Category Archives: articles

This pillar addresses the impact of racism on the well being of individuals and communities. Racism is a public health threat that has traumatic effects on the physical, emotional, and mental health of individuals, families, and communities. An equitable future is one where people of all races can not only live but live well.

The magazine’s most-read articles of the year included a close-up look at the adorable yet venomous pygmy slow loris, a profile of a little-known 20th-century street photographer and a majestic journey with divers into Mexico’s underwater caves Smithsonian magazine’s coverage of 2024 reflected the eclectic interests of our audience, as well as their search for diversionContinue reading “Ten Top Smithsonian Stories of 2024, From a Mysterious Underground Chamber to Dazzling Auroras”

“Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books” spotlights more than 100 texts written (or invented) by the likes of Shakespeare, Byron and Hemingway In December 1922, Ernest Hemingway’s wife made a terrible mistake. At the time, the great novelist and short story writer was a 23-year-old cub reporter working inContinue reading “None of These Books Exist. An Inventive New Exhibition Asks: What If They Did?”

This pillar explores how public representations of race affect our understandings of history, ourselves, and each other. Race is more than individual identification. Our understandings of race and belonging are also publicly constructed and reinforced. Popular culture and shared public spaces can expose the tensions between what we see and who is represented.

Species in Lake Victoria, Lake Titicaca, Sri Lanka’s Wet Zone and the Western Ghats of India are particularly vulnerable to the effects of agriculture, human infrastructure and climate change, per the paper Freshwater ecosystems across the world are in distress. As scientists better comprehend the extent to which lakes, ponds, rivers and marshlands—and the animalContinue reading “Freshwater Animals Are More Fragile Than Thought, With Nearly a Quarter Threatened With Extinction, Study Finds”

Researchers say a collected sample is the longest continuous record of Earth’s past climate from an ice core Scientists have drilled 1.7 miles deep into Antarctica, pulling up an ice core sample that dates back at least 1.2 million years. They expect the sample to offer new insights into the evolution of Earth’s climate andContinue reading “Scientists Drill 1.7 Miles Into Antarctic Ice, Revealing 1.2 Million Years of Climate History”