Smithsonian Magazine

Sperm Whales Living in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Seem to Have Developed a Distinct Dialect From Those in the West

All Mediterranean sperm whales were thought to be part of one cultural group, identifiable by a unique pattern of clicks, or ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Our Ancestors Loved Shell Trinkets, Just Like Neanderthals. New Research Suggests It’s a Sign of Shared Culture Across Species

Based on artifacts found in a limestone cave on the Mediterranean coast, scientists think the two species might have shared ...
Smithsonian Magazine

The Arctic Ocean May Have Passed a Crucial Tipping Point That Could Harm Food Webs and Worsen Climate Change

Sea ice loss seems to have triggered a decline in the nutrient nitrate, affecting the tiny organisms that form the foundations of marine food chains and absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Soumya Gayatri

Soumya Gayatri is a journalist from India, currently based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She writes about travel, architecture, ...
Smithsonian Magazine

A Pair of 2,000-Year-Old Gold Rings, One Engraved With Indian Script, Was Discovered in an Iron Age Burial Ground in Thailand

A gold ring unearthed at the Don Yai Thong archeological site in Thailand is engraved with what experts think is Brahmi, an ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Strange Spheres Washed Ashore on an Australian Beach. Authorities Say They’re Probably ‘Space Balls’—Empty Fuel Vessels From a Rocket

The shiny objects—each roughly twice the size of a basketball—began to appear on July 3. Authorities initially worried that ...
Smithsonian Magazine

This Spanish Officer Besieged the British During the American Revolution, Giving George Washington Time to Plan a Pivotal Attack

Bernardo de Gálvez indirectly contributed to the Continental Army’s victory at the 1781 Siege of Yorktown. A rare painting of ...
Smithsonian Magazine

This Giant Planet May Have Survived the Death of Its Star. The James Webb Space Telescope Just Found Its Atmosphere

New observations of WD 1856 b, a gas giant closely orbiting a white dwarf, offer a preview of what could happen to Jupiter ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Tall Trees Were Thought to Be More Vulnerable to Drought. But These Towering Plants in Southeast Asia Have Adapted to Move Water Efficiently

A new study found that enormous dipterocarp trees have special adaptations to transport water up to their highest limbs, ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Can You Guess the Origins of Papyrus Fragments or Painted Ceramics? A College Student Turned the Met’s Open-Access Database Into an Online Game

If you consider yourself an art history buff, test your smarts with Anthropeum. The game pulls ten images from the Met's open ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Cyborg Cockroaches Could Help Find Survivors of Natural Disasters. New Diving Suits Allow the Insects to Expand Their Search Underwater

Previously, researchers created electrical implants to control cockroaches' movements for search-and-rescue missions. Now, ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Before Beyoncé and Taylor Swift Ran the World, There Was Joan Baez

Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have achieved a degree of power in the music industry that singer/songwriters of earlier eras like ...