Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News

None

The First French Winemakers Learned Everything They Knew From Etruscans

New research pins the arrival of wine making in France to around 525 B.C.

None

The Man Who Coined the Word ‘Sack’ in Football Dies at 74

For a long time, a quarterback’s greatest fear was David “Deacon” Jones

Laughing? Crying? Reveling in your pain? Possibly all of the above.

Even 4-Year-Olds Feel Schadenfreude

And it turns out that kids as young as four experience that weird glee of seeing someone trip and fall

None

German’s Longest Word Is No More

Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften, or an insurance company that provides legal protection, is now the language’s longest word

None

Some People’s Feet Are More Ape-Like Than Others’

One in about 13 people have more floppy feet, pointing toward a bone structure more akin to that found in fossils of 2 million-year-old human ancestors

None

This Is an Actual Photo of a Planet in Another Solar System

This is a planet, 300 light years away, as seen through the Very Large Telescope

Legendary Human-Eating Bird Was Real, Probably Could Have Eaten People

In Maori legend, Te Hokioi was a giant bird that preyed on children, and science says that’s probably the truth

None

Why It’s Okay To Be So Upset Over Yesterday’s Game of Thrones

The emotional bonds we forge with fictional characters can be just as real as those with real people

None

To Measure Elephant Obesity, One Researcher Assesses Pachydermal Butts

It turns out that it’s really hard to figure out if an elephant is fat

If You Must Kill That Spider, The Best Way Is To Freeze It

The next time you see an eight legged friend that you’d rather not be friends with, here’s the best way to kill it

None

Without Vaccines, Hundreds of Children in Pakistan Have Died From a Measles Epidemic

Health workers hope the arrival of 11 million vaccines in June will get the epidemic under control, though some families are suspicious of the shots

None

This Robot Can See Faces in Clouds: Is It Using Its Imagination?

Meet Cloud Face, a face-detection algorithm that can look at pictures of cloud and detect ones that look like human faces

Planetary Resources president Chris Lewicki stands next to the Arkyd space telescope.

A Space-Based Telescope for the People Wants Your Support

An asteroid mining company wants your money to put a satellite telescope that you can control into space

None

The Bra Is Being Reinvented

Customers determine their cup size by trying on plastic cups reflecting the bra shape and measuring their rib cage

The chemical rearrangement of oligo-(phenylene-1,2-ethynylenes) as seen in the microscope image (top) and the stick diagram of the molecular structure.

For the First Time, See What the Most Basic Chemistry Actually Looks Like

For the first time scientists used a microscope to see a chemical reaction

Google Will Now Tell You the Nutrition Information for Foods

Google can now bring up nutrition information for certain foods you search

None

Where Will Japan Get Wheat Now That It’s Rejecting America’s GMO-Tainted Crops?

Worried about genetically modified wheat found in the U.S. supply, countries are suspending their imports of U.S. wheat

Britain Will Decide If Badger Culling Is Humane Based on the Noises the Dying Animals Make

The similarities between how the shot badgers thrash about compared to harpooned whales will also be factored in

If You Have a Medical Emergency on a Plane, Chances Are a Fellow Passenger Will Treat You

Only 0.3 percent of people who have a medical emergency on a plane die mid-flight or shortly after landing

None

The Ancient Egyptians Had Iron Because They Harvested Fallen Meteors

Modern chemical analysis confirms that ancient Egyptians used iron from meteorites

Page 1044 of 1132