While working as a porter, Alfred L. Cralle witnessed how hard it was to serve ice cream cones one-handed. He saved the day with his mold and disher tool, patented on this day in 1897

Smithsonian Magazine

02.02.2025

Discover How Four Black College Students Sparked a Nationwide Civil Rights Movement, on This Date in 1960 | Smithsonian

By sitting down to lunch at a North Carolina department store, the brave men inspired many others to take part in nonviolent acts of civil disobedience

Smithsonian Magazine

01.02.2025

How Do Polar Bears Keep Ice Off Their Fur? New Study Reveals the Secret—and It Could Improve Technology | Smithsonian

The de-icing properties of polar bear sebum could fuel new innovations, scientists say, potentially unlocking alternatives to harmful “forever chemicals” used in ice-resistant coatings today

Smithsonian Magazine

01.02.2025

Astronomers Discover an Asteroid With a 1.6 Percent Chance of Hitting Earth in 2032—Here's Why You Shouldn't Panic | Smithsonian

Further research might bring those odds down to zero, but we will likely have to wait a couple of years to know for sure

Smithsonian Magazine

01.02.2025

Researchers Have Deciphered a Nearly 2,000-Year-Old True Crime Papyrus | Smithsonian

The Greek document details a court case in ancient Palestine involving tax fraud and provides insight into trial preparations in the Roman Empire

Smithsonian Magazine

01.02.2025

Two Metal Detectorists in the Netherlands Stumbled Onto Hundreds of Looted Coins From the Roman Conquest of Britain | Smithsonian

The 404 coins, including 44 from Britain, are believed to be a mix of military pay and the spoils of war, stashed by a Roman soldier after he returned to the European continent

Smithsonian Magazine

01.02.2025

How Guy Fawkes, Figurehead of the Gunpowder Plot, Avoided the Full Horrors of Execution by Hanging, Drawing and Quartering | Smithsonian

The Catholic conspirator jumped or fell from the gallows on this day in 1606, breaking his neck before the executioner could cut him down from the noose and disembowel him

Smithsonian Magazine

01.02.2025

One of the Oldest Surviving Operas by a Black American Composer Will Be Performed for the First Time—138 Years After It Was Written | Smithsonian

Edmond Dédé's 1887 magnum opus "Morgiane"—billed as "the most important opera never heard"—will finally get its premiere after languishing in obscurity for more than a century

Smithsonian Magazine

01.02.2025

Shark Pup Mysteriously Hatches in Aquarium Tank With Only Females. How Could This Birth Happen? | Smithsonian

Experts say the case is either a rare form of asexual reproduction or an instance of (very) delayed fertilization

Smithsonian Magazine

01.02.2025

NASA's Starliner Astronauts Take Their First Spacewalk Together After Roughly Eight Months on the ISS | Smithsonian

The nearly 5.5-hour feat set a record for astronaut Sunita Williams, who became the woman with the most time spent on spacewalks in history

Smithsonian Magazine

31.01.2025

When a House Painter Failed to Assassinate President Andrew Jackson, It Was the First Such Attempt in U.S. Presidential History | Smithsonian

Duel pistols were no match for the White House incumbent, who fended off the assailant with his cane on this date in 1835

Smithsonian Magazine

31.01.2025

The Price to Climb Mount Everest Will Rise to $15,000 This Year | Smithsonian

Foreign climbers who want to try reaching the top of the 29,032-foot-tall peak will face higher permit fees in Nepal starting in September

Smithsonian Magazine

31.01.2025

This Man Says He's the Mysterious 'Googly-Eye Bandit' in Bend, Oregon | Smithsonian

Jeff Keith, a longtime resident and nonprofit founder, says he used duct tape to affix googly eyes to two public sculptures last month

Smithsonian Magazine

31.01.2025

See the First-Ever Photographs of the Elusive Mount Lyell Shrew, Finally Caught on Camera in California | Smithsonian

A group of young researchers captured and photographed the animal on a three-day expedition to the Eastern Sierra Nevada

Smithsonian Magazine

31.01.2025

Businesses Have a Lot to Learn From the Impromptu 'Teaming' That Happens in Theater | Smithsonian

