Smithsonian Magazine

The Tower of London Plans to Turn Its Moat Into a ‘Green Classroom’ and Show Off Its Architecture Archives in a Major Renovation

The landmark, nearly a millennium old, has housed kings, hosted royal executions and safeguarded Britain's crown jewels. New ...
Smithsonian Magazine

An Unusual-Looking Raccoon Nicknamed Jimothy Is Winning Hearts Across the Internet for His Short, Round Body

Jimothy has become a local celebrity in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood and likely has a rare congenital spine condition ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Ellen Wexler

Ellen Wexler is a staff writer and special projects editor, digital, for Smithsonian magazine. She covers history, ...
Smithsonian Magazine

A Man With Paralysis Has Regained Feeling and Movement in His Hands After an Experimental Brain Implant

Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research A man who became paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident six years ago ...
Smithsonian Magazine

For the First Time in 27 Years, a Man Set a New World Record for Fastest Mile. People Have Chased the Goal for Centuries

British runners in particular have long tried to cross the finish line in less than 4 minutes, records show, sometimes ...
Smithsonian Magazine

New Women’s Pro Baseball League Teams Are Named for These Pioneering American Women, Giving Female Players Another League of Their Own

The Firebells, Heights, Queens and Hunters—of San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Boston—were inspired by an honorary ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Railway Construction Reveals a Coin Minted by a Roman Officer Who Proclaimed Himself ‘Emperor of the North’ in Britain 1,700 Years Ago

Archaeologists in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire unearthed a silver denarius bearing the name of Carausius, who ruled the ...
Smithsonian Magazine

How Neil Armstrong Saved the Gemini 8 Spacecraft

Gemini 8 was in trouble. After completing the first space docking with another craft, it begins to spin uncontrollably.
Smithsonian Magazine

For Three Hours Every Day, Open Ocean Transforms Into Australia’s ‘Ghost’ Reef

An isolated wonder some 1,200 miles from the nearest city, Montgomery Reef disappears as quickly as it appears, mirroring the ...
Smithsonian Magazine

She Walked Over 200 Miles in the Snow to Feed a Starving Army. The Oneida Nation Has Remembered Polly Cooper for 250 Years.

As one of America's first allies, the Oneida Nation sent 47 warriors to Valley Forge in 1778. Among them was a woman named ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Did These Ancient Egyptian Princesses Wield Weapons and Train in Martial Arts, Just Like the Men of Their Time?

A new analysis of their bones suggests they were buried alongside arrows, maces and daggers because they had repeatedly used ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Thousands of Kidnapped Africans Died on an Island in the Atlantic After Being Rescued From Slave Ships. Evidence in Their Teeth Traces Their Journeys

Remains in the graves of St. Helena, where the British military housed "liberated" enslaved Africans, contain isotopes from inland Angola and Zimbabwe ...