Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Kickstarter for Surgery Lets You Help Those in Need

A crowdfunding venture gives you a way to donate directly to people’s surgeries

Are Animal Rules for TVs And Movies Strict Enough?

The rules are extensive, but after three horses died in the filming of the HBO show “Luck,” some are wondering if they’re strict enough

Does ‘You Look Like a Sarah’ Actually Mean Anything?

Most likely, you’ve been told that your name does, or doesn’t suit you, or that you look like a “Rachel” or “Sarah” or “John,” but what does that even mean

Nearly Every American Has Had to Deal With Some Weather Disaster Since 2007

Around four out of five Americans live in a counties declared federal disaster areas in the past six years

Chins Prove There’s No Such Thing As Universal Beauty

Dartmouth researchers studied chin shapes of 180 recently deceased male and female skeletons from Australia, Africa, Asia and Europe

Educating Americans for the 21st Century

Highly Recommended: Teaching Climate Change And Evolution in Science Class

On Tuesday, United States educators unveiled a new science curriculum that includes new subjects like climate change and evolution

Genius.box Is Like a Fruit-of-the-Month Club for Awesome Science Experiments

This start up wants to deliver a new science experiment each month

Hurricane Katrina Kicked Off a Startup Renaissance in New Orleans

Within three years after Katrina, the rate of new start-up launches in the city doubled

How to Turn a Paper Image of a Record Into a Beautiful Music

You can’t make sounds from books, except when you can

Anti-Vaccine Tweets Spread Faster Than Pro-Vaccine Messages

Not all messages are created equal, and when it comes to Tweets about vaccines it’s the anti-vaccine messages that spread the fastest

Margaret Thatcher in 1984 with Ronald Reagan at Camp David.

Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher Dies at Age 87

Margaret Tatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain and first woman to lead a Western power, died today at the age of 87

A Few Rare People Hallucinate Musical Scores

Musical hallucinations are the rarest form of ‘text hallucinations’

Pick your tax haven, any tax haven.

Get Your Own Offshore Tax Haven, a Step-by-Step Guide

From $8 to $32 trillion dollars are buried in tax havens worldwide. Here’s how it works

None

Google Autocomplete Isn’t the Same in Every Country

Chronicling the ways google autocompletes your searches can be both enlightening and horrifying

Graham Crackers Were Supposed To Be a Sex Drive–Suppressing Diet Food

The original vision for graham crackers had little to do with s’mores

How That Annoying Drone From Inception Took Over Movie Trailers

There’s this weird, droney sound that nearly every action movie seems to employ. But where did it come from?

Camera Lost for Six Years Returned (Which Is Crazy Even With the Internet)

The story can tell us a lot about the durability of plastic, but it’s also an interesting look at just how connected the corners of the globe can be

An Artist’s Ode to Plankton, Set to Puccini’s ‘La Boheme’

Instead of singing to Mimi, the poet Rodolfo serenades a giant stalks of human-sized plankton wrapped in plastic pollution

Can you see the ball? It’s there!

It Snowed So Hard During This Soccer Game That Costa Rica Wants a Rematch With the U.S.

It was snowing so hard that they had to use a bright yellow ball to even see what was going on

Death Club for Hipsters Wants to Change the Way You See Dying

Called the Order of the Good Death, the club is full of artists, writers, film makers, musicians and other creative types

Page 281 of 291