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The American Plan to Build Nuclear Power Plants in the Ocean

This ill-advised scheme would have put gigantic barges just off the Atlantic coast? Where would it have started? New Jersey, of course

The AirWaves mask by Frog Shanghai

How to Survive China’s Pollution Problem: Masks and Bubbles

The air quality in China’s biggest cities is famously atrocious, but designers think they may have found a way to combat the issue

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Snakes in a Frame: Mark Laita’s Stunning Photographs of Slithering Beasts

In his new book, Serpentine, Mark Laita captures the colors, textures and sinuous forms of a variety of snake species

Actress Louise Brooks with bob and bee-stung lips, 1920s

The History of the Flapper, Part 4: Emboldened by the Bob

New short haircuts announced the wearers’ break from tradition and boosted the hairdressing industry

From a chain of Los Angeles drive-ins in the 1940s, “good food is good health.”

10 Vintage Menus That Are a Feast for the Eyes, If Not the Stomach

From the late-19th century to the 1970s, restaurants had one surefire way of standing out

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The Dead Woman Who Brought Down the Mayor

Vivian Gordon was a reputed prostitute and blackmailer—but her murder led to the downfall of New York Mayor Jimmy Walker

George crawls into a pneumatic tube which will transport him to Mr. Spacely’s office (1963)

George Jetson Navigates a Series of Tubes

Travel by pneumatic tubes? The idea was seriously considered in the 1960s

Women from Gee’s Bend work on a quilt during the 2005 ONB Magic City Art Connection in Birmingham, Alabama’s Linn Park.

A River Bend Community Set To Music: Gees Bend Jazz Symphony

Artists are making sweet music using history and museum collections as inspiration

On Wednesday, legendary Taiko drummer Kenny Endo performs a mix of traditional Japanese music and original jazz with Japanese flute player and drummer Kaoru Watanabe.

Events February 26-28: A Garden Scavenger Hunt, Japanese Flute and Drums and Author Taylor Branch

This week, get active in Smithsonian’s gardens, jam out to jazz on traditional Japanese instruments and meet the author of The King Years

The challenge is to figure out how all that wiring works.

Mapping How the Brain Thinks

The White House wants to fund a huge project that would allow scientists to see, in real time, how a brain does its work

High temperatures and high levels of humidity reduce the human body’s ability to do work.

Climate Change is Reducing Our Ability to Get Work Done

Increased temperature and humidity have already limited humankind’s overall capacity for physical work—and it will only get worse in the future

The human heart

Growing New Hearts Without Using Embryonic Stem Cells

A different type of stem cell—one used in asexual reproduction—can create new heart muscle tissue without raising ethical questions, new studies show

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Artificial Wetland Uses Bacteria to Clean Pharmaceuticals From Sewage

By harnessing bacteria to do the heavy lifting, a way to clean pharmaceuticals from waste water

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What Damage Could Be Caused by a Massive Solar Storm?

An enormous solar storm could short out telecom satellites, radio communications, and power grids, leading to trillions of dollars in damages, experts say

Brace Yourselves, the Drought’s Not Close to Over Yet

Unless we get a lot of rain, soon, the U.S. is heading for another summer of drought

Meals in a Jar: From Pancakes to Baby Back Ribs, Just Add Water

Ready-made meals, good for months on a pantry shelf, work for busy nights, camping trips and power outages

An experimental 3D representation of the nebula IC 1396

Amazing Astrophotography Lets You See Nebulae in 3D

Gorgeous animated gifs give depth to stunning nebulae

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Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

The Story of How An Artist Created a Genetic Hybrid of Himself and a Petunia

Is it art? Or science? With DNA, Eduardo Kac pushes the limits of creativity and ethics

Ice melt in Greenland will significantly affect water levels throughout the world, most of all the equatorial Pacific and South Africa.

Melting Polar Ice Will Spike Sea Levels at the Equator

Expect higher sea levels in the equatorial Pacific and lower ones near the poles by 2100, according to new research

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With Biodesign, Life is Not Only the Subject of Art, But the Medium Too

Artists are borrowing from biology to create dazzling “biodesigns” that challenge our aesthetics—and our place in nature

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