What It Was Like to Become the First Woman to Pilot and Command a Space Shuttle
Eileen Collins talked to Smithsonian about her career in the Air Force and NASA, women in aerospace and more
Source

San Antonio Displays More Than 100 Sculptures by Artist Sebastian
The city is celebrating the Mexican artist’s 50-plus year career with a massive exhibition
Source

Food, Glorious Food

Smithsonian's coverage of food, drink and their role in our culture
Source

The Spectacled Flowerpecker Is Now Known to Science
First spotted a decade ago, this elusive bird hangs out in the canopy of Borneo’s lowland forests
Source

Massive Citizen Science Effort Seeks to Survey the Entire Great Barrier Reef
Only about 1,000 of 3,000 individual reefs have been documented, but the Great Reef Census hopes to fill in the gaps
Source

Rare, Centuries-Old Korean Buddhist Masterpiece Goes on View
Sealed and hidden within the sculpture were sacred texts and symbolic objects
Source

The Tragic Story of America’s First Black Music Star
Thomas Wiggins, an African-American musician marketed as ‘Blind Tom’, had a lucrative career—but saw none of the profits himself
Source

National Zoo Says Bye Bye to Bei Bei
The giant panda recently turned four years old and will soon move to China to breed
Source

Extra Thumb Discovered on Aye-Aye Lemurs, Giving These Primates Six Fingers
Used for gripping limbs, a “pseudo-thumb” makes the hands of these bizarre primates even creepier
Source

A Tour of the World's Most Spectacular Ceilings
In her new book 'The Art of Looking Up,' Catherine McCormack captures stunning ceilings around the globe
Source

A New Gene Editing Tool Could Make CRISPR More Precise
Prime editing offers a new way to make changes to DNA while avoiding some of the drawbacks and clunkiness of traditional CRISPR
Source

How Three Guys From Houston Are Cooking Up a Revolution in Texas Barbecue
A tiny suburban eatery is breaking all the rules to create some of the freshest-tasting grub on the horizon
Source

The Untold Story of the Secret Mission to Seize Nazi Map Data
How a covert U.S. Army intelligence unit canvassed war-torn Europe, capturing intelligence with incalculable strategic value
Source

Alcatraz's Captivating Hold on History
Fifty years after Native American activists occupied the island, take a look back at the old prison in San Francisco Bay
Source

Three Mexican-American Vintners Tell Their Stories
Alex Llamas, Gustavo Brambila and Amelia Ceja arrived as migrant workers and today thrive as entrepreneurs in the California wine industry
Source

A 'Microneedle' Pill You Can Swallow Could Replace Insulin Shots
The pill passes through the stomach into the small intestine, where it opens to painlessly inject drugs into the bloodstream
Source

When Mexico's Immigration Troubles Came From Americans Crossing the Border
Before Texas fought for its independence, thousands of settlers from the east entered the country unlawfully in search of land and agricultural opportunity
Source

Gold Fever! Deadly Cold! And the Amazing True Adventures of Jack London in the Wild
In 1897, the California native went to the frozen North looking for gold. What he found instead was the great American novel
Source

How 'Moonlight Serenade' Defined a Generation
Bandleader Glenn Miller, who was lost at sea 75 years ago, played and replayed the song before troops serving in World War II
Source

The Unprecedented Effort to Preserve a Million Letters Written by U.S. Soldiers During Wartime
A tragedy at home led one intrepid historian to find and catalog precious correspondence for future generations to study
Source

This Type of Algae Absorbs More Light for Photosynthesis Than Other Plants
Though evolutionary mergers between cells, some algae have developed the ability to convert a wider spectrum of light energy into sugars
Source