smithsonianmag.com
Every smithsonianmag.com story we have translated and published, newest first. · 450 stories
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In a Hoard of 5,500 Viking Age Coins, Archaeologists in Norway Found One So Rare That They Already Consider It a 'National Treasure'
Fewer than 20 coins minted under Norwegian King Olaf II Haraldsson have ever been found. "We can almost imagine Olaf himself holding this co
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Ivan the Terrible Wanted to Marry Elizabeth I. How Did England's 'Virgin Queen' Reject the Russian Czar Without Souring Trade Relations?
A new book details the Russian ruler's failed courtship of the Tudor queen, who famously remained unmarried during her nearly 45-year reign
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This Mysterious Medieval Manuscript Has Stumped Scholars for Well Over a Century. Could Its Pages Have Been Bound Out of Order This Whole Time?
A new study claims that the pages of the Voynich Manuscript, thought to be written by several different scribes in 16th-century Europe, alte
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One in Four Cases of Depression Could Be Caused by a Dysregulated Body Clock, Study Says
Outside experts warn that more research is needed before "circadian depression" can be classified as a subtype
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Researchers Claimed a Blurry Object on Apple Maps Was 'Very Likely' Amelia Earhart's Missing Plane. It Turned Out to Be a 'Collection of Large Trees'
A 17-person crew traveled to a remote atoll in the South Pacific to investigate the so-called Taraia Object. After surveying the site, the t
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The Canadian Artist Jean Paul Riopelle Was 'Completely Absorbed by the Act of Painting.' His Abstract Works Finally Have Their Own Home in a Quebec Museum
Home to the world’s largest public collection of his artworks, a new pavilion at Quebec's Musée National des Beaux-Arts showcases the more t
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More Than 1,000 Birds Were Killed or Injured in Window Collisions Around Chicago Over the Weekend
On the evening of October 16, more than five million birds are estimated to have flown through Cook County, which includes Chicago. They wer
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Arizona's Otherworldly 'Wonderland of Rocks' Is Now America's Newest National Park
Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona is now Chiricahua National Park, the 64th national park in the United States. Its strik
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'Pretty Boy' Floyd, One of the Most Notorious Outlaws of the Great Depression, Was Shot and Killed in an FBI Raid 92 Years Ago
Some Americans lauded the 30-year-old bank robber as a Robin Hood-esque folk hero. Others castigated him as a violent criminal whose misdeed
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Archaeologists May Have Solved the Mystery of a Roman Sarcophagus Excavated at Westminster Abbey in 1869
New research suggests that the ancient coffin was repurposed in the tenth or eleventh century to hold the remains of an abbot who'd overseen
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Green Sea Turtles Are Making a Remarkable Comeback on the Remote Aldabra Atoll and Around the World. But Their Recovery Is Far From Complete
One year after the species was reclassified from “endangered” to “least concern,” green turtles in the western Indian Ocean exemplify that r
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African Elephants Shape the Savanna Ecosystem—and Continue Doing So Long After They've Died, Study Suggests
At first, plants below an elephant carcass die. Soil microbes and plants grow back soon after, but only a few select species. Herbivores lat
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Shanghai's 'Audacious' New Opera House Just Opened Its Doors—and a Gravity-Defying Staircase—to the Public
The riverfront opera house is Shanghai's latest cultural statement. It features three performance halls and is designed to be accessible to
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She Painted the First Known Self-Portrait of an Artist at Work—and Signed It—Nearly 500 Years Ago. Who Was Catharina van Hemessen?
Few women worked as professional artists in the 16th century. A new exhibition in Antwerp, Belgium, seeks to restore this Flemish painter to
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These Snakes Can Cartwheel Away From Danger. Scientists Just Uncovered How the Slithering Creatures Perform Their Acrobatic Rolls
When they're rolling, some snakes belonging to the Pseudorabdion genus can reach top speeds of 3.8 to 8.3 miles per hour, according to a new
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In a First, Astronomers Identify a Star That Might Glow Green. New Research Highlights the Strange Hues White Dwarfs Can Take on
White dwarf stars are too far from Earth to be observed directly. So, scientists reconstructed how they'd look to human eyes based on the wa
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See the Scientific and the Mundane Become Surprisingly Dazzling When Viewed Through a Microscope, From Neurons to Ballpoint Pens
The Nikon Small World Competition has announced its photography winners for its 52nd annual contest. This comes weeks after its video winner
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Were Two Ancient Chinese Astronomers Beheaded for Failing to Predict an Eclipse in 2134 B.C.E.? The Story May Be a Myth, but It Underscores the Real Risks of Interpreting Celestial Events
Experts say that an oft-circulated anecdote about two royal astronomers drunkenly failing to foresee an eclipse thousands of years ago conta
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To Understand Social Divides in Medieval England, Archaeologists Examined Tooth Enamel From Lead Mining Communities
Some residents of the Peaks District in the 13th century may have experienced worse lead pollution than city-dwellers during the Industrial
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A Rhode Island Man Grew the First Pumpkin to Surpass 3,000 Pounds. The Gargantuan Gourd Is the Largest Fruit Ever
On October 10, Ron Wallace took the pumpkin king crown with a 3,156-pounder. The previous record—a respectable, nearly 2,857-pound pumpkin—w
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Sick Corals Can Heal With the Help of a 'Magic Touch' From Healthy Ones, Offering Hope for Heat-Damaged Marine Ecosystems
A coral is often a colony of tiny, genetically identical animals. New research suggests that when a bleached coral fragment comes into physi
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A Vast New Database Shows How Britain Built a Global Empire by Trading Goods Like Coal, Wine and Wood Closer to Home
Using AI to comb through hundreds of thousands of handwritten pages of port records, historians have constructed an interactive map of Brita
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The World's Tallest Trees Seem to Struggle to Make Their Own Food During Heat Waves, Leaving Them Vulnerable as the World Warms
Coast redwoods, which grow only from central California to southern Oregon, slow photosynthesis when temperatures ramp up, according to a ne
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This Dog Learned to Sniff Out a Slimy Marine Invader Called 'Sea Vomit'—a Skill That Earned Her the Animal of the Year Award
Sgiath, a 6-year-old Labrador from the Scottish Highlands, received the honor from the International Fund for Animal Welfare. She's believed
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