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How Benh Zeitlin Made Beasts of the Southern Wild

The Oscar nominee for Best Director transformed filmmaking as he assembled a new myth out of Hurricane Katrina

Because cooking chores often fall to women, they are among the primary victims of smoke-related illnesses.

Open-Fire Stoves Kill Millions. How Do We Fix it?

Pollutants from crude stoves are responsible for many deaths – a D.C.-based NGO has a solution

The doodle that became Twitter

8 Ways People Are Taking Twitter Seriously

Born in desperation and long mocked, the social media platform has become a popular research and intelligence-gathering tool

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The 2012 Smithsonian American Ingenuity Awards Liveblog

Follow along as we award the best innovators of the year

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Shopping Gets Personal

Retailers are mining personal data to learn everything about you so they can help you help yourself to their products.

Are you ready for some travel?

10 Ways Travel Is Getting Better

Sure, it can get aggravating, but here are some innovations that are making it easier and more enjoyable to take a trip

A dark Manhattan after Superstorm Sandy

Can We Ever Stop Worrying About Blackouts?

Only if utility companies are able to make their power grids smart enough to spot outages and “heal” themselves

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The Sharing of the Screens

Get ready for the day when your big screen and your small screens work together to connect you with shows and products.

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We Can Bank Online. Why Can’t We Vote Online?

Voting experts David Becker and Thad Hall discuss the technologies that could forever change the way we register and cast our votes

Can a brain be Republican or Democrat?

Are Your Political Beliefs Hardwired?

Brain scans suggest Democrats and Republicans actually are different biologically. Welcome to the world of political neuroscience.

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Should Cities Prepare For the Worst?

Is the crippling of New York City enough to motivate other cities to protect themselves against extreme weather?

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Tracking the Twists and Turns of Hurricanes

Incredibly powerful supercomputers and a willingness to acknowledge that they’re not perfect has made weather scientists become much more effective in forecasting hurricanes.

According to author Kevin Dutton, psychopaths have a distinct set of personality characteristics. Pictured is Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho.

The Pros to Being a Psychopath

In a new book, Oxford research psychologist Kevin Dutton argues that psychopaths are poised to perform well under pressure

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Turning Your Hand Into a Remote Control

A Microsoft prototype called Digits could put the power to control everything from TV screens to smart phones in a device you wear on your wrist

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Take That, Cancer!

The war on cancer has been going on for more than 40 years. Here are 10 small—and maybe not so small—victories scientists have had this year

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One Step Closer to a Brain

It sounds funny, but when Google created a huge computer network that was able to identify cats from YouTube videos, it was a big leap forward for artificial intelligence.

Meet the Qube drone, specially designed for police departments.

Drawing the Line on Drones

A lot of police departments will soon have their own flying robots. How far should they be allowed to go in shooting video from the sky?

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The Trouble With Trees

Here are 10 things scientists have learned about trees this year. Thanks to climate change, it’s not a pretty picture.

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Patient, Heal Thyself

Cutting-edge research in regenerative medicine suggests that the future of health care may lie in getting the body to grow new parts and heal itself.

A rally round the flag in Washington

Can You Change Your Political Beliefs?

New research suggests that most people may not be as committed to their moral principles as they think they are

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