The Earliest Bike Design Is Getting a Modern, Electric Reboot
What would early bike designers think of this Tron-like reboot of their classic wheels?
Behold! The World’s First One-Handed Zipper
After a lot of trial and error, inventor Scott Peters has made a no-fuss magnetic zipper
The Phone That Helped Andy Carvin Report the Arab Spring is Now in the Smithsonian
The NPR reporter talks about how he was able to factcheck tweets amid the rush of information in 2011
Franken Berry, the Beloved Halloween Cereal, Was Once Medically Found to Cause Pink Poop
The red dye used in the popular breakfast cereal resulted in several cases of the benign condition
When Will We Hit Peak Garbage?
Projections indicate that the global rate of trash production will keep rising past 2100—a concern because waste can be a proxy for environmental stresses
The Emoji Show Is Gathering Emoji Based Art
Like the selfie, the emoji has faced its fair share of derision. But as more and more people use the little icons they’re finding more acceptance
Celebrate National Candy Corn Day By Making Deep-Fried Candy Corn
Whether you love or hate candy corn, it’s probably worth knowing how it’s made and where it came from
This Drone Hunts Down Apple Disease
These drones are striking against a different kind of enemy: apple scab
These Spectacular Cutaways Give You An Insider’s View of Your Food
Nathan Myhrvold and a team of photographers have sliced meats, vegetables, pots, pans and ovens in half to produce stunning cross-sections of cooking
Dell Laptop Users Weren’t Crazy, Their Keyboards Really Did Smell Like Cat Urine
Some users speculate that polymers could have been to blame, though others pointed to nitrogen, one of the main components of urine
Salvador Dali Suffered From the Irrational Fear That Insects Were Crawling All Over His Skin
The condition is almost always accompanied by tactile hallucinations of crawling sensations and visual hallucinations of the non-existent insects
5 High-Tech Ways to Scare Anyone This Halloween
Forget spaghetti for brains and grapes for eyeballs, these ultra-realistic props will take fright night to whole new level
Love These Stories? Give 11 Issues of Smithsonian This Holiday for Only $12
Save 81% off the cover price
This Beautiful Chapel in Czermna, Poland, Is Constructed Out of Thousands of Human Bones
Shin bones decorate the ceiling, skulls line the walls and over 21,000 bodies are buried in the basement
Watch a Tick Burrowing Into Skin in Microscopic Detail
Their highly specialized biting technique allows ticks to pierce skin with tiny harpoons and suck blood for days at a time
This Eagle Statue Is One of the Greatest Romano-British Artworks Ever Discovered
Archeologists in London just turned up a pristine 1,800-year old Roman statue of an eagle devouring a serpent
About Deep Time: A Preview of the Natural History Museum’s Fossil Hall Renovation
The new Deep Time Hall will connect paleontology to modern life
Our Brains Evolved to Recoil at the Sight of Snakes
Around 60 million years ago, our primate ancestors figured out that the sight of a snake meant trouble
A Family Tree of You And Your 13 Million Closest Relatives
A big data project to connect all the people
Animal Specimens, From Fish to Birds to Mammals, Get Inked
Inspired by Japanese fish rubbings, two University of Texas biologists make spectacular prints of a variety of species at different stages of decay
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