Smithsonian Magazine

This High School Student Invented a Filter That Eliminates 96 Percent of Microplastics From Drinking Water

Virginia teenager Mia Heller’s filtration system harnesses the power of ferrofluid, a magnetic oil that binds to ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Archaeologists Unearth Traces of a Mysterious Medieval City That Was Abandoned Under Puzzling Circumstances Hundreds of Years Ago

Found in a Polish forest, the town of Stolzenberg appears to have been built around the turn of the 14th century. Surveys ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Scientists Make a Major Breakthrough in Solving a Hair-Raising Mystery About Static Electricity

Static electricity may seem simple. Students often learn that rubbing a balloon against their hair will cause negatively ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Contrary to Popular Belief, Some Doodle Crossbred Dogs May Have More Behavioral Problems Than Their Purebred Parents

Pet owners often pick "designer dogs" because they think they’ll be easier to train and friendlier with kids than purebreeds. A new study suggests that's not always the case ...
Smithsonian Magazine

David Hockney Used an iPad to Create This Sprawling 295-Foot-Long Frieze Inspired by the 11th-Century Bayeux Tapestry

The artwork, which depicts the changing seasons in Normandy, is the centerpiece of "A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts About Painting," a new exhibition in London ...
Smithsonian Magazine

These Sea Slugs Can ‘Eat’ Sunlight—but They’re No Astrophage. Here’s How the ‘Project Hail Mary’ Antagonist Has a Real-Life Analogue in Earth’s Oceans

By snatching chloroplasts from algae, animals called sacoglossans produce their own energy through photosynthesis ...
Smithsonian Magazine

The Real Count of Monte Cristo Was Alexandre Dumas’ Father, a Trailblazing Black General

Ahead of the March 22 premiere of a new TV adaptation, learn about the life of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, the French Army ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Typos Have Plagued Us for Centuries. Just Ask the Publishers Who Printed the Seventh Commandment as ‘Thou Shalt Commit Adultery’ in 1631

A new exhibition at Yale Library explores the history of typos across five centuries. Visitors will see corrections that were ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Historians Say They’ve Discovered a Long-Lost Page From the Archimedes Palimpsest, a Treasure Trove of Rare Ancient Mathematical Treatises

Three leaves had been missing for more than a century. Researchers found one of them when they decided on a whim to check the ...
Smithsonian Magazine

See the 2,500-Pound Bronze Bison as They Arrive at Their New, Permanent Place at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

More than a century ago, the massive mammals actually grazed beside the Smithsonian Castle. As of today, two large sculptures continue that legacy as they flank the museum’s main entrance ...
Smithsonian Magazine

European Hedgehogs’ Hearing Might Be Attuned to Ultrasonic Sounds. The Discovery Could Help Scientists Save the Declining Species

Sound-based deterrents could help keep the animals away from fast-moving cars and dangerous landscaping equipment ...
Smithsonian Magazine

A Quaker Woman Eavesdropped on British Soldiers Plotting a Surprise Attack—and Surreptitiously Warned George Washington

British soldiers met at Lydia Darragh's house in Philadelphia, presenting the perfect opportunity for the Quaker woman to ...