The first in a series of Conference side events, the high-level panel on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) was held on Saturday. The aim of this event was to present [...]

From the visits of Prince Charles and theGlobal Indigenous Youth Caucus (GIYC) to headquarters, to the Director-General’s ongoing visit to crisis-stricken parts of Africa, and the release of new FAO [...]

Read the series on how FAO increased efficiency, effectiveness and transparency to better support its Members in the transformation of agrifood systems.

In this episode, FAO is distributing fodder to vulnerable families in Gaza to enhance food production to alleviate the catastrophic food security situation; FAO calls for urgent action to prevent [...]

In this episode, over 282 million people in 59 countries suffered acute food insecurity in 2023, according to the Global Report on Food Crises; FAO warns about the food insecurity [...]

With millions of men serving in WWII, the nation needed pilots to ferry planes from the factory to the air bases. That’s when Jackie Cochran proposed a novel idea: why not let women fly?

By 2020, the Starkey Hearing Foundation plans to donate one million hearing aids to kids in the developing world

To save a species from extinction, scientists scour the Panamanian jungle for the few remaining frogs. But will they be too late?

A small pebble with ornate markings is Britain’s earliest piece of Mesolithic art—but what do the markings denote, and was it worn for cosmetic purposes or spiritual ones?

It looks like a fairly nondescript plank of wood, found in the fields of Star Carr. But from an archaeological perspective, it’s far more significant: It’s the oldest piece of carpentry found anywhere in Europe.

Megan Leftwich, an engineering professor at George Washington University, is building a robotic flipper based on her observations of sea lions

The first plane to fly nonstop from New York to Paris will reside on the ground level of the National Air and Space Museum for the next five months as it undergoes preservation (Courtesy of the National Air and Space Museum)

A slowed-down recording, made as part of a scientific study, shows one dog quickly mimicking another canine's expression during playtime in a park in Palermo. (Video courtesy Elisabetta Palagi)

Have you ever wondered if the Leaning Tower of Pisa is a catastrophe waiting to happen? In this one-minute video, Ask Smithsonian host Eric Schulze explains how architects and engineers spent the last eight hundred years or so making things go from bad to worse, bringing the gravity-defying tower to the brink of disaster

How do spiders make such intricate webs? Don’t get too tangled up about it. In this one-minute video, our Ask Smithsonian host, Eric Schulze, weaves his way to the answer.

Selected by Sylvia Plachy for our special issue, this up-and-coming photographer discusses her work

David Silverman has collected more than 800 pinball machines to preserve their history and create a national pinball museum.

Man’s best friend is also one of his oldest.

In this trailer for a documentary about the acclaimed sculpturist, Louise Bourgeois discusses her life work

Read more about the event here: http://j.mp/TyPfBO The world famous Chinese artist uses pyrotechnics to turn a 40-foot-tall pine tree into an optical illusion.

See how geometric designs are inspiring new ways to make stretchy materials. (Video by Ahmad Rafsanjani and Damiano Pasini/McGill University)

Smithsonian Institution Secretary Dr. David Skorton joins some of the world’s leading thinkers in a spirited discussion about our ever changing planet

Follow team LEO A DALY as they replicate the Discovery space shuttle's arrival in Washington, D.C. for CANstruction

More on biomimicry: http://j.mp/RI3OOB Scientists believe the iridescent wings of the morphos butterfly could be used in technology to benefit humans.

Watch this commercial for Stopette spray deodorant from 1952

The southern widow's Maryland house was a crucial stop on the escape route for assassin John Wilkes Booth the night he shot the president. Read more about Abraham Lincoln at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/life-of-lincoln.html

Four hundred years ago, escaped slaves formed the village of Palenque. The town’s younger generations have reconnected with their African roots through cultural traditions handed down from their ancestors (Kenneth Fletcher/SmithsonianMag.com). Read more at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/colombia-dispatches.html

The CIA used birds, cats and even dolphins to help them on covert operations.

