As the British marched towards the White House, the first lady ordered a portrait of George Washington to be saved

Feeling blue? Try watching this one-minute video. Our Ask Smithsonian host, Eric Schulze, explains how colors affect our moods.

Forensic anthropologist Doug Owsley discusses the skeletal specimens in a new exhibit at the Natural History Museum (Meredith Bragg). Read more at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/meet-the-scientist-who-reads-bones-40315000/

Carleton Watkins' 19th-Century Photographs of Yosemite Valley (Produced and Narrated by: Brendan McCabe. Text by Bruce Hathaway). Read more at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/john-muirs-yosemite-10737/

Capturing a piece of an asteroid and bringing it to Earth is even more difficult than it is time-consuming. After four years in space, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx craft made a brief landing on the asteroid Bennu to collect samples of the ancient rock. Six months later, part of the spacecraft began its journey home to Earth, and earlier this fall, that sample collection canister landed, via parachute, in Utah. Scientists will be studying those samples of Bennu for decades in the hope of unlocking the mystery of how life on Earth began — but they’ve already learned enough to get them excited. In this episode, we speak with Linda Shiner, the former editor of Air & Space / Smithsonian magazine, about the challenges and triumphs of the OSIRIS-REx mission, and what scientists hope it will teach us about how life on Earth began. 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. Fact-checking by Stephanie Abramson. Episode artwork by Emily Lankiewicz. Music by APM Music.

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

Two Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority railcars were added to an artificial reef off the coast of Georgia to create more wildlife habitat

The noisy-but-shy bird, known as the hoiho, has earned the most votes for a second time amid threats to its survival

When the blaze in Moscow subsided on September 18, 1812, the French—who had traveled hundreds of miles into Russia—were left without vital resources as a brutal winter approached

Due to a drought in Eastern Europe, the scuttled German vessels are reemerging 80 years after they disappeared beneath the river's surface

More than 250 years after a teenage Mozart wrote "Serenade in C," a copy of the piece has surfaced in the collections of a German library

An acoustic survey in 2018 and new analysis with A.I. suggest the sounds are vocalizations from the elusive Bryde’s whale

In 1858, the mountain was named for a Confederate general. Now, it will once again be known as "Kuwohi"

While no written records exist, new research has illuminated key details of the battle fought in northern Germany during the 13th century B.C.E.

Researchers recently identified James Fitzjames, a captain on the ill-fated HMS Erebus that went looking for the Northwest Passage in 1845

Scientists sent bioengineered heart tissue samples to the ISS to study how to keep astronauts safe during future long-term space travel

New research has revealed that the mysterious white substance found alongside three ancient mummies was once a soft cheese called kefir

Researchers say burying wood could be a viable method to prevent carbon from reaching the atmosphere

The world’s slowest mammal is at risk of extinction by the end of the century due to their low metabolic rate and climate change

A SpaceX mission arrived at the International Space Station with two astronauts instead of four to leave room for NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore on the return trip in early 2025

The long-term loan is the latest agreement Yemen has made with a museum in order to protect its cultural heritage amid ongoing civil war

Earth's highest peak has gained as much as an extra 165 feet in elevation as the planet's crust adjusts due to erosion from a river, according to a new study

While expectations are high for some special sightings, experts warn that comets are notoriously fickle and unpredictable

The small town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, is one of the only sources of high-purity quartz on Earth, but it has been left battered by the storm's heavy rains

While the annual shower usually makes for a sleepy showing, it has been known to produce fantastic outbursts in the past

The newly restored "Charing Cross Bridge," which once hung in the politician's drawing room, is now on display at London's Courtauld Gallery

A new analysis suggests that the piece was created by several artists working in the Italian Renaissance painter's studio—and that Botticelli himself may have worked on important details

A new exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History combines satellite observations and historical data to offer a "larger-than-life look" at our planet's climate today

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS should be visible to the naked eye as it passes Earth on its way out of our solar system

"Frida: Beyond the Myth" aims to paint an intimate portrait of the artist through dozens of works created by Kahlo and photographs taken by her loved ones

Predicted to bring the northern lights as far south as parts of California and Alabama, a large coronal mass ejection from the sun collided with our planet Thursday morning

The Gestapo seized the Impressionist painting from storage after its owners fled from their home in Vienna. Now, the piece has been returned to their granddaughters

A new study sheds light on the muscular, dexterous appendage, suggesting trunk wrinkles are more important than many people realize

The quest drew thousands of curious participants hoping to solve a series of elaborate riddles—and win a bejeweled statue worth an estimated $165,000

Across the country, revelers are dressing in costumes and gliding across bodies of water on stand-up paddleboards to ring in the spooky season

The notorious predators, nicknamed the “Man-Eaters of Tsavo,” terrorized railway workers in Kenya for roughly nine months

While the Orionids, peaking early Sunday and Monday, might be hard to see because of the waning gibbous moon, these zippy meteors can produce long "trains" that last up to several minutes

Identified as an Arctic fox, the animal is believed to have been kept in captivity far from its native habitat in the tundra. Now, it's receiving care from wildlife officials

Authorities have not yet identified the cause of death for the 12.5-foot-long shark, which was named Koala

This year, celebrants will likely be channeling characters from hit franchises like "Beetlejuice," "Inside Out" and "Deadpool"

Scurvy diagnoses in Australia and Canada suggest doctors should consider testing for vitamin C deficiency in patients experiencing poverty, food insecurity and social isolation

Called M136279841, the value belongs to a rare class of prime numbers called Mersenne primes and was found using a supercomputer system spread across 17 countries

A special committee has until January 15 to finalize the design, location and funding for a monument that will be erected on the lawn of the South Carolina State House

The banana duct-taped to a wall was created to be a "reflection on what we value." An upcoming auction may deliver an answer

A team of roboticists, paleontologists and biologists are building robots to simulate crucial evolutionary developments that can’t be tested with static fossils

Ai-Da creates art using A.I. algorithms, cameras and robotic arms. Her abstract painting will be the first-ever artwork made by a humanoid robot to be sold at Sotheby's

After a summer that tied for the country's hottest, meteorologists say an unusually warm autumn is delaying snowfall

Introduced in 1934, the federal duck stamp contest has raised more than $1.2 billion and protected at least 6.5 million acres across the nation. Now, an art exhibition at Connecticut’s Bruce Museum honors the competition’s history

The deep penetrations suggest that the feline was pressing its claws into the clay, a behavior sometimes known as "making biscuits"

A new exhibition spotlights the Spanish artist's printmaking talents, which he began honing in his 20s. In the decades that followed, he produced thousands of breathtaking creations