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An artist renders the proposed master plan of Masdar City.

Building the World’s First Carbon-Neutral City

Masdar City, near Abu Dhabi, boasts green buildings, a fleet of electric cars and massive solar arrays. But will the experiment work?

With ambient-light and motion sensors onboard, the Alba bulb will know when it should turn on—and just how bright it should be.

Tech Watch

This Smart Lightbulb Adjusts To You

Armed with motion and ambient light sensors, Stack’s Alba bulb learns and follows your patterns

Zero Mostel in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Six Things You May Not Have Known About Fiddler on the Roof

As the acclaimed musical turns 50 years old this week, relive the tradition with these interesting factoids

In The Neighborhood Tour, Michael Vasquez says he is telling the story of a boy who grew up without a father.

Six Artists In Search of Themselves

With drama, theater, magical realism and a twist of the absurd, these artists give the self-portrait a makeover

Revelers celebrating Oktoberfest Brisbane

Best Places to Celebrate Oktoberfest Other Than Munich

If drinking beer and eating schnitzel alongside 6 million people doesn’t appeal to you, here are places to celebrate while avoiding Munich’s crowds

Art Meets Science

Secretive Victorian Artists Made These Intricate Patterns Out of Algae

A new documentary profiles Klaus Kemp, the sole practicioner of a quirky art form that is invisible to the naked eye

The corner in downtown Hartford where the first pay phone was installed

The Pay Phone’s Journey From Patent to Urban Relic

The history of the device that is well on its way to becoming, well, history

Ai sits in a replica of the prison cell in which he was detained in 2011. No one in China, he has said, "has a solid belief or trust in society."

Why is Ai Weiwei Breaking Into Alcatraz?

China’s most controversial artist selected America’s most notorious prison as the home for his new show

Nigerian photographer Solomon Osagie Alonge is the subject of a new exhibition at the African Art Museum. He took this self-portrait in 1942.

The Man Who Reclaimed Photography from Colonialism’s Grasp

A new exhibition at the African Art Museum honors Chief S.O. Alonge, the first Nigerian court photographer during colonial times

A standard 10-hole Hohner harmonica.

Industrial Espionage and Cutthroat Competition Fueled the Rise of the Humble Harmonica

How a shrewd salesman revolutionized the instrument industry

The Sahara, the world’s largest non-polar desert, may be at least 7 million years old.

New Research

The Sahara Is Millions of Years Older Than Thought

The great desert was born some 7 million years ago, as remnants of a vast sea called Tethys closed up

Dale William Nichols. American, 1904-1995. McCormick Reaper, circa 1945. Oil on canvas.

Impressionism Into Modernism: Crafting America’s Unique Style of Art

After the Civil War, Americans became more interested in European art—and creating a kind of art completely their own

Blood-sucking kissing bugs carry the parasite that causes Chagas disease, a malady that plagues some 9 million people in Latin America.

New Research

A Blood-Sucking Foe Lurks in Central American Caves

Kissing bugs, which can spread Chagas disease, turned up positive for human blood meals in caves in Guatemala and Belize

Eleanor Roosevelt leans forward from the back seat of the Roosevelt car to catch a comment from her husband, Franklin, as they campaign for his fourth term as president.

Ken Burns’ New Series, Based on Newly Discovered Letters, Reveals a New Side of FDR

In “The Roosevelts”, Burns examines the towering but flawed figures who really understood how character defined leadership

#AskaCurator Day brings the museum to you, so get your questions ready!

Get Your Burning Questions Answered, It’s #AskaCurator Day

More than 700 museums, galleries, theatres, and more across the globe are taking to Twitter to answer your queries about, well, anything

Blue crabs crawl inside a bushel on a boat off the coast of the Smith Island town of Tylerton, Maryland.

Anthropocene

In 100 Years, Maryland’s Crab Cakes Might Be Shrimp Cakes

Rising temperatures and a more acidic ocean may spell trouble for the Chesapeake Bay’s iconic crabs, oysters and fish

As soon as Wonder Woman appeared in Sensation Comics, beginning with her cover debut in 1942, she caused a stir. "Wonder Woman is not sufficiently dressed," one bishop groused.

The Surprising Origin Story of Wonder Woman

The history of the comic-book superhero’s creation seven decades ago has been hidden away—until now

Sorry, rover. Planting a garden will have to wait.

Four Handy Tips for Growing Your Garden on Mars

Is it possible to have a green thumb on the Red Planet? Perhaps, after you’ve mastered a few space gardening tricks

Sparks fly during construction of Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History west wing renovation.

Peek Behind the Scenes to Preview the New West Wing at the American History Museum

After years of renovations, the museum begins a reopening of some of its galleries next summer

A Persian calligraphy that developed in 14th-century Iran, nasta'liq, is the focus of a new exhibition at the Sackler Gallery. The script in this work dates to the early 1600s.

Long Before Emojis, the Picassos of Persian Calligraphy Brought Emotion to Writing

The world’s first exhibition devoted to nasta’liq, a Persian calligraphy, is now on view at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

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