A Shakespeare scholar at Harvard University explains how the creative collaboration that happens in theater can be a model for companies developing innovative new products

Smithsonian Magazine

31.01.2025

Someone Bought This Painting at a Garage Sale for $50. Experts Say It’s a Lost van Gogh Worth $15 Million | Smithsonian

The portrait of a fisherman was found in Minnesota by an anonymous collector. A new analysis has concluded that it could be the real deal

Smithsonian Magazine

31.01.2025

Officials Are Offering $1 Million to Anyone Who Can Decode This Ancient Script | Smithsonian

The enigmatic Indus Valley civilization left behind a script that today's historians haven't yet deciphered. While amateur theories abound, scholars are increasingly relying on computer science to crack the code

Smithsonian Magazine

31.01.2025

Fossil Hunter Discovers 66-Million-Year-Old Vomit in Denmark, Offering a Clue to the Cretaceous Food Chain | Smithsonian

A marine animal snacked on some sea lilies that did not agree with its stomach—and we now know what happened next

Smithsonian Magazine

30.01.2025

Discover Why 'The Raven,' Edgar Allan Poe's Narrative Poem About a Distraught Lover and a Talking Bird, Remains an American Classic | Smithsonian

Published on this day in 1845, the work used alliteration, internal rhyme and repetition to draw in readers, lending it a dark and melancholic tone

Smithsonian Magazine

30.01.2025

Archaeologists Discover 141 Ancient Gold Coins Depicting Nine Roman Emperors in Luxembourg | Smithsonian

Three of the coins are particularly rare: They portray Eugenius, an illegitimate emperor who reigned for just two years in the late fourth century C.E.

Smithsonian Magazine

30.01.2025

The Alaska Railroad's Golden Spike Hammered in by President Harding Will Return to Its Home State | Smithsonian

The spike's installation marked the completion of the Alaska Railroad in 1923. It's spent most of the time since then in the hands of private owners

Smithsonian Magazine

30.01.2025

A New Marine Protected Area in the Marshall Islands Is Brimming With Life, Like a 'Time Machine' to Oceans Long Ago | Smithsonian

The waters around two remote atolls in the central Pacific Ocean—spanning 18,500 square miles—are now protected from fishing

Smithsonian Magazine

30.01.2025

Scientists Discover Traces of Salt Water and Building Blocks of Life in NASA's Samples From the Asteroid Bennu | Smithsonian

Two new papers describe hints to a brine-filled environment on the 4.5-billion-year-old space rock and the presence of amino acids, offering clues to how early Earth got its ingredients for life

Smithsonian Magazine

30.01.2025

The 'Mona Lisa' Is Moving to a Room of Her Own at the Louvre | Smithsonian

As part of a massive renovation, the Leonardo da Vinci portrait will get its own gallery space accessible from a separate entrance

Smithsonian Magazine

30.01.2025

An Amateur Astronomer Seemingly Spotted a New Asteroid. It Turned Out to Be a Tesla in Space | Smithsonian

The car, launched in 2018 on a SpaceX rocket’s upper stage, is one of many human-made objects in deep space that could potentially be mistaken for natural celestial bodies

Smithsonian Magazine

29.01.2025

Man Finds Rare Trove of Winnie-the-Pooh Drawings and Manuscripts in His Father's Attic | Smithsonian

The papers connected to author A.A. Milne—including original drafts, illustrations, letters, poems and corrected proofs—sold at auction for more than $118,000

Smithsonian Magazine

29.01.2025

Nearly 100 Washingtonians Died When a Theater Collapsed in One of the Largest Snowfalls Ever to Hit D.C. | Smithsonian

The Knickerbocker Theater disaster, which took place on this day in 1922, killed 98 moviegoers and injured another 133

Smithsonian Magazine

29.01.2025

See 15 Winning Images From the Close-Up Photographer of the Year Competition | Smithsonian

The annual contest offers a glimpse into the hidden world of tiny scenes, from insects to fish to fungi

Smithsonian Magazine

29.01.2025

See the Haunting Stone Face of a Ptolemaic Statue Unearthed Near the Ancient Egyptian City of Alexandria | Smithsonian

