Smithsonian Magazine

Do Spiders Dream? These Arachnids Twitch, Curl Their Legs and Move Their Eyes When Asleep, Hinting at a Complex Brain State

A species of jumping spider appears to enter a deep sleep phase that resembles rapid eye movement (REM) in humans, the stage ...
Smithsonian Magazine

As Most of England Relaxed Its Stance on Witchcraft, One Hardline City Bucked the Trend. It Even Went After ‘Service Magicians,’ Who Used Magic to Investigate Petty Crimes

New historical research shows how the city of Exeter hunted down accused witches while the rest of the country relented. Its prosecution of benign local sleuths shows how far the authorities were will ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Scientists Feared This Cute but Venomous Primate Had Gone Extinct Nearly 100 Years Ago. It Was Hiding in Plain Sight All Along

The Bangka slow loris is still close to extinction, but new research suggests it continues to survive on a tropical Indonesian island. Conservationists are calling for stronger habitat protections and ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Engineers Delicately Removed the Masts From This Bomb-Laden World War II Shipwreck in the River Thames. But 1,500 Tons of Explosives Are Still in Place

The operation marks a major milestone in efforts to address the risks posed by the sunken American military cargo ship, which still contains a massive cache of unexploded munitions ...
Smithsonian Magazine

How an Irish Backroad Tradition Is Rolling Into Small-Town America

With roots in County Armagh and County Cork, the sport of road bowling is finding new life stateside, both as a fun pastime ...
Smithsonian Magazine

After Sitting in a London Museum Since 1924, This Dinosaur Fossil Was Named a New Predatory Species—an ‘Unconquered Female Warrior’

Invictibellatrix amberina was a long-clawed, tiger-size dinosaur that lived around 120 million years ago. It's helping ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Where’s the bottom of the gunboat Philadelphia?

Why is the gunboat Philadelphia flat-bottomed? A look at how America’s oldest surviving warship was built, and what ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Melting Ice in the Italian Dolomites Exposes Hundreds of World War I Munitions, Vestiges of the Vertiginous ‘White War’

Following low snowfall and record-breaking summer heat, the Italian Army is hunting for unexploded shells and bombs. "When ...
Smithsonian Magazine

From a Black Limo With a Silken Armchair to a Bulletproof ‘Sardine Can,’ the Vatican Looks Back at the Evolution of the Popemobile

A new exhibition at the Vatican Museums highlights a century of collaboration with Mercedes-Benz, showcasing eight papal ...
Smithsonian Magazine

An Italian Farmer Found Some Unknown Seeds in His Attic and, With Nothing to Lose, Planted Them. The Result Was Almost Biblical

When a seven-eared stem emerged from the ground, it seemed like a miracle. What Claudio Grossi had unearthed was an ancient ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Where Is England’s Oldest Pub? An Archaeologist Drilled Into 600-Year-Old Timbers to Answer the Contentious Question

Tree-ring dating shows that a historic tavern in Somerset has been continually operating as an inn since the 1430s, when ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Three in Four Former NFL Players Who Died From 2008 Through 2023 May Have Had CTE, a Brain Disease Caused by Repeated Head Injuries

The researchers also estimate that around one in four of the former football players had dementia, a common feature of ...