One morning on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, photographer Steve Simonsen captures thousands of hermit crabs migrating

Related to rabbits and hares and adapted to high-elevation habitat, the American pika faces a bleak future as temperatures rise and snow cover disappears

Oysters were Mark Twain's favorite food: http://j.mp/LCWpx8 What the tiny shellfish lacks in size, it makes up for in taste. Meet the farmers who are counting on the Olympia's success

Have you ever felt embarrassed by the need to carry a towel, or even a fresh shirt, with you during the most sweltering months of the year? You shouldn’t. Sweating is one of the most remarkable ways our bodies protect themselves when the mercury heads north. With summer temperatures spiking around the world as the sweat-filled Olympic Games begin in Paris, we’re joined by Sarah Everts, a Smithsonian contributor and the author a marvelous book called The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration. She explains why the body’s thermostat is so ingenious, and how it cools athletes—and the rest of us. Plus: A series of snack-sized anecdotes about the Olympics! Let us know what you think of our show, and how we can make it better, by completing our There's More to That listener survey here (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfS90zjBZ2oGa9JxVa-R5affKcOHaR2-ib1_KZeWm3HDQXJIA/viewform) . Find prior episodes of our show here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/podcast/) . Read Smithsonian magazine's coverage of the Olympics (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-paris-summer-olympics-smithsonians-guide-to-the-games-2948430/) , past and present, here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-the-olympics-gave-out-medals-for-art-6878965/) , here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-wheaties-became-breakfast-champions-180978246/) , here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/breaking-will-debut-at-the-summer-olympics-180984199/) , and here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-graphic-artists-olympic-pictograms-changed-urban-design-forever-180978256/) . There’s More to That is a production of Smithsonian magazine and PRX Productions. From the magazine, our team is Chris Klimek, Debra Rosenberg and Brian Wolly. From PRX, our team is Jessica Miller, Adriana Rosas Rivera, Genevieve Sponsler, Rye Dorsey, and Edwin Ochoa. The Executive Producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzales. Fact-checking by Stephanie Abramson. Episode artwork by Emily Lankiewicz  Music by APM Music.

The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was the only unit comprised entirely of Black women to have been deployed overseas during World War II, and it had served a critical function: clearing the backlog of mail that marked the only line of communication between American soldiers in Europe and their loved ones back home. In this episode, we speak with retired Army Colonel Edna Cummings, who made it her business to get the 6888 their belated recognition, and with Smithsonian magazine senior writer Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, who wrote about Col. Cummings' quest (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-all-black-female-WWII-unit-saved-morale-battlefield-180981540/) for the March 2023 issue of Smithsonian. NOTE: In the interval since we recorded our interview with Col. Cummings, another veteran from the 6888 has died. With the passing of Crescencia J. Garcia last month at the age of 103, there are now five women who served in the 6888 during World War II who remain alive. Learn more about the women of the 6888th Central Postal Battalion at the Women of the 6888th site (https://www.womenofthe6888th.org/) . Find prior episodes of our show here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/podcast/) . There’s More to That is a production of Smithsonian magazine and PRX Productions. From the magazine, our team is Chris Klimek, Debra Rosenberg and Brian Wolly. From PRX, our team is Jessica Miller, Adriana Rosas Rivera, Genevieve Sponsler, Terence Bernardo, and Edwin Ochoa. The Executive Producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzales. Episode artwork by Emily Lankiewicz. Music by APM Music.

The Artemis program represents the pinnacle of NASA's mind-boggling technological capabilities. Learn about the groundbreaking achievements and breathtaking lunar landscapes that await us in this new era of space exploration. --- For more videos from Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/ Digital Editorial Director: Brian Wolly Supervising Producer & Scriptwriter: Michelle Mehrtens Video Editor: Sierra Theobald

At high elevations in the northern Rockies, mountain pine beetles are killing countless whitebark pine trees, a major source of food for wildlife including grizzly bears

For decades, in a tradition imported from Belgium, bowlers in Michigan have rolled their balls at feathers, not pins (Edited and produced by: Roberta Cruger)

David Burnett on His Experience Jumping Out of a Plane With D-Day Vets

This traveling exhibit reveals the mystery behind some of the women that helped shape this country's social and cultural landscape

A pirogue's eye view of the inlet at the edge of Harper. Some of the first groups of freed American slaves landed on the shores of West Africa near here. (Credit: Clair MacDougall)

A dying caterpillar's unusual reaction to a predatory bug.

Read more at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Hazel-Scotts-Lifetime-of-High-Notes.html In a performance filmed for World War II soldiers, Hazel Scott begins with a section from Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" and ends with a jazzy tune (Army / Navy Screen Magazine).

This stripy toe sock appears to have warmed the foot of a tot in the late antiquity period

Some researchers initially dismissed the remains of Palaeopascichnus lineari as teeny turds from a bygone era

Archaeologists unearthed a series of mudbrick rooms filled with religious tributes, soldiers' personal effects, engraved weaponry and animal bones

The annual award ceremony featured costumes, songs and paper airplanes as scientists recognized comedic research across ten disciplines

Kleptoparasitism, in which a bird harasses another to steal its food, might introduce avian flu to the continent, currently the only one without the severe H5N1 strain