Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Charles Darwin: sailor, scientist, beard aficionado.

Cool Finds

In the Victorian Era, Doctors Prescribed Beards to Help Keep Men Healthy

The mid-19th century beard boom was motivated, in part, by health concerns

Cool Finds

The Science of Cooking a Perfect Hard-Boiled Egg

It’s all about temperature and timing

Trending Today

Staying Near Home Becomes the Norm For Millennials

With finances tight and jobs scarce, hometowns are looking very attractive

New Research

Kids And Young Adults Don’t Read Books for Fun — They’ve Got Smartphones

Three times as many kids as in the 1980s just don’t read books

Protesters in front of the Nigerian Embassy in London.

Trending Today

Boko Haram Video Says What the Group Wants in Exchange for Freeing Abducted Girls

If let go, they have a good chance of being able to recover emotionally

A page from Traité des couleurs servant à la peinture à l’eau

Cool Finds

This 300 Year Old Book Is a Guide to Every Paint Color Imaginable

Browse through color swatches from the 17th Century

Cool Finds

This Radio Station Broadcasts All Over the World, But Only at Breakfast Time

Global Breakfast Radio operates in every time zone on the planet

Cool Finds

Society Doesn’t Quite Know What to Make of Professional Snugglers

One snuggling operation in Wisconsin recently shut down when authorities thought it was a front for a brothel

In Mexico, parasitic corn fungus makes for a great tortilla filling.

Cool Finds

Five Parasitic Species People Love to Eat

From tapeworms to lampreys, some people don’t mind eating the bloodsuckers

Adam West as Batman, c. 1966

Trending Today

It’s the 75th Anniversary of Batman’s Creation

What’s the source of Batman’s lasting appeal?

Cool Finds

Michelangelo’s David Has Weak Ankles

The iconic statue may be in danger of collapse

Campbell's by Andy Warhol

Cool Finds

It Took Three Years to Restore 23 Pieces of Art Andy Warhol Made on a Computer in the 1980s

Trapped in an obsolete computer format, these works are finally seeing the digital light of day

A wolf-dog (left) and a mastiff.

Cool Finds

New Hampshire Has Too Many Wolf-Dogs

Are they domesticated pets or wild animals?

Pistols equipped with silencers, confiscated from drug dealers.

Cool Finds

Sales of Gun Silencers Have Shot Up Nearly 37 Percent Last Year

Proponents argue that they make firearms safer; others say it’s just the opposite

New Research

Facebook Users Most Often Unfriend People They Knew From High School

And how does that make the victim of the unfriending feel? Surprised, usually

Elvis back stage after a show at the New Frontier Hotel

Cool Finds

Elvis’ First Big Vegas Show Was a Total Flop

Playing to the middle-aged crowd at the New Frontier Hotel, Elvis’ first Vegas show didn’t go over so well

Cool Finds

When Museum Specimen Get Infested With Bugs, Curators Have to Freeze Them

Freezing and heating can oftentimes keep invertebrate enemies at bay

Cool Finds

These MRI-Scanned Fruits And Vegetables Unfold Like Alien Births

An MRI technologist’s hobby turns every-day foods into something new and intriguing

 Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Trending Today

How Gabriel Garcia Marquez Became a Writer

Marquez attributed his writing to drawing as a child…and Franz Kafka

Page 260 of 290