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Arts & Culture

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Watch New York City Come Alive in This Amazing Timelapse

Take a sped-up tour of Midtown Manhattan and its residents, non-stop traffic and historic landmarks

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The Architecture of Superman: A Brief History of The Daily Planet

The real-world buildings that may have inspired Superman’s iconic office tower workplace

“Rainbow Ice” is a top selling flavor for Dippin’ Dots.

Is Dippin’ Dots Still the “Ice Cream of the Future”?

How founder and CEO Curt Jones is trying to keep the tiny ice cream beads from becoming a thing of the past

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The Vibrant Patterns of Portuguese Men-of-War

Beachgoers despise the stinging animals, but photographer Aaron Ansarov finds surreal beauty in them

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The World’s First Exhibition on Yoga in Art (Photos)

“Yoga: The Art of Transformation” opens at the Sackler Gallery

Designer Kate McLean creates detailed smell maps of cities around the world, such as this map of the the “Smelliest Block in New York.”

Mapping the Smells of New York, Amsterdam and Paris, Block by Block

Designer and cartographer Kate McLean charts the sweet scents and pungent odors that fill a city’s olfactory landscape

BMW Guggenheim Lab, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin

From New York to Mumbai, the Top 100 Design Trends of the Urban World

From micro apartments in New York City to the slums of Mumbai, these are the issues currently obsessing designers around the world

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Is Spaghetti and Meatballs Italian?

The classic dish can be found in red-and-white tablecloth spots across the United States, but there’s a fascinating history behind where it got its start

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How Kids’ Television Inspires a Lifelong Love of Science

Television shows for preschoolers are teaching a whole new audience about science—their parents

The score for John Cage’s indeterminate composition “Fontana Mix”

5 1/2 Examples of Experimental Music Notation

In the 1950s progressive composers broke from the 5 line music staff to experiment with new, more expressive forms of graphic music notation

When designing a Denny’s on the hip, young Freemont Street in Las Vegas, Wines decided to include a chapel, which has been a big hit with the mayor and the community. Denny’s Flagship Diner, Neonopolis, Las Vegas, NV, 2012. Architecture: SITE (James Wines, Matthew Gindlesberger, Sara Stracey, Denise MC Lee). Fabrication: A. Zahner.

Architect James Wines Talks Putting a Chapel in a Denny’s and Making Art from Garbage

The outsider architect-artist has finally wooed the establishment, winning the Copper-Hewitt’s Lifetime Achievement Award, but he’s still mixing things up

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The Story Behind the Lacoste Crocodile Shirt

A 1920s French tennis star put the little reptilian logo onto a white polo shirt

The Smithsonian Folklife Archives. (Text by Leah Binkovitz. Photo by Brendan McCabe.)

Behind the Smithsonian: The Folklife Archives

You never know what you will find amidst the 50,000 recordings in the Smithsonian’s folk music collection

Would You Eat Something Wrapped in a WikiCell?

Harvard bioengineer David Edwards believes he’s found a way to cut down on packaging waste

Michael Pollan and Ruth Reichl dine at Bell & Anchor in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Michael Pollan and Ruth Reichl Hash out the Food Revolution

Be a fly in the soup at the dinner table with two of America’s most iconic food writers

Eric, left, and Ryan Berley serve up handmade jellies, nut clusters, walnut pillows, nonpareils and other goodies.

America’s Oldest Sweet Shop Gets a Hipster Makeover

How Philadelphia candymakers Eric and Ryan Berley are giving new life to Shane Confectionery

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“Pineapple”

A new poem by former poet laureate Billy Collins

Dwight Henry at his Buttermilk Drop Bakery in New Orleans.

Yeasts of the Southern Wild

Maker of the “world famous buttermilk drop,” New Orleans actor Dwight Henry is expanding his baking empire

The Amazing Grace of Underwater Portraits

Photographer Henrik Sorensen takes a fluid approach to the body in motion

As part of the Star Songs project, X-ray emissions from the EX Hydrae system (above, near center)—in which one star pulls matter from its partner—are converted into music.

How to Convert X-Rays From A Distant Star into Blues, Jazz and Classical Music

A vision-impaired scientist, her coworker, and a composer team up to transform light bursts from stars into rhythms and melodies

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