Lillian Ali

5 days ago | smithsonianmag.com | Lillian Ali

Over two decades, Tim Friede has injected himself with snake venom hundreds of times, and subjected himself to more than 200 bites. Now, scientists are working on an antivenom derived from his antibodies After enduring some 200 snakebites and hundreds more venom injections, one man’s blood may be the key to a universal antivenom. Over about two decades, Tim Friede has allowed venomous snakes to bite him hundreds of times, including Egyptian cobras, black mambas and diamondbacks.

1 week ago | smithsonianmag.com | Lillian Ali

A new exhibition celebrates the often-overlooked endpapers of more than 50 works of children’s literature ranging from the mid-20th century to the present day If you look inside the front and back of the nearest hardcover book, you’ll probably see colored or decorative endpapers holding the pages to the covers. More than structural necessities, these endpapers serve as prime real estate for maps, engravings and illustrations, particularly in children’s books.

1 week ago | smithsonianmag.com | Lillian Ali

New discoveries in the Dominican Republic suggest sebecids roamed the Caribbean as recently as 4.5 million years ago, long after they vanished from South America After dinosaurs went extinct, South America was dominated by large, crocodile-like reptiles called sebecids. Measuring up to 20 feet in length and bearing rows of sharp, serrated teeth, sebecids roamed the continent before disappearing from its fossil record around 11 million years ago.

2 weeks ago | smithsonianmag.com | Lillian Ali

A silkscreen print of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands may have been put to the trash in a renovation, along with dozens of other works Tens of thousands of dollars in artwork may have ended up in the trash during a town hall renovation in the Netherlands. The southern Dutch municipality of Maashorst released a letter Thursday admitting that they “most likely” threw out the 46 missing artworks following the construction project last year.

2 weeks ago | smithsonianmag.com | Lillian Ali

The most recent State of the Air report by the American Lung Association found that more than 150 million Americans breathe air with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution Since 2000, the American Lung Association has released an annual State of the Air report analyzing air quality data across the United States. This year’s report, released on Wednesday, found the highest number of people exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution in a decade.