The statue was found at Taposiris Magna, an archaeological site where some researchers suspect Cleopatra and Mark Antony are entombed

Smithsonian Magazine

29.01.2025

Curiosity Rover Spots Ancient Water Ripples on Mars, Hinting at a Past With Shallow, Ice-Free Lakes | Smithsonian

The 3.7-billion-year-old formations in the planet's Gale Crater suggest the presence of long-gone bodies of liquid water, with no ice covering the surface

Smithsonian Magazine

29.01.2025

Archaeologists Discover Ancient Tokens That Roman Soldiers Used to Play Strategy Games | Smithsonian

The lentil-shaped objects were unearthed in Hadrianopolis, an ancient city in modern-day Turkey, that once hosted a Roman fortress

Smithsonian Magazine

28.01.2025

Staffers Find a Japanese Hand Grenade From World War II at a Museum in Kentucky | Smithsonian

After police and the nearby bomb squad investigated to the scene, they announced that the weapon was inactive and safe

Smithsonian Magazine

28.01.2025

Oyster 'Blood' May Be the Secret Weapon in Our Fight Against Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs, Study Finds | Smithsonian

In lab experiments, a protein found in the Sydney rock oyster made some antibiotics more effective and killed several types of illness-causing bacteria

Smithsonian Magazine

28.01.2025

Rare and Stinky 'Corpse Flower' Blooms Draw Thousands of Visitors to Gardens in New York and Sydney | Smithsonian

People lined up to see—and smell—the blossoms of two pungent plant species, which only bloom for a short time every few years

Smithsonian Magazine

28.01.2025

The Liberation of Auschwitz—Where More Than One Million Jews Were Killed—Took Place on This Day in 1945 | Smithsonian

The Nazi concentration and extermination camp was the site of the largest mass murder in human history

Smithsonian Magazine

28.01.2025

Survivors and World Leaders Gather to Commemorate 80th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation | Smithsonian

The Nazis murdered an estimated 1.1 million people at the death camp in southern Poland before its liberation on January 27, 1945

Smithsonian Magazine

28.01.2025

Art Thieves Blew Up a Dutch Museum's Door to Steal an Ancient Golden Helmet From Romania | Smithsonian

The blast took place in the middle of the night, allowing the burglars to abscond with four valuable objects connected to Romania's cultural heritage

Smithsonian Magazine

28.01.2025

Researchers Identified a New 'Supergiant' Crustacean With 14 Legs—and They Named It After Darth Vader | Smithsonian

In recent years, the deep-sea giant isopod has also become a seafood delicacy in Vietnam, where it was discovered

Smithsonian Magazine

27.01.2025

The Longest-Running Show in Broadway History Opened on This Date in 1988. Read Why Its Legacy Is So Controversial | Smithsonian

“The Phantom of the Opera” entertained decades of fans—and lives on even after closing

Smithsonian Magazine

26.01.2025

When Russian Radar Mistook a Norwegian Scientific Rocket for a U.S. Missile, the World Narrowly Avoided Nuclear War | Smithsonian

The Norwegian rocket incident, which took place on this day in 1995, marked the only known activation of a nuclear briefcase in response to a possible attack

home›Smithsonian Magazine›Technology

Smithsonian Magazine - Technology

Meet the Black Inventor Who Developed the Ice Cream Scoop, Revolutionizing a Beloved Frozen Treat | Smithsonian

Discover How Four Black College Students Sparked a Nationwide Civil Rights Movement, on This Date in 1960 | Smithsonian

How Do Polar Bears Keep Ice Off Their Fur? New Study Reveals the Secret—and It Could Improve Technology | Smithsonian

Astronomers Discover an Asteroid With a 1.6 Percent Chance of Hitting Earth in 2032—Here's Why You Shouldn't Panic | Smithsonian

Researchers Have Deciphered a Nearly 2,000-Year-Old True Crime Papyrus | Smithsonian

Two Metal Detectorists in the Netherlands Stumbled Onto Hundreds of Looted Coins From the Roman Conquest of Britain | Smithsonian

How Guy Fawkes, Figurehead of the Gunpowder Plot, Avoided the Full Horrors of Execution by Hanging, Drawing and Quartering | Smithsonian

