The Crab Pulsar, located in the Crab Nebula, is one of the celestial bodies Mickey Hart has translated into music.

Former Grateful Dead Drummer Mickey Hart Composes Music from the Sounds of the Universe

Hart teams up with a Nobel Prize-winning cosmologist to translate light and electromagnetic waves into octaves humans can hear

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Exploring Alien Life, Cat Science and More New Books to Read

Our book reviewer looks at Red Cloud’s feat and the romance of hot air

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Where Did Yodeling Originate and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked our experts, we got the answers

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Inside America’s Great Romance With Norman Rockwell

A new biography of the artist reveals the complex inner life of our greatest and most controversial illustrator

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“Secure Speech Cipher System”

A new poem by Linda Bierds

Carlos, by Joseph Rodriguez: a sense of ownership of the city

An Exploration of Latino Art at the Smithsonian

Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough previews a new exhibit at the American Art Museum

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The Muppets Take the Smithsonian

Elmo, Fozzie Bear, the Count, Miss Piggy and 17 other Jim Henson puppets are coming to the American History Museum

Martin Klimas captures “Sonic Sculptures” of songs by setting paint atop a speaker and cranking the volume. Above: “Time,” by Pink Floyd.

The Sounds of Pink Floyd, Daft Punk and James Brown, As Expressed by Flying Paint

Photographer Martin Klimas sets paint atop a speaker and cranks the volume, snapping shots as the boom of music pulses paint into the air

Osmia chalybea, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia

Bee-utiful! The Stinging Insect Gets a Close-Up

Biologist Sam Droege’s sharply-focused photographs of bees, used for identifying different species, make for fine art

The Pepsi Pavilion at Expo ’70

When PepsiCola Allowed a Team of Artists to Wreak Creative Havoc

In 1970, the soft drink company commissioned artists, musicians, and engineers to design an interactive pavilion that could disappear in a puff of smoke

These Tattoos Honor Lost, Not-So-Loved Species

To overcome how people tend to care only about cute endangered animals, Samantha Dempsey designed and distributed temporary tattoos of ugly extinct species

A creative mind at work?

What Your Messy Desk Says About You (It’s a Good Thing)

Recent research suggests that working in a sloppy setting may actually help inspire creative thinking

A display of whole wheat bread at the Washington State University-Mount Vernon Bread Lab, in Blue Hill, New York

Ask Smithsonian 2017

What Makes Whole-Grain Bread So Hard to Bake?

We asked bakers for their tips on how to get consistently excellent whole wheat loaves

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What’s Eating Us About That “Hauntingly Beautiful” Chipotle Ad

Beyond the scarecrow and the conveyer belts, where is the line between truth and fiction in the viral video?

Hairy woodpecker (Picoides villosus)

Diana Beltran Herrera’s Flock of Paper Birds

We are not talking origami here. The Colombian artist has created paper sculptures of more than 100 species, and they are startlingly realistic

But… the rum’s gone!

How to Eat Like a Pirate on International Talk Like a Pirate Day

While we all have a communal sense of how pirates talked, our sense of how pirates ate lies, by comparison, in uncharted waters

“Sonic Bloom,” a solar sculpture at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle

Energy Innovation

Sonic Bloom! A New Solar-Powered Sculpture

Dan Corson’s latest installation in Seattle—flower sculptures that light up at night—show that solar energy is viable even in the cloudy Pacific Northwest

Oceanographer Gareth Lawson, who studies pteropods, was able to identify Kavanagh’s sculptures to species, such as this Limacina helicina.

The Gorgeous Shapes of Sea Butterflies

Cornelia Kavanagh’s sculptures magnify tiny sea butterflies—ocean acidification’s unlikely mascots—hundreds of times

An aerial view of the PepsiCo World Headquarters in Purchase, NY

The Architectural History of Pepsi-Cola, Part 2: Edward Durell Stone and the Corporate Campus

Employee morale rose but architecture critics were repulsed upon the opening of the company’s new campus in Purchase, New York

Photographer Kieran Dodds has temporarily taken over the Smithsonian magazine Instagram account.

Six Questions With Photographer Kieran Dodds

The photojournalist talks about his Bionic Man assignment and what his plans are for taking over our Instagram account

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