Sylvester Musembi Musyoka, a Kenyan colleague and field crew leader, recording a large mammal fossil bone during a virtual field project to collect fossils in Kenyan excavation sites that were in danger of being damaged by severe weather.

Smithsonian Voices

How the Pandemic Changed Scientific Exploration

Seven Smithsonian scientists continued to discover the secrets of the natural world safely during the pandemic

A hallmark of our cognitive abilities is to be able to calculate and respond to future probabilities. We will have to adapt to this pandemic reality, but adaptation is something that humans are famously good at.

Covid-19

Why This Pandemic Won’t Be the Last

Smithsonian biological anthropologist Sabrina Sholts says Covid-19 illustrates that what makes us human also makes us more vulnerable to global contagions

A statue of Charles Darwin sits in the Natural History Museum in London. The scientist's book 'Descent of Man' was published in 1871.

How Darwin’s ‘Descent of Man’ Holds Up 150 Years After Publication

Questions still swirl around the author’s theories about sexual selection and the evolution of minds and morals

Both sides of a shark tooth from Rio do Meio, an artifact which may have been used as a cutting tool. Archaeologists think it was bound to a wooden shaft by cord, strung through the drilled holes.

Why Did Ancient Indigenous Groups in Brazil Hunt Sharks?

New studies show that shark meat may have constituted half of their diet and that the beasts’ teeth were used as arrow tips and razor blades

This image diagrams the difference between human and chimpanzee models of thumb muscles, which the researchers used to study the evolution of thumb dexterity.

How Dexterous Thumbs May Have Helped Shape Evolution Two Million Years Ago

Fossils and biochemical models show tool-wielding hominins used their hands like we do today

A child sleeps in his parents bed.

Researchers Say the Purpose of Sleep Shifts During the ‘Terrible Twos’

A multidisciplinary team offers up an exact age when REM sleep decreases

In Boston's Mattapan on August 15, 2020, protesters march from Jubilee Christian Church to protest police brutality, systemic racism and other oppressive systems unfavorable to Black and Brown people.

Why Black, Indigenous and Other People of Color Experience Greater Harm During the Pandemic

Scholars take a deep dive into how structural racism intersects with public health

In a live-streamed Smithsonian Associates program on September 23, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Alan Alda discuss the intricacies of the virus that has held the public in sway since March.

Smithsonian Voices

Anthony Fauci and Alan Alda Talk Science and 26 Other Smithsonian Programs Streaming in September

This month drop in on events about global climate justice, Picasso’s ‘Guernica,’ bird brains, the Supreme Court, William Faulkner, orchids and more

Vervet monkeys among fallen dead leaves and grass

Monkeys’ Attraction to Burned Grasslands May Offer Clues to Human Ancestors’ Mastery of Fire

A new study finds monkeys enter charred savannahs to avoid predators, lending support to a controversial theory about what drew hominins to blazes

Plunguian’s watercolor of Einstein in his Princeton office.

Smithsonian Voices

Did Einstein Understand the Limitations of Testing?

Smithsonian fellow Kimberly Probolus looks into the past and future of knowledge tests

Airburst from a comet may have destroyed a Paleolithic settlement 12,800 years ago.

A Comet May Have Destroyed This Paleolithic Village 12,800 Years Ago

Fragments of a comet likely hit Earth 12,800 years ago, and a little Paleolithic village in Syria might have suffered the impact

Ostrich eggshell beads were exchanged between ancient hunter-gatherers living in distant, ecologically diverse regions of southern Africa, including deserts and high mountains.

Humans Have Been Taking Out Insurance Policies for at Least 30,000 Years

A study of beads made from ostrich eggshells suggests the humans of the Kalahari Desert region formed social networks to help each other

The Smithsonian's “Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World” exhibition is joining other efforts to combat misinformation about COVID-19 on multiple fronts. Volunteers, public programs and forthcoming content updates are providing visitors with access to credible and relevant information.

Covid-19

How Museums Can Help the Public Make Sense of Pandemics

We can’t let fear overrun science, says Sabrina Sholts, the Smithsonian’s curator of biological anthropology

A Ludus Latrunculorum board found in Roman Britain

The Best Board Games of the Ancient World

Thousands of years before Monopoly, people were playing games like Senet, Patolli and Chaturanga

Clam shells, likely collected from live clams, would have made for naturally sharp cutting tools.

To Craft Cutting Tools, Neanderthals Dove for Clam Shells on the Ocean Floor

Clam shell knives from a cave on the Italian coast suggest Neanderthals dove underwater for resources

These are ten of the biggest strides made by scientists in the last ten years.

The Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of the Decade

Breakthroughs include measuring the true nature of the universe, finding new species of human ancestors, and unlocking new ways to fight disease

Nearly a century ago, archaeologists started to shift the focus of human origins research from Europe to Africa’s ‘cradles of humankind’ like Oldupai (Olduvai) Gorge in Tanzania.

Archaeologists Are Unearthing the Stories of the Past Faster Than Ever Before

Recent research helps reveal the origins of humans, determine what ancient people ate and monitor historical sites from the sky

Exposed stone-built features in shallow water at the archaeological site of Tel Hreiz.

Oldest Known Seawall Discovered Along Submerged Mediterranean Villages

Archaeologists believe the 7,000-year-old structure was intended to protect settlements as sea levels rose

Several Homo erectus skulls were recently identified as the youngest known fossils of the species, some 108,000 to 117,000 years old. These fossil replicas are housed at the University of Iowa.

Fossils From Some of the Last Homo Erectus Hint at the End of the Long-Lived Species

Homo erectus, one of the first species of the Homo genus, survived for longer than any other close human ancestor

Older people tend to believe that younger generations lack whatever traits they themselves possess in abundance.

The Psychology Behind Generational Conflict

Older people have groused about younger people for millennia. Now we know why

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