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Smart News / Smart News Ideas & Innovations

To create her dazzle camouflage design, Auerbach used a process known as marbling, or swirling pools of ink on paper to generate fluid patterns

Art Meets Science

NYC Fireboat Rebranded in Vibrant Dazzle Camouflage to Commemorate WWI

Vessels cloaked in clashing colors, patterns attempted to confuse U-boat commanders by distorting their perception of a ship’s speed, size and location

"Wheat Field with Cypresses," based on Vincent van Gogh

Art Meets Science

This Is What Robotic Art Looks Like in 2018

The 2018 RobotArt competition fielded more than 100 submissions entered by 19 teams from all over the world

A look inside the VR experience

Take a VR Tour of an Egyptian Queen’s Elaborate Tomb

The resting place of Queen Nefertari, the favorite wife of Ramses II, is largely closed to visitors, but it can now be explored virtually

Obscured by tarnish and miscellaneous defacements, the plates offered no trace of the images they had once held

Art Meets Science

Particle Accelerator Reveals Hidden Faces in Damaged 19th-Century Daguerreotype Portraits

Using an experimental X-ray fluorescence process, researchers mapped contours of the plates and produced digital copies of images previously lost to time

The two surviving northern white rhinos, a mother and daughter, are both infertile

New Research

With Hybrid Embryo, Scientists Are One Step Closer to Saving the Northern White Rhino

Hybrid embryos were created using northern rhinos’ frozen sperm, southern rhinos’ eggs

Koala populations are expected to drop by 50 percent over the next 20 years

New Research

Newly Mapped Koala Genome Unlocks Secrets of Marsupial’s Diet, Susceptibility to Chlamydia

The cuddly creatures can survive on a diet of high-toxin eucalyptus leaves thanks to detoxifying genes

Fabergé Silver Elephant Automaton Royal Collection Trust

Automata History Comes Alive in the ‘Marvellous Mechanical Museum’

The new exhibition at Compton Verney features a Fabergé elephant with swinging trunk and a gigantic kinetic sculpture by Rowland Emett

Cool Finds

New Evidence Smashes Assumptions of Crushing Death for Pompeii Skeleton

Researchers found the intact skull of the skeleton that made headlines for being pinned beneath a giant stone block

The goal, Ruth Jarman says, is to “transcend the data so that it becomes something else"

Art Meets Science

‘HALO’ Makes Art Out of Subatomic Particle Collisions at Art Basel

The site-specific installation by British artist duo Semiconductor revisits the universe’s first moments

Researchers examined 400 photographs and 100 paintings dating between 1500 and 2015

Art Meets Science

Why Artists Have so Much Trouble Painting Lightning

A new study compares painted versus photographed depictions of lightning bolts’ offshooting branches

Recordings are available via Soundcloud and the Google Arts & Culture platform

How to Hear the Met’s Historic Instruments’ Singular Sounds

New audio recordings by the museum feature roughly 40 instruments, from Ming dynasty lute to the world’s oldest surviving piano

Greaves and her team state that there is a one in 10,000 chance or less that the connection is due to chance

Space Nanodiamonds Found to Be Source of Some Cosmic Microwave Radiation

The diamond dust in protoplanetary discs may solve a decades-old astronomical mystery

The app opens a 'portal' that allows users to step into a series of immersive AR experiences

Virtual Travel

Step Into Scotland With Immersive AR App

Portal AR allows users to traverse Britain’s highest peak, roam the halls of Edinburgh Castle and enjoy whiskey at Highlands distillery

Future of Art

High-Tech Scanning Shows Picasso’s Blue Period Evolution

A new study of “La Soupe” reveals it underwent as many as 13 layers of revision

Artist's rendering of the futuristic community, which is set for development over the next five years

Europe

Netherlands Will Welcome Its First Community of 3D-Printed Homes

Five concrete houses designed to look like “erratic blocks in a green landscape” will populate Eindhoven community

Explore Google’s Sweeping Retrospective on Frida Kahlo’s Life and Legacy

‘Faces of Frida’ lets visitors interact with paintings, letters, photographs and other artifacts connected to the iconic artist

Seattle’s Iconic Space Needle Unveils New Look After $100 Million Renovation

The update allows visitors to experience 360-degree views of the city from the observation deck

The inscription unveiled when the tape was removed

Future of Art

Tape-Removing Gel May Be a Game Changer for Art Restoration

The newly developed hydrogel helps dissolve tape adhesive, one of the stickiest challenges for art conservation and restoration experts

American South

Brush up on Your Scuba Certification—This Florida Museum Is Entirely Underwater

The Underwater Museum of Art will permanently exhibit seven sculptures in the Gulf coastal waters off Walton County, Florida

California becomes the first state to require new homes to include solar panels.

California Now Requires Solar Panels on Most New Homes

It is the first state to implement a solar panel requirement

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