An anthropologist highlights the revolutionary role of the practice, which was often led by women, and was just as crucial to surviving and thriving as hunting

Smithsonian Magazine

09.08.2025

Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 Commander Who Thrived Under Pressure, Dies at 97

The space explorer was determined throughout his life, says Teasel Muir-Harmony, the curator of the Apollo Collection at the National Air and Space Museum

Smithsonian Magazine

08.08.2025

What Happened to the Bone-Crushing Dogs That Once Hunted Across North America?

Before going extinct roughly two million years ago, canids known as borophagines took down and consumed much larger prey

Smithsonian Magazine

08.08.2025

This New Bionic Knee Is Changing the Game for Lower Leg Amputees

Scientists have developed a prosthesis that is directly integrated with muscle and bone in order to improve movement

Smithsonian Magazine

02.08.2025

Were Humans in Thailand Getting High Off Betel Nuts 4,000 Years Ago?

Scientists believe they have found the earliest biochemical evidence of people chewing the popular psychoactive plant

Smithsonian Magazine

02.08.2025

Celebrate Man’s Best Friend With These 15 Photographs of Good Dogs

Delight in dogs with snapshots from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest

Smithsonian Magazine

01.08.2025

Can A.I. Help Revitalize Indigenous Languages?

Indigenous researchers and roboticists are crafting innovative tools to help save endangered dialects

Smithsonian Magazine

01.08.2025

These Super-Resolution Microscopes Are Revealing the Inner Lives of Cells

Advanced light microscopy techniques are giving scientists a new understanding of human biology and what goes wrong in diseases

Smithsonian Magazine

29.07.2025

As Interest in Deep-Sea Mining Grows, Scientists Raise Alarms About the Possible Ecological Consequences

Gathering minerals such as nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium from the seabed could affect everything from sponges to whales. The long-term effects of these extractions remain uncertain

Smithsonian Magazine

29.07.2025

Meet Ten Tyrannosaurs That Came Before T. Rex, From Small, Feathery Creatures to 30-Foot-Long Bone-Crushers

Everyone knows the famous tyrant lizard king, but its relatives amaze, too

Smithsonian Magazine

29.07.2025

How Cancer Research for Dogs Is Helping Improve Treatment for Pets and Humans Alike

Canine and human cancers bear many similarities, and studies on dogs are helping advance care for our furry friends and for us

Smithsonian Magazine

29.07.2025

See 15 Photos of Sensational, Slithering Snakes

These reptiles often get a bad rap, but there are plenty of reasons to celebrate snakes

Smithsonian Magazine

29.07.2025

Why Fire Island Has Seen an Explosion of Feral Cats

In New York’s only federal wilderness area, the loss of a key predator has led to the rise of a new one—with dire consequences for the island’s native birds

Smithsonian Magazine

15.07.2025

Why Did a Large Harpy Eagle Attack an Adult Woman?

The incident, which took place in the forest in French Guiana, was an extremely rare occurrence

Smithsonian Magazine

12.07.2025

Giant Sloths and Many Other Massive Creatures Were Once Common on Our Planet. With Environmental Changes, Such Giants Could Thrive Again

If large creatures like elephants, giraffes and bison are allowed to thrive, they could alter habitats that allow for the rise of other giants

Smithsonian Magazine

10.07.2025

Why Are So Many More Women Being Diagnosed With ADHD?

Experts once thought ADHD was something only boys experienced. The research is finally starting to catch up with reality

Smithsonian Magazine

08.07.2025

A Closer Look at the Kestrels, Hedgehogs and Other Wild Animals That Inhabit Rome

From antiquity to modern times, the city has been rife with creatures that creep, slither, scurry and nest among its pillars and palaces

Smithsonian Magazine

04.07.2025

With Space Junk on the Rise, Is a Catastrophic Event Inevitable?

Debris from rockets and satellites can fall back to Earth or collide with other objects, and wreckage that burns up can harm the ozone layer

Smithsonian Magazine

02.07.2025

These Tiny, Beautiful Fossils Detail the History of the Ocean

Bountiful remains of foraminifera reveal how organisms responded to climate disturbances of the past

Smithsonian Magazine

02.07.2025

Six Questions About Covid-19 Vaccines, Answered

Recent vaccination announcements have led to some confusion. Four physicians weigh in on who should get vaccinated and when

Smithsonian Magazine

02.07.2025

Carnivorous Plants Have Been Trapping Animals for Millions of Years. So Why Have They Never Grown Larger?

