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Arts & Culture

A Scottish Duke Transformed This Abandoned Coal Mine into a Cosmological Land-Art Park

A scarred landscape in rural Scotland has become a grassy multiverse now open for exploration

Aymara people prepare an offering to Mother Earth during the sunrise of the winter solstice ceremony in La Apacheta, El Alto, on the outskirts of La Paz.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

In Bolivia’s High-Altitude Capital, Indigenous Traditions Thrive Once Again

Among sacred mountains, in a city where spells are cast and potions brewed, the otherworldly is everyday

These islands in Peru are made by villagers, who form the "land" beneath their houses out of reeds.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Visit These Floating Peruvian Islands Constructed From Plants

The Uro people who live on Lake Titicaca have been building their own villages by hand for centuries

Angel Salvatory, 17, left, poses with her mother Bestida, right, and one-year-old brother Ezekial, at the Kabanga Protectorate Center. People with albinism are in danger from a black market in albino body parts driven by traditional beliefs, black magic and witch doctors. Bestida recounts how Angel’s father had wanted to attack their daughter ever since she was three-months-old. “He thought if we would take Angel to a witch doctor as a sacrifice that we could get rich,” says Bestida. She managed to talk him out of it for years until one day a group of men came armed with machetes. Despite surviving her father’s attack, Angel died of skin cancer in 2013.

Where Albinism Means Being Targeted for Murder or Dismemberment

Elsewhere in the world, people with albinism are at high risk for blindness and skin cancer. In Tanzania, the threats are much more severe

Lebanese-British singer-songwriter Mika performs atop a piano at Fabrique in Milan this June.

Is There a ‘Gay Aesthetic’ to Pop Music?

From Elton John to Mika, the “glam piano” genre may be as integral to the Gay American experience as hip-hop and the blues are to the African American one

A woman waits to participate in the annual silleteros' parade.

A Parade of Bright Flowers in a City With a Dark Past

Farmers carried 500 dazzling flower designs through the streets of Medellín, Colombia

A curious visitor walking toward the Bobur artwork at the tenth Archstoyanie festival.

At “Russia’s Burning Man,” Strange Structures Transform Villages

The beautiful, bizarre structures of the Archstoyanie festival are made of natural materials and help bring economic prosperity to small villages

Robert Frost by Clara Sipprell, gelatin silver print, 1955.

Poetry Matters

What Gives Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” Its Power?

A Smithsonian poet examines its message and how it encapsulates what its author was all about

Meryl Streep's a better actress than singer, but that works to her advantage in the film.

What “Ricki and the Flash” Gets Wrong About the Life of a Musician

The new Meryl Streep vehicle is the latest in a long history of movies about bar singers

Debris still litters Durbar Square in Kathmandu, seen in June 2015.

New Research

Why the Nepal Earthquake Was Especially Bad for Cultural Sites

The major quake sparked a resonance in the basin that made taller buildings more likely to topple

A wasp larva perches on its hapless spider host.

New Research

Parasitic Wasps Turn Spiders Into Zombie Weavers

Arachnids injected with a potent neurotoxin are forced to create shiny new web cradles for wasp larvae

Dried fruit powder will keep for up to two years.

Swedish Designers Are Turning Fruits and Veggies Into a Nonperishable Powder

The dried and powdered produce, called FoPo, could become a staple in disaster relief

Curly or straight, hairstyles are "a personal expression of beauty."

New Research

Curly Hair Science Is Revealing How Different Locks React to Heat

A mechanical engineer tackles the understudied problem of how to style curls without frying hair

What Is a Personal Food Computer?

A farm the size of a desktop could change the way we grow food in cities

What Should You Look for When Buying Olive Oil?

Cold-pressed? From Greece or Spain? What really matters when getting your EVOO

Legos Go Sustainable, and Everything (Really) is Awesome

To reduce its carbon footprint, the toy company is searching for a sustainable material for its bricks by 2030

Screenshot from "A Wild Hare"

What Gives Bugs Bunny His Lasting Power?

From the moment of his first “What’s Up, Doc?” in 1940, the trickster hare has topped the list of great cartoon characters

Airplanes that never flew and a parade of early automobiles now inhabit the grand exhibit hall of the Arts et Métiers museum, once the home of the medieval Saint-Martin-des-Champs monastery.

Europe

The Best Little Museum You Never Visited in Paris

The Museum of Arts and Crafts is a trove of cunning inventions

What’s the Deal With Google’s Sidewalk Labs?

The tech giant’s first move in urban planning is installing Wi-Fi hubs throughout New York City. Next, it could take on inefficiencies in public transit

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