Smithsonian Magazine

How Lizzie Borden Became the Main Suspect in Her Family’s Murder

How did a god fearing church-goer like Lizzie Borden become a suspect in the gruesome crime of the century? Her inconsistent ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Mysterious ‘Anomalies’ Have Been Detected Beyond King Tut’s Tomb. Could They Be Secret Passageways Leading to the Long-Lost Remains of Queen Nefertiti?

Geophysical surveys provide new evidence for a theory that the Egyptian pharaoh was interred in the outer rooms of an ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Where Did Bats Originate? Huge Genetic Study May Have Settled the Longstanding Debate and Rewritten the Creatures’ Evolutionary Tree

The flying mammals likely arose 65 million years ago in Europe, before spreading to Africa and then the rest of the world, ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Seven Places in Europe That Legends Say Were Built by Giants, Devils or Dragons

Here are the legends behind seven structures or natural features found in Europe.
Smithsonian Magazine

Two Thousand Years Ago, Julius Caesar Conquered the Settlement That Eventually Became Paris. Archaeologists May Have Just Found It

While conducting excavations at a hospital on the Île de la Cité, in the Seine River, researchers discovered part of a wall ...
Smithsonian Magazine

These 15 Wonderful Photographs of Kenya’s World-Class Wildlife Will Have You Booking a Flight to the Savanna

The East African nation is home to a number of conservation parks where its impressive animals roam free ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Scientists Invent a Digestible, Paper-Based Battery That Can Power Swallowed or Implanted Medical Devices

So far, the technology has been tested only in pigs. If it's successful in humans, it could one day power technologies that ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Two New Stick Insect Species Have Been Discovered in Australia—and Another One Was Hiding in Plain Sight

The new discoveries emphasize that scientists have a lot left to learn about insect diversity, even in areas with many ...
Smithsonian Magazine

In a First, Sea Turtles Were Spotted Nesting on the U.S. West Coast. Scientists Say the ‘Super’ El Niño Could Have Brought Them There

Two olive ridley turtles were found laying eggs on beaches in Southern California in. In the Pacific Ocean, these reptiles ...
Smithsonian Magazine

These Small, Stealthy Bats Use High-Frequency Vocalizations to Keep Their Chatter Out of the Range of Predators and Prey

New research shows that proboscis bats communicate with each other and echolocate at higher frequencies than scientists ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Hitler Had an Intense, Mysterious Relationship With His Half-Niece. New Research Suggests His Alibi for Her Murder Might Not Hold Up

Recently uncovered documents about the timing of Geli Raubal’s death cast new doubt on the Nazi leader’s alibi, which had ...
Smithsonian Magazine

The Moon Just Got a Massive New Crater That’s Wider Than Two End-to-End Football Fields. It’s a ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime Observation’

The impact crater was formed in 2024 when an object the size of a multistory building crashed into our lunar companion. The ...