Sidedoor

When the Smithsonian’s Richard Kurin learned that a museum curator found hair inside a Bible in the Smithsonian’s collections, his own hair stood on end. This wasn’t just any Bible. It was Thomas Jefferson’s personal Bible. Could the hair belong to Jefferson? If so, it might help resolve one of the oldest and most contested questions in American history: Was Thomas J...

Beetles make up a quarter of all known animal life on Earth. A QUARTER! Beetles are everywhere, doing almost everything. From eating flesh off skeletons to making poop disappear, these little buggers make the world a lot less gross for the rest of us… and look cool doing it. With a little help from the Smithsonian’s beetle experts, we’ll discover why these tiny powerhouses ar...