Plants that feed on meat and animal droppings have evolved at least ten times through evolutionary history

Smithsonian Magazine

01.07.2025

In a Milestone for Manhattan, a Pair of Coyotes Has Made Central Park Their Home

For six years, two photographers have carefully followed the canines and documented their secret lives

Smithsonian Magazine

28.06.2025

Scientists Are Tracking Worrying Declines in Insects—and the Birds That Feast on Them. Here's What's Being Done to Save Them Both

In Vermont, researchers have investigated the types of creepy, crawly bugs that their avian predators consume and may have found the answers to keeping them both alive

Smithsonian Magazine

28.06.2025

Ten Stunning Nature Photos From the BigPicture 2025

From the beautiful to the bizarre, this annual photographic showcase shines a light on some of our planet’s most breathtaking species and places

Smithsonian Magazine

27.06.2025

Scientists Are Just Beginning to Understand How Life Makes Clouds, and Their Discoveries May Drastically Improve Climate Science

Plants, plankton and sea spray all release elements that help the atmospheric blankets form

Smithsonian Magazine

26.06.2025

Can the Redfish, That Gulf Coast Culinary Icon, Be Brought Back From the Brink?

The Cajun cooking craze nearly wiped out the species native to Louisiana, but conservation stemmed the tide. Now the fish faces new threats

Smithsonian Magazine

26.06.2025

After Crocs and Lemurs Went Extinct on the Mainland, Many Survived on Islands for Millions of Years

Isolation allows creatures to thrive as their relatives perish due to the threats present on much larger landmasses

Smithsonian Magazine

24.06.2025

This Majestic Monkey Has Become a Beloved Neighbor for Millions in Vietnam

For the critically endangered red-shanked douc, proximity to an urban center has had surprising benefits

Smithsonian Magazine

19.06.2025

These Sandhill Cranes Have Adopted a Canada Gosling, and Birders Have Flocked to Watch the Strange Family

Ornithologists and locals wonder what the future holds for this chick being raised by much taller, but still doting parents

Smithsonian Magazine

17.06.2025

Why Has This North Carolina Town Embraced a Strange Salamander?

The city of Boone has put a giant mural of the eastern hellbender downtown and its residents often imbibe a local Hazy IPA named after the amphibian

Smithsonian Magazine

13.06.2025

Engineers Are Racing to Harness the Dazzling Magic of Feathers. They Haven't Solved the Mystery Just Yet

The natural marvels, which do everything from enabling acrobatic flight to insulating against Antarctic cold, continue to inspire new designs and technologies

Smithsonian Magazine

13.06.2025

Journey Into a Prehistoric Cave That Trapped and Entombed Animals for Millennia

The animals that plummeted 85 feet into Wyoming’s Natural Trap Cave provide a layered history of life dating back to the Pleistocene

Smithsonian Magazine

13.06.2025

How Worm-Inspired Treatments Are Inching Their Way Toward the Clinic

Infection by certain wrigglers may reduce inflammation and fight obesity and diabetes. Scientists are working to turn the findings into therapies

Smithsonian Magazine

05.06.2025

These Asian Bears Were Cut Open for Their Bile. Here's What's Being Done to Rehabilitate Them

Veterinarians in Vietnam perform surgeries, prepare special diets and craft recovery routines for moon bears to give them a better life

Smithsonian Magazine

31.05.2025

Did Water Form in the Earliest Years of the Universe?

A recent study suggests huge volumes of the molecule emerged during the cosmic dawn

Smithsonian Magazine

30.05.2025

Once in Dire Straits, Atlantic Sturgeon Are Staging a Comeback on the East Coast

From Maine to Florida, the endangered, prehistoric fish is rebounding, but a recent study shows just how vulnerable the U.S. population remains

Smithsonian Magazine

29.05.2025

Should Scientists Inject Saturn’s Moon Enceladus With Life?

