Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Arts & Culture

The telegraph key used to send the famous message “What Hath God Wroght” over the prototype telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C. in 1844

How the Telegraph Went From Semaphore to Communication Game Changer

Samuel Morse was an artist by trade, but to the world he’s best known for connecting the dots —and dashes— that forever changed the way we communicate

Defrosting the Crests of Inca City, LAT: -81.5° LONG: 296.3° “The nature of this polygonal network, unique on Mars, remains poorly understood, but seems to be linked to volcanic dykes covered by eolian sand. These terrains are close to the South pole and undergo springtime defrosting in dark patches that become progressively larger as temperatures climb,” writes geophysicist Nicolas Mangold in This is Mars.

This Is Mars in Extremely High Resolution

French designer Xavier Barral pored over 30,000 images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera, selecting the most appealing for his book

None

Cast Your Vote for the 2013 People’s Design Award

What represents the best in design?

Artist Nickolay Lamm’s depiction of a polar-grizzly hybrid

What Would a Cross Between a Polar Bear and a Grizzly Really Look Like?

As climate changes and Arctic sea ice melts, species shift habitats and may interbreed. Lamm digitally manipulates photographs to imagine these hybrids

Crab leg and imperial fungus dim sum

How to Make (and Where to Eat) the Best Dim Sum

One woman’s love of dim sum takes her to Hong Kong, where she tries her hand at making the bite-size cuisine

Worried about your kid's Halloween candy being poisoned? Don't be.

Where Did the Fear of Poisoned Halloween Candy Come From?

The answer, as always, is to blame the media

Why do we associate popcorn with the movies?

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Why Do We Eat Popcorn at the Movies?

The movie theater’s most popular concession wasn’t always associated with the movies—in fact, it used to be explicitly banned

A calcified flamingo, preserved by the highly basic waters of Tanzania’s Lake Natron and photographed by Nick Brandt

This Alkaline African Lake Turns Animals into Stone

Photographer Nick Brandt captures haunting images of calcified animals, preserved by the extreme waters of Tanzania’s Lake Natron

Oto Gillen, “untitled, (Vanitas),” 2007, traditional chromogenic print, mat board, UV glass, mahogany, screws

Snack on This: One Curator Has Devoted a Whole Show to Pizza Art

What is it about that slice of cheesy goodness that makes it such an appealing subject for these artists?

Saint Coronatus joined a convent in Heiligkreuztal, Germany, in 1676

Switzerland

Meet the Fantastically Bejeweled Skeletons of Catholicism’s Forgotten Martyrs

Art historian and author Paul Koudounaris elucidates the macabre splendor and tragic history of Europe’s catacomb saints

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

None

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

None

Where Did Yodeling Originate and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked our experts, we got the answers

None

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

None

“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

None

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

Page 201 of 368