Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

This Book Is Bound in Lab-Grown Jellyfish Leather

Clean Meat, a history of cellular agriculture, is the first book with a lab-grown leather cover

Why This Film Based on a 16th-Century Poem Has Sparked Violent Protests in India

The controversy around Padmaavat centers around its depiction of a legendary Hindu queen

This Newly Digitized 16th-Century Planisphere Is the Largest-Known Early Map

Explore continents, islands and unicorns with scholar Urbano Monte’s epic map that’s been digitally pieced together by Stanford’s David Rumsey Map Center

Cover art for sheet music from the original Tabasco opera, 1894.

Long-Forgotten Opera About Tabasco Sauce Heats Up Stage Again After Almost 125 Years

Thanks to some musical sleuthing, George W. Chadwick’s ode to the now ubiquitous hot sauce brand has been revitalized by the New Orleans Opera

Artist J. Howard Miller produced this work-incentive poster for the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company. Though displayed only briefly in Westinghouse factories, the poster in later year has become one of the most famous icons of World War II.

Women Who Shaped History

The Unsung Inspiration Behind the “Real” Rosie the Riveter

Historians pay tribute to the legacy of Naomi Parker Fraley, who died Saturday at 96. In 2015, she was linked, circumstantially, to the We Can Do It poster

Why a Collection of Simone de Beauvoir’s Love Letters Was Just Sold to Yale

The 112 letters were written to filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, who had a seven-year relationship with the French philosopher

This woman won't do justice to the smell of this peach when she describes it to a friend later.

New Study Suggests Lifestyle Shapes Our Ability to Name Odors

In the Malay Peninsula, researchers compared the vocabulary of the Semaq Beri hunter-gathering population and the Semelai, who are horticulturalists

Trove of Rare Stephen King Books Destroyed in Flood

The author said he was ‘horrified’ to hear about the loss

Close-up image of mural depicting the battle in Phra Ubosot, Wat Suwan Dararam, Ayutthaya, Thailand.

Thailand Drops Charges Against Historian Who Questioned the Facts Around Historic 16th-Century Duel

Sulak Sivaraksa cast doubt on whether the legendary King Naresuan had really defeated an adversary while riding an elephant

Tracey Crouch, who will oversee issues related to loneliness and isolation in the U.K.

Trending Today

The U.K. Now Has a “Minister for Loneliness.” Here’s Why It Matters

Tracey Crouch will oversee the government’s efforts to tackle “the sad reality of modern life”

These Billboards Could Be the First to Feature Immersive Virtual Reality Drawings

Tandem billboards on Sunset Boulevard play host to a fascinating new public art installation

The Hill of Montmartre with Stone Quarry (1886)

Newly Identified Vincent van Gogh Drawings Go on Display

The two works were drawn during the artist’s formative years in Paris

A "mobile multifonction" or "mobile" in action.

France Says ‘Au Revoir’ to the Word ‘Smartphone’

Hoping to prevent English tech vocabulary from entering the French language, officials have suggested ‘mobile multifunction’ as an alternative

The 910-carat diamond discovered in Lesotho

Cool Finds

World’s Fifth-Largest Diamond Found in Lesotho

The 910-carat gem is a D-color, type-IIa stone, meaning it is completely colorless and has no visible impurities

In August, protesters defaced Central Park's statue of J. Marion Sims, a 19th-century doctor who performed surgery on enslaved women without their consent

Controversial Statues in New York City Will Remain in Place With Added Historical Context

The J. Marion Sims statue is the only one the Mayor de Blasio task force recommended to be moved. It will go to the Brooklyn cemetery where he is buried

Arthur Miller in his study, Roxbury, Connecticut, 1987.

Arthur Miller’s Vast Archive Comes to the University of Texas at Austin

The collection includes a wealth of material, from theatrical manuscripts to personal memorabilia

Riley, future bug-cop.

Trending Today

Meet Riley, the Puppy Training to Sniff Out Bugs in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts

The Weimaraner will inspect incoming artwork for beetles, moths and other critters that can damage museum collections

Runaway Sprinkles from the Museum of Ice Cream Create ‘Environmental Hazard’ in Miami Beach

Here’s the scoop: officials are worried that the museum’s fake sprinkles will get washed into oceans and eaten by marine creatures

A woman peers out of a residential complex at the women-only Taconic Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, New York, in 2012.

New York Directive Restricts Inmates’ Literature Options

A pilot directive affecting three New York State prisons stipulates that inmates can only receive packages from six approved vendors

Some jewels are on display at the 'Treasures of the Mughals and the Maharajahs' exibithion, at Venice's Doge's Palace, in Venice, Italy, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018.

Indian Jewels Swiped From Venice Museum in “Movie-Worthy” Heist

The thieves reportedly deactivated the alarm system and walked off with the goods in broad daylight

Page 168 of 286