A new study proposes that seeding the orb’s underground ocean with microbes might help us learn how to make other worlds habitable

Smithsonian Magazine

24.05.2025

To Reduce Human and Grizzly Bear Conflicts, Both Species Must Change Their Behavior

Rural Alaskan and Canadian communities are trying to get along with the large mammals

Smithsonian Magazine

22.05.2025

A Century Ago, a High School Teacher From a Small Tennessee Town Ignited a National Debate Over Human Evolution

The Scopes “monkey trial” garnered international attention, and the battle that was fought continues in some form in other states today

home›Smithsonian Magazine›Science & Technology

Smithsonian Magazine - Science & Technology

Inside the Quest to Understand the Link Between Cannabis and Schizophrenia

Through Much of Human History, Women Have Shaped Evolution Through Food Processing

Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 Commander Who Thrived Under Pressure, Dies at 97

What Happened to the Bone-Crushing Dogs That Once Hunted Across North America?

This New Bionic Knee Is Changing the Game for Lower Leg Amputees

Were Humans in Thailand Getting High Off Betel Nuts 4,000 Years Ago?

Celebrate Man’s Best Friend With These 15 Photographs of Good Dogs

Can A.I. Help Revitalize Indigenous Languages?

These Super-Resolution Microscopes Are Revealing the Inner Lives of Cells

As Interest in Deep-Sea Mining Grows, Scientists Raise Alarms About the Possible Ecological Consequences

Meet Ten Tyrannosaurs That Came Before T. Rex, From Small, Feathery Creatures to 30-Foot-Long Bone-Crushers

How Cancer Research for Dogs Is Helping Improve Treatment for Pets and Humans Alike

See 15 Photos of Sensational, Slithering Snakes

Why Fire Island Has Seen an Explosion of Feral Cats

Why Did a Large Harpy Eagle Attack an Adult Woman?

Giant Sloths and Many Other Massive Creatures Were Once Common on Our Planet. With Environmental Changes, Such Giants Could Thrive Again

Why Are So Many More Women Being Diagnosed With ADHD?

A Closer Look at the Kestrels, Hedgehogs and Other Wild Animals That Inhabit Rome

With Space Junk on the Rise, Is a Catastrophic Event Inevitable?

These Tiny, Beautiful Fossils Detail the History of the Ocean

Six Questions About Covid-19 Vaccines, Answered

Carnivorous Plants Have Been Trapping Animals for Millions of Years. So Why Have They Never Grown Larger?

In a Milestone for Manhattan, a Pair of Coyotes Has Made Central Park Their Home

Scientists Are Tracking Worrying Declines in Insects—and the Birds That Feast on Them. Here's What's Being Done to Save Them Both

Ten Stunning Nature Photos From the BigPicture 2025

Scientists Are Just Beginning to Understand How Life Makes Clouds, and Their Discoveries May Drastically Improve Climate Science

Can the Redfish, That Gulf Coast Culinary Icon, Be Brought Back From the Brink?

After Crocs and Lemurs Went Extinct on the Mainland, Many Survived on Islands for Millions of Years

This Majestic Monkey Has Become a Beloved Neighbor for Millions in Vietnam

These Sandhill Cranes Have Adopted a Canada Gosling, and Birders Have Flocked to Watch the Strange Family

Why Has This North Carolina Town Embraced a Strange Salamander?

Engineers Are Racing to Harness the Dazzling Magic of Feathers. They Haven't Solved the Mystery Just Yet

Journey Into a Prehistoric Cave That Trapped and Entombed Animals for Millennia

How Worm-Inspired Treatments Are Inching Their Way Toward the Clinic

These Asian Bears Were Cut Open for Their Bile. Here's What's Being Done to Rehabilitate Them

Did Water Form in the Earliest Years of the Universe?

Once in Dire Straits, Atlantic Sturgeon Are Staging a Comeback on the East Coast

Should Scientists Inject Saturn’s Moon Enceladus With Life?

To Reduce Human and Grizzly Bear Conflicts, Both Species Must Change Their Behavior

A Century Ago, a High School Teacher From a Small Tennessee Town Ignited a National Debate Over Human Evolution

home
›
Smithsonian Magazine
›
Science & Technology