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Arts & Culture

Looking up into a skyscraper for bees, designed by students at the University of Buffalo

Why are Honeybees and Skyscrapers Sweet for Each Other?

It’s not just about the honey. The humble honeybee is starting to play a greater role in the design of urban living

One of this year's contenders for the People's Design Award.

Vote for the Winner of the 2013 People’s Design Award

Make your design voice heard by voting for this year’s nominees

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Coming Soon: The Sifang Art Museum

A first look at the 15,000-square-foot space being built outside of Nanjing, China

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A New Poem: “Argument from Design”

American poet David Yezzi’s latest composition

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Why David Hockney Has a Love-Hate Relationship With Technology

A new retrospective highlights the artist’s two, seemingly opposite passions

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What Is Al Pacino’s Next Big Move?

For six years, the actor who made his mark as Michael Corleone has been obsessing over a new movie about that ancient seductress Salome

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The Art That is Hidden in Plain Sight

A Milan-based artistic duo uses color to reveal a series of dreamlike panoramas concealed in white light

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What Your Favorite Book Looks Like in Colors

An artist reveals how each book has its own unique color spectrum

The Ramos gin fizz gets its frothy top from several minutes of vigorous shaking.

Slurred Lines: Great Cocktail Moments in Famous Literature

Fancy drinks like the Gimlet and the Brandy Alexander have high class histories

Valley of the Reclining Woman

Carl Warner’s Mountains Are Made of Elbows and Knees

The British photographer creates convincing landscapes—deserts and rocky scenes—by piecing together photos of nude models

Red Mural, by Amber Hasselbring

A Butterfly Species Settles in San Francisco’s Market Street

Two advocates track Western tiger swallowtails through the city and use art to encourage residents to think of the fluttering creatures as neighbors

Firefly (Photinus pyralis)

Biomimetic Design Means We’ll All Be Living A Bug’s Life

Researchers and designers looking to nature for inspiration have literally one million reasons to reveal the secrets of insects

Food service crew workers

Eating on the March: Food at the 1963 March on Washington

Organizing an event that large was a formidable task in and of itself. Tackling the issue of handling food for the masses was another issue entirely

Optical art

These Patterns Move, But It’s All an Illusion

What happens when your eyes and brain don’t agree?

Sprites over Red Willow County, Nebraska, on August 12, 2013

Scientists Capture Rare Photographs of Red Lightning

Graduate student Jason Ahrns and colleagues hunt the skies for sprites—fleeting streaks and bursts of color that can appear above thunderstorms

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A History of 1945, Discoveries at Sea, Ben Franklin’s Sister and More Books Worth Your Read

Some of the best books to put on your reading list

Still from an animation illustrating the concept behind BIG’s design for Lego House

BIG Plans for a Lego Museum in Denmark

Some architects played with Legos as a child. And some never stopped playing with them

Bottles of imported sake line the shelves at True Sake, in San Francisco. Soon, the small retail shop will begin carrying sake made in America.

Can You Taste the Difference Between American and Japanese Sake?

Sake has been brewed for thousands of years in Japan. Now, American brewers are starting to make sake—but is it any good?

The seemingly simple coffee cup sleeve represents the genius of design.

How the Coffee Cup Sleeve Was Invented

The cardboard sleeve became the ubiquitous finger-saver for coffee fanatics everywhere

The patent that ignited the dreams of generations of architects

Lego Architecture Studio Brings Modernism to the Play Room

The childhood toy becomes an architect’s dream come true

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