Smithsonian Magazine

07/08/2025

This rare deep-sea fish has teeth resembling tiny shards of glass, a football-shaped body and a long bioluminescent stalk on the top of its head. It spends its life in total darkness. On the rare occasion one finds its way to shore, it is found in more than one piece. Why do you think this anglerfish was intact?

Keep reading about these deep-sea dwellers, including how they have evolved their feeding habits when encounters with other fish and prey are infrequent: https://bit.ly/4m1Cyjx

📸: Ben Estes

07/08/2025

Just south of Greenland, in the northern Atlantic Ocean, a strange area of water has been confounding scientists for years. While the rest of the ocean warms, that patch has been mysteriously cooling. What do you think is causing this "cold blog"?

Over the years, researchers have offered different theories, see what new research suggests: https://bit.ly/40BMWG8

📸: NASA

07/08/2025

On this day in 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The media attention continued during her confirmation hearings: there were more requests for press credentials than there had been for the Senate Watergate Committee hearings in 1973. Do you remember watching? Share your story below.

Continue reading about her history-making first days on the bench: https://bit.ly/4lKohrh

📸: National Archives

07/08/2025

The painted desert of Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park is a fossil wonderland. New research has revealed a detailed look at the life that was thriving in streams and channels around 209 million years ago.

Fossil surprises abound in new research that unearths the history of the Triassic Period

07/07/2025

Researchers documented 34 instances of purported prey-sharing behavior. Does this mean orcas may be altruistic and capable of recognizing sentience in another species? What do you think? Share your thoughts below?

Continue reading about the research that works to make sense of the behavior: https://bit.ly/44wa61N

📸: NPS Photo / Kaitlin Thoresen

07/07/2025

Let’s start closer to the beginning. On June 14, 1947, the rancher was driving across his land some 80 miles northwest of Roswell when he encountered something odd. He described it as “a large area of bright wreckage made up of rubber strips, tinfoil, and rather tough paper, and sticks.” Unsure what to do with the objects, he passed them off to the sheriff. From there, the objects we passed along to the Army, the Air Force and the intelligence office. Was it aliens?

Read more to see how things continue to unfold and why "a flying saucer was easier to admit than Project Mogul": https://bit.ly/4knKMRL

📸: NASM

07/07/2025

Astronomers have confirmed the third interstellar object on record is dashing through our solar system.

The comet follows just two other deep space objects documented by astronomers in 2017 and 2019

07/07/2025

Why are we so obsessed with mac & cheese? Macaroni and cheese has been served as long as there has been a United States of America, but in a 20th-century economy driven by convenience packaging and industrialization, it was elevated to an ideal American food. Comment down below if you've only had mac & cheese made with a powdered mix.

Continue reading about the conundrum and beauty of mac & cheese and why our Founding Father often gets credit for popularizing the dish: https://bit.ly/44gItLq

📸: Kraft advertisement in the Ladies’ Home Journal, 1948 / Wikimedia Commons

07/07/2025

About 2,000 years ago, the powerful Roman Empire established a boundary at the northern edge of its territory: the Lower German Limes, which stretched across the Rhine River in present-day Germany and the Netherlands. But the Romans’ movements weren’t limited by their border.

Researchers think the camp was built during the second century C.E. Stretching across 22 acres, it was identified using a computer model developed by an archaeology student

07/07/2025

In additional to the colorful mosaic, salvage archaeologists also unearthed an ancient a well-preserved plumbing infrastructure, clay insulation and graves at the site. How old you think these “domestic units” are? Share your guess below.

Read more about the incredible find and why archaeologists say the site boasts advanced architecture: https://bit.ly/4lh0SOl

📸: INRAP / F. Giraud

07/07/2025

Rome is unlike anywhere else. Thanks in part to its abundance of historical sites—many of which now serve as natural oases, free from cars and modern development—Rome is a hub for urban wildlife.

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

07/07/2025

Also known as the Nuclear Test Aircraft, the NB-36H—its tail marked by the ubiquitous 1950s radiation symbol—was the world’s first flying nuclear reactor.

The dangers of using atomic energy to operate military aircraft.