One of the Oldest Surviving Operas by a Black American Composer Will Be Performed for the First Time—138 Years After It Was Written | Smithsonian

Shark Pup Mysteriously Hatches in Aquarium Tank With Only Females. How Could This Birth Happen? | Smithsonian

NASA's Starliner Astronauts Take Their First Spacewalk Together After Roughly Eight Months on the ISS | Smithsonian

When a House Painter Failed to Assassinate President Andrew Jackson, It Was the First Such Attempt in U.S. Presidential History | Smithsonian

The Price to Climb Mount Everest Will Rise to $15,000 This Year | Smithsonian

This Man Says He's the Mysterious 'Googly-Eye Bandit' in Bend, Oregon | Smithsonian

See the First-Ever Photographs of the Elusive Mount Lyell Shrew, Finally Caught on Camera in California | Smithsonian

Businesses Have a Lot to Learn From the Impromptu 'Teaming' That Happens in Theater | Smithsonian

Someone Bought This Painting at a Garage Sale for $50. Experts Say It’s a Lost van Gogh Worth $15 Million | Smithsonian

Officials Are Offering $1 Million to Anyone Who Can Decode This Ancient Script | Smithsonian

Fossil Hunter Discovers 66-Million-Year-Old Vomit in Denmark, Offering a Clue to the Cretaceous Food Chain | Smithsonian

Discover Why 'The Raven,' Edgar Allan Poe's Narrative Poem About a Distraught Lover and a Talking Bird, Remains an American Classic | Smithsonian

Archaeologists Discover 141 Ancient Gold Coins Depicting Nine Roman Emperors in Luxembourg | Smithsonian

The Alaska Railroad's Golden Spike Hammered in by President Harding Will Return to Its Home State | Smithsonian

A New Marine Protected Area in the Marshall Islands Is Brimming With Life, Like a 'Time Machine' to Oceans Long Ago | Smithsonian

Scientists Discover Traces of Salt Water and Building Blocks of Life in NASA's Samples From the Asteroid Bennu | Smithsonian

The 'Mona Lisa' Is Moving to a Room of Her Own at the Louvre | Smithsonian

An Amateur Astronomer Seemingly Spotted a New Asteroid. It Turned Out to Be a Tesla in Space | Smithsonian

Man Finds Rare Trove of Winnie-the-Pooh Drawings and Manuscripts in His Father's Attic | Smithsonian

Nearly 100 Washingtonians Died When a Theater Collapsed in One of the Largest Snowfalls Ever to Hit D.C. | Smithsonian

See 15 Winning Images From the Close-Up Photographer of the Year Competition | Smithsonian

See the Haunting Stone Face of a Ptolemaic Statue Unearthed Near the Ancient Egyptian City of Alexandria | Smithsonian

Curiosity Rover Spots Ancient Water Ripples on Mars, Hinting at a Past With Shallow, Ice-Free Lakes | Smithsonian

Archaeologists Discover Ancient Tokens That Roman Soldiers Used to Play Strategy Games | Smithsonian

Staffers Find a Japanese Hand Grenade From World War II at a Museum in Kentucky | Smithsonian

Oyster 'Blood' May Be the Secret Weapon in Our Fight Against Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs, Study Finds | Smithsonian

Rare and Stinky 'Corpse Flower' Blooms Draw Thousands of Visitors to Gardens in New York and Sydney | Smithsonian

The Liberation of Auschwitz—Where More Than One Million Jews Were Killed—Took Place on This Day in 1945 | Smithsonian

Survivors and World Leaders Gather to Commemorate 80th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation | Smithsonian

Art Thieves Blew Up a Dutch Museum's Door to Steal an Ancient Golden Helmet From Romania | Smithsonian

Researchers Identified a New 'Supergiant' Crustacean With 14 Legs—and They Named It After Darth Vader | Smithsonian

The Longest-Running Show in Broadway History Opened on This Date in 1988. Read Why Its Legacy Is So Controversial | Smithsonian

When Russian Radar Mistook a Norwegian Scientific Rocket for a U.S. Missile, the World Narrowly Avoided Nuclear War | Smithsonian

home
›
Smithsonian Magazine
›
Technology