Colin Schultz

2 months ago | smithsonianmag.com | Colin Schultz |Sarah Kuta

Ernest Shackleton made three trips to Antarctica—and died while attempting a fourth. But the Irish British polar explorer is best known for his 1914 expedition aboard the ship Endurance, which he led in a bid to make the first land crossing of the White Continent. That trip ultimately ended in disaster, with the Endurance getting trapped in pack ice and, eventually, sinking to the bottom of the Weddell Sea. Miraculously, Shackleton managed to save himself and all 27 members of his crew.

Jan 21, 2025 | smithsonianmag.com | Colin Schultz |Carlyn Kranking

For more than 150 years, scientists have debated whether Prototaxites—which stood roughly 24 feet tall and 3 feet wide—were an early lichen or fungus, like a “giant mushroom” When land plants were still the relatively new kids on the evolutionary block and the world’s tallest trees reached only a few feet in height, giant spires of life poked from the Earth.

Nov 5, 2024 | smithsonianmag.com | Colin Schultz |Meilan Solly

The historical timeline you keep in your head might not be as accurate as you think As early as 1096, teaching had already started in Oxford, England, setting the stage for the establishment of the oldest university in the English-speaking world.

Aug 2, 2024 | smithsonianmag.com | Colin Schultz |Ellen Wexler

For nearly two decades leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin was a boarder in a house at 36 Craven Street in London. The future founding father left his English home and returned to America in 1775. Two centuries later, bones from more than a dozen bodies were found in the basement, where they had been buried in a mysterious, windowless room beneath the garden.

Jan 16, 2024 | smithsonianmag.com | Colin Schultz |Sonja Anderson

The blobfish—that frowning pile of goop up there—was once crowned the world’s ugliest animal. The run-off was led by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society. In 2013, the Ugly Animal Preservation Society chose the blobfish as its champion for all the animals out there whose unappealing visages garner them less support then their cute and cuddly brethren.