This newly-released annual report charts progress in FAO's work with the private sector in 2022. It highlights developments across FAO's portfolio of private sector engagements, documents major achievements and lessons learned [...]

The monthly FAO publications updates produced by the Publications Branch of the FAO Office of Communications are available in English, French and Chinese.

The newsletters highlight key publications available [...]

Must we choose between food security and climate neutrality? How do we make sure food imports are safe? How do low-income countries move up the food [...]

Did you know? The Publications and Library branch and the FSN Forum are teaming up to provide Forum participants with additional references and resources to raise awareness on topics of their contributions.

Who does what 

The Global Forum on Food [...]

In this workshop, we will explore the role of innovation in supporting traditional practices that conserve agricultural heritage systems.  

Traditional agricultural practices, often rooted in the local communities and the knowledge [...]

The monthly FAO publications updates produced by the Publications Branch of the FAO Office of Communications are available in English, French and Chinese.

The newsletters highlight key publications available [...]

Sometimes, in fact, nature is stranger than fiction

In 1925, an Alaskan adventurer and his trusted Siberian husky completed a grueling 600-mile journey across the frozen plains. Their exploits would end up saving the lives of 2,000 people.

Who’s afraid of the dark? Our Ask Smithsonian host Eric Schulze is here to explain the illuminating science behind night vision.

Photographer David Burnett focused his camera on the many tourists who flocked to Florida in 1969 to watch the launch of Apollo 11 (Produced by Molly Roberts; Photographs by David Burnett/Contact Press Images)

Henry Ford was a genius who virtually created the automobile industry as we know it. But what's less lauded was his talent for publicity—and his ability to partner with other pioneers such as Ohio's Harvey Firestone.

While Thomas Edison is best-known for inventing the lightbulb, it's often forgotten that he also set up the world's first movie studio, in Fort Lee, New Jersey

Much more than you’d think – and it’s whirling around at dangerously high speeds

The answer depends on how you feel about cluster headaches

It depends on which variety of boomerang you're using. Our host Eric Schulze has more

Scientists have created thin polymer sheets that expand and contract when in contact with water

Our skin is an endlessly complex organ. Luckily, in this one-minute video, our Ask Smithsonian host Eric Schulze is here to explain exactly what happens after you get a scrape.

Coffee - it's a staple of American life, and inside the vaults of the National Museum of American History, they know the secret to its wide spread success: packaging

Take a virtual tour of the Kangaroo Conservation Center in Dawsonville, Georgia

How did a god fearing church-goer like Lizzie Borden become a suspect in the gruesome crime of the century? Her inconsistent account, and an eerie nonchalance, immediately damaged her credibility with investigators.

In 1967, a horrific fire broke out during a routine pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at Cape Kennedy, Florida. It would claim the lives of three NASA astronauts

Our host, Eric Schulze explains how 1 + 1 = 0 when it comes to sound

The water torture cell escape was arguably Houdini’s most memorable stunt. So much so that many people wrongly assume it killed him–a myth invented by the 1953 movie about his life starring Tony Curtis.

A crow named Icarus uses a short tool to extract a long tool, which he then uses to fish out a piece of meat.

In this time-lapse video, watch how workers built a visitor’s center in South Africa using ancient Roman techniques such as the arched ceiling, or vault

To find out, we need to get down to the basics. Eric Schulze explains

Fallow deer are the first species outside of primates to be able to make auditory discernment of social dominance

Hours after the Titanic sank, news organizations latched onto a telegraph message that seemed to say that the ship and all its passengers had been rescued. It would turn out to be a tragic case of fake news.

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)

When plasma falls to the surface it results in a dazzling display known as coronal rain

It's 1933 and Mae West is just arriving at Grauman's Chinese Theater for the premiere of I'm No Angel. It draws fans from all over the country—as well as an organized protest from conservative religious groups.

Take an animated tour of the future Giant Magellan Telescope

In 1619, George Yeardley, the newly appointed governor of Jamestown, made history: He convened 22 elected members of a burgeoning commonwealth, creating the first democratic assembly in America.

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

Primatologist Tetsuro Matsuzawa studies chimps in hopes of uncovering how they learn and communicate

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.

Christopher Nolan's epic new film "Oppenheimer" is no mere biopic… nor is it the first attempt to capture the father of the atomic bomb in fiction. We look at prior dramatizations of this very complicated man—including one wherein J. Robert Oppenheimer played himself!—and examine why they worked or didn't. In this episode: Physicist-turned-photographer Minesh Bacrania shares his experience photographing inside the top-secret labs at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where J. Robert Oppenheimer and other scientists created the first nuclear weapon. Next, with Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer exceeding commercial expectations, Smithsonian magazine writer Andy Kifer discusses the complexities of Oppenheimer's genius and how prior attempts to depict him in film and television and on stage have fared. Read Andy Kifer’s “The Real Story Behind Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer” here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-history-behind-christopher-nolans-oppenheimer-180982529/) . See Minesh Bacrania’s photographs of Los Alamos and read Smithsonian senior editor Jennie Rothenberg Gritz’s text here (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/exclusive-behind-scenes-look-los-alamos-lab-where-robert-oppenheimer-created-atomic-bomb-180982336/) or in the July/August 2023 issue of Smithsonian. Original release date: July 27, 2023 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, Genevieve Sponsler, Adriana Rozas Rivera, Terence Bernardo, and Edwin Ochoa. The Executive Producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzales. Episode artwork by Emily Lankiewicz. Music by APM Music.

Honeybees get a caffeine buzz and memory boost when they drink coffee nectar

On March 10, 1933, a major earthquake caught the Los Angeles area by surprise. The devastation was of sufficient scale to spur scientific interest in earthquakes—and how to predict them.

Gemini 8 was in trouble. After completing the first space docking with another craft, it begins to spin uncontrollably. Ditching protocol, commanding officer Neil Armstrong tries an unorthodox plan.

Section by section, demolition crews are slowly exploding the Elwha River dam

The holiday was used as a call for freedom during the civil rights movement and as a day of mourning by Native Americans.

By the 1930s, the black middle class had arrived, with the purchasing power to match. Sensing an opportunity, developers established Idlewild: a summer resort aimed exclusively at African-Americans.

Use #physnobel on Twitter to submit your questions. The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics will be announced on Tuesday, October 7. Join guests Charles Day of Physics Today, Andrew Grant of Science News, Jennifer Ouellette of Cocktail Party Physics and Amanda Yoho of Starts With A Bang! as they discuss predictions for possible winners. Who are the best contenders, and who are the potential "dark horse" candidates? Which major physics finds of this year might stand a shot at a win in the future? Victoria Jaggard and Helen Thompson of Smithsonian.com will be your hosts for the event. Tune in on October 2, and submit your questions on Twitter. Charles Day is the Online Editor for Physics Today magazine. Follow him on Twitter @CSRDay Andrew Grant is the physics reporter for Science News magazine. Follow him on Twitter @sci_grant Jennifer Ouellette is a science writer and blogger at Cocktail Party Physics. Follow her on Twitter @JenLucPiquant Amanda Yoho is a graduate student in theoretical and computational cosmology at Case Western Reserve University and a blogger at Starts With A Bang! Follow her on Twitter @mandaYoho Victoria Jaggard is the science editor for Smithsonian.com. Follow her on Twitter @vmjaggard99 Helen Thompson is a science reporter for Smithsonian.com. Follow her on Twitter @wwrfd