Smart News Ideas & Innovations

The branching routes to Rome, as visualized by a design team

Cool Finds

The Many Roads That Lead to Rome, Visualized

Caveat: not all cities named Rome are in Italy

The "Great Garuda" seawall will be shaped like Indonesia's national symbol—a mythical, birdlike creature.

Cool Finds

Jakarta Is Building a Gigantic Bird-Shaped Seawall

But will the Great Garuda project be enough to save a sinking city?

Robot, baby. Baby, robot.

New Research

New Robots Could Learn Like Children

A research team is teaching artificial minds to imitate and innovate like kids do during play

Cool Finds

Explore Laos' Plain of Jars with Drone Footage

Many parts of the 2,000-year-old-site are off-limits because of Vetnam-era cluster bombs

Microplastic poses a growing concern in oceans and other aquatic habitats.

Trending Today

Five Things to Know About Congress' Vote to Ban Microbeads

Included as exfoliators in many common soaps and cosmetics, microbeads now pollute waterways worldwide

A scientist says a multispectral analysis of the Mona Lisa shows hidden portraits beneath the famous painting.

New Research

A French Scientist Says the Mona Lisa is Hiding a Portrait of Another Woman

Some art experts, however, are skeptical

Trending Today

Cities Are Letting Drivers Pay Parking Fines with Holiday Food Donations

Albany, Lexington, Boston and Tallahassee are all promoting the giving spirit

New Research

One-Fifth of Americans Are Online Almost Every Moment

Admit it. You're among their ranks.

An artist's rendition of what the Juno spacecraft will look like as it flies by Jupiter

Cool Finds

NASA Needs Your Help Snapping and Processing Images of Jupiter

The public will help direct JunoCam as it twirls past Jupiter next July

How many curls can you count?

Cool Finds

A Buddha in Japan Is Missing Half of Its Curls

What happened to the Buddha of Nara's famous 'do?

The LISA Pathfinder probe on display in September, 2015.

Trending Today

A Space-Based Physics Lab Could Help Scientists Study How Gravity Warps Spacetime

The LISA Pathfinder Probe could help reveal the ripples caused by black holes and supernovae

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Visit Machu Picchu With Google Street View

Armed with a backpack and 15 high-res cameras, Google just tackled one of the world's wonders

An electronic weapon from Taser International

Cool Finds

The Word "Taser" Comes From a Young Adult Sci-Fi Novel

Massively popular at the time, the Tom Swift books have not aged very well

Twelve decades worth of averaged yearbook portraits

New Research

Yearbook Photos Show How Smiles Have Widened Over the Decades

An analysis of roughly 38,000 high-school senior portraits shows Americans’ frowns turning upside down

Screenshot from "Fairy Lights in Femtoseconds: Tangible Holographic Plasma (SIGGRAPH)"

New Research

This Holograph Can Be Touched and Manipulated

Tiny interactive displays use lasers to create touchable plasma

Trending Today

A Brief History of Cranberries

Pucker up: Thanksgiving (and plenty of cranberry sauce) is almost here

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket takes off at the start of a test to re-land the system

Trending Today

First Reusable Rocket Launched and Landed Safely Back on Earth

Blue Origin's ship cruised to the edge of space and back in a mere 11 minutes

Cool Finds

In Brazil, Subway Reading Means a Ticket to Ride

These books encourage reading by doubling as subway tickets

New Research

A New Rose Is Part Plant, Part Color-Changing Machine

Innovation has never looked so pretty

The winning video featured hip hop dancers as farmers who put demands on the water supply

Trending Today

The Many Ways to "Dance Your Ph.D"

Once again, researchers get creative in a yearly dance competition to explain their Ph.D. thesis work

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