island Outside Paris, a Sprawling Contemporary Arts Center Aptly Called ‘Large’ Prepares to Open Its Doors

The landmark institution’s first exhibition pays homage to a historic Renault automobile plant that once operated on the Île ...