Honeycreepers. A new genomic study from Smithsonian scientists traces honeycreepers’ explosive diversification to the formation of O’ahu millions of years ago, offering fresh insight into a group of birds now facing one of the steepest extinction rates in the world. Smithsonian Magazine

Six Decades Ago, a Boy Stole Medieval Tiles From an English Monastery. He Just Returned the Illicit Souvenirs A ghoulish face and a graceful dragon decorate the broken clay tiles from the late 13th century or early 14th century. They were found tucked in an old toffee tin Smithsonian Magazine

Coexistential Evolution — three presences aligned for an instant in the fading light: root, motion, and gaze. In this brief stillness, every form seems aware of the other, as if evolution pauses to reveal its simplest truth: understanding. Photograph Bojnourd, Iran Arezoo Arianpour / Smithsonian

A win for Nature. An example set by Scotland Scottish gannet chick hunt blocked for first time in 400 years NatureScot refuses licence for hunt on Hebridean island of Sula Sgeir in which up to 2,000 seabirds are killed : Guardian

About 700 years ago, an old woman found a strange wooden board floating in the sea. When it became too heavy to carry, she left it on a rock. After that, ships passing nearby began to sink, and disasters struck the area. It is said that people offered a dance to appease the god’s anger. worldphoto

Marie-Line Dentler Another World This image depicts an ice cave in Iceland. World Photography Otganisation

Catherine Wang The Bridge Glenn Kaino’s aerial sculpture, Bridge, consists of 200 golden arms hanging from the ceiling of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC, USA. World Photography Org

Tania Shcheglova This four-day-old lamb is part of the photographer’s visual manifesto of optimism, and kindness, ‘it serves as a gentle reminder that, love exists, and we can choose light over darkness in a cultural climate saturated with collapse, trauma and fragmentation.’ worldphotography.org

Remove a shark from the ocean, and the ecosystem changes. Remove a sea turtle, and the ecosystem changes. Remove whales, and the ocean changes. But one species has changed the planet more than any other. Humans.

Humpback Whales Swimming Underwater

ALT: Humpback Whales Swimming Underwater

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Alpha Female Award 2026 Winner. World Photography Organisation Unexpected Crossing Fiona Stappmanns At Sand River in Kenya’s Maasai Mara, from the opposite bank, an elusive black rhino emerged and began to cross the river alone, an unexpected moment for the photographer.

Lady of the Lake, 1st Place, National Awards, Lake Bled; Slovenia Meshaal Alwahdi, Kuwait - SONY WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS This image at Lake Bled, Slovenia, features three of the area’s iconic buildings: the Church of the Assumption, the Bled Castle and St. Martin’s Parish Church.

Kabul ‘This project is my way of giving our people a voice, through their dignity, their beauty and their humanity. A reminder that behind every headline is a reality far more human than what we are shown. And that sometimes, all it takes is a shift in perspective to see it’ Daniel Malikyar

Nangarhar ‘In a rural village in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, there’s a group of boys who have developed their own sense of style. The Pashai people, have created an identity that feels entirely their own, there are always youth cultures that go against the grain,’ Daniel Malikyar

Afghanistan has remained largely invisible to the world. Photographer Daniel Malikyar, the son of Afghan refugees, offers an insight into the beauty of his homeland and ventured independently to remote regions and communities that were rarely photographed. Daniel Malikyar is published by teNeues

The Nature of Time (2026) and Place Charcoal, wax and oil on linen, 104 x 109 cm. ‘I often return to Tasmania to paint, drawn by the clarity of southern light and the way it falls across a land that’s cool, damp and dense with life,’ says Melbourne-based artist Melissa Kenihan.

The clothing of local women in Iran has a special harmony and homogeneity with the environment. The colors are inspired by nature and become a bridge to connect the female body with nature that is the supplier of these colors and the heart of nature. #color #women #iran Photo : Ershad Mazloomi

Trill (2025) by Melbourne-based miniature artist Natasha Bieniek works with small scales because it ‘requires the viewer to slow down and observe.’ My painting reflects the psychological and physical need for nature in dense in er city environments.’ Illustration: Natasha Bieniek : Guardian

What does protest look like in 2026? | cartoon by Fiona Katauskas So, in answer to the headline question, protest in 2026 looks like you and me. That is a few individuals online encouraging positive change The Guardian

Unveiling the History and Renaissance of Native Tattoos From the Paleolithic era to the present, the resurgence of Native cultural pride has re-emerged though ancient tattooing practices Smithsonian Magazine

Archaeologists Discover Two Thumbnail-Size Bird Sculptures Carved From Mammoth Ivory 40,000 Years Ago Measuring less than an inch long, the figurines were buried beneath Germany's Hohle Fels Cave, where some of the world's oldest known figurative artworks have been found Smithsonian Magazine

Journalist Persephone Miel never met me, but when she asked the Pulitzer Center to administer the Miel Fellowship, she had someone like me in mind. A female journalist of color, living in the Global South, and had yet to see her stories about her country published in international news outlets.

Male Baltimore Orioles migrate here in the spring and stay until August. #nature #wisconsin Photo Detail Date Taken: 05.2025 Date Uploaded: 10.2025 Photo ; Andrea Petersen / Smithsonian Magazine

Daniel Malikyar: ‘When the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 I was six. Growing up in America, the war shaped my childhood. I was called a terrorist. When I went home, I was surrounded by beauty, culture, history, food, a place that felt completely disconnected from what most people believed it to be’

Australia’s Notorious Shipwreck Tells a Story of Murder, Slavery and, ‘Surprisingly Sophisticated’ Trade. When the Dutch East India Company’s flagship “Batavia” sank in 1629, it went down with large, carved sandstone blocks in its hold, shedding light on trade at the dawn of global capitalism

The internal analysis viewed by The Narwhal included summaries of information sessions held by the Environment Ministry, where stakeholders expressed concern about the lack of accountability mechanisms for protecting at-risk species like the caribou. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

In This Bee Species, Why Do Some Daughters Leave Home While Others Stay ‘Bee-hind’ to Help Mom? Biologists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute investigated a flexible social bee species, which helps shed light on the evolution of more complex organizational structures among other insects

Those who plant a tree, raise it, care for it, and tend to it will never suffer want, for they carry within themselves the knowledge of how to bring new life into the world time and again. The difference between wanting to possess and creating. Some gather fruit, while others plant forests.

See the New Frank Gehry Building Rising From the Shore of the Persian Gulf in Abu Dhabi to House a Global Art Collection Officials just announced a December opening for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the long-awaited fourth installment in the Guggenheim Foundation’s lineup of art museums Smithsonian

This Pacific Island Disappeared Under Rising Seas. A New Sculpture Marking the Spot Will Morph Into a Home for Seabirds, Coral and Marine Life “The Solomon Siren” remembers Kale Island, submerged a decade ago in the Solomon Islands Smithsonian Magazine

Symmetry, Shortlist, Latin America Regional Awards, Costa Rica ALVARO CUBERO VEGA, COSTA RICA - SONY WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS Courtesy Forbes