A pile of letters wait to be loaded in a sorting machine at a USPS processing and distribution center.

Have Bad Handwriting? The U.S. Postal Service Has Your Back

Don’t worry, your Christmas gifts and cards will make it to their destination, even if your writing looks like chicken scratch

Making Sugar Twice as Sweet

An Israeli startup has invented a process to coat inert particles with sugar molecules, tricking the tongue into thinking food is sweeter

Everybody Loves Lists

Our Top Ten Stories of 2015

From treasures buried in glaciers to the racial history of a vanished city in Oregon, here are the most-read stories on Smithsonian.com this year

Farmigo relies on a decentralized system of neighborhood organizers and pickup locations.

Smart Startup

It’s Like Uber, But for Farmers’ Markets

A startup called Farmigo is trying to create a better food system for both eaters and farmers

The hydrogel bends and flexes like human skin.

Introducing the Band-Aids of the Future

MIT engineers are developing a “smart” bandage that can monitor and deliver drugs to a wound

The robotic arms move across the range, cooking and cleaning.

This Robot Will Make You Dinner

Moley Robotics is developing a robotic kitchen that can prepare a meal from start to finish—cleanup included

Metal microlattice

This Metal Is 99.9 Percent Air

A new metal “microlattice” is strong yet incredibly light, lending itself to a wide variety of aerospace, automotive and medical uses

Dot is an affordable active Braille smartwatch.

A Smartwatch for the Visually Impaired

Developed by University of Washington students, Dot translates texts, tweets and e-books to Braille

Kids test out the new 1,700-square-foot Wegmans Wonderplace at the National Museum of American History.

How the Smithsonian Hopes to Turn Infants, Toddlers and Young Children Into Museumgoers

The National Museum of American History opens its new “Wonderplace,” a space for the youngest members of the family

Teen Inventors Create Live Closed-Captioning Glasses for the Deaf

Seventeen-year-old Daniil Frants and his buddies hope to help the hard-of-hearing engage in naturally flowing conversations

Researchers are developing voice-training apps specifically for the transgender population.

How Transgender Women Are Training Their Voices to Sound More Feminine

Does striving for some ideal female voice just reinforce stereotypes?

Why Would a Race Car Driver Invent Speeding Cameras?

The irony of speeding cameras is that they were invented by a Dutch race car driver, former Monte Carlo Rally winner Maurice Gatsonides. Here’s why

Stanford Scientists Create an Algorithm That Is the “Shazam” For Earthquakes

The popular song-identifying app has inspired a technique for identifying microquakes in the hopes of predicting major ones

The Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia undergoes a scanning process for the creation of a 3-D model.

In Another Giant Leap, Apollo 11 Command Module Is 3-D Digitized for Humankind

Five decades after Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins journeyed to the moon, their spaceship finds a new digital life

In transcranial magnetic stimulation, a magnetic device placed near the skull delivers painless pulses to the brain.

Could Magnets Help Treat Drug Addiction?

A new study suggests transcranial magnetic simulation could reduce cravings in cocaine addicts

The IVF pups were more than 30 years in the making.

New Research

These Baby Beagles Are the First Dogs Born by In Vitro Fertilization

After more than 30 years, scientists have figured out how to create healthy puppies in the lab

In this artistic reconstruction, a pod of Albicetus travel together through the Miocene Pacific Ocean, surfacing occasionally to breathe.

A Moby-Dick Emerges from the Smithsonian Collections

The rediscovery of a fossil whale, previously believed to be an extinct walrus, is reexamined and digitized

Smart Startup

College Football Fans, Here Is a Vacation Rental Site for You

Looking for lodging near Penn State? How about Ole Miss? Notre Dame alum Mike Doyle wants you to “Rent Like a Champion”

The mockup of a Heat Harvest-enabled table

One Day, Your Cup of Coffee Could Charge Your Phone

A pair of students has proposed the idea of embedding furniture with pads to absorb latent heat and convert it into electricity

Installing the RFID tags

This Danish City is Giving Bikers the Green Light

In a pilot program underway in Aarhus, Denmark, cyclists are given RFID tags that trigger traffic lights in their favor

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