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Smart News / Smart News Ideas & Innovations

A symbol that existed on typewriters is now a hallmark of the internet age

A Decade Ago, the Hashtag Reshaped the Internet

From humble origins, this ancient punctuation mark has gained new life as a symbol to connect us all on social media

Metin Eren recreates ancient arrowheads to see how they respond when fired with bows like this

This Lab Replicates Weapons to Reveal Stone Age Feats of Engineering

A Kent State archaeologist is testing the innovative engineering of the Clovis people, one of the earliest communities to inhabit North America

An early adding machine, c. 1890, invented by William Seward Burroughs, grandfather of the beat writer.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

How America’s First Adding Machine is Connected to ‘Naked Lunch’

William Seward Burroughs (no, not that one) was the first man to invent a commercially practical calculator

Today, the Mayo Clinic is a well-known research hospital.

One of the World’s Most Famous Hospitals Was Originally a Makeshift Tornado Relief Clinic

You could say the first Mayo Clinic was a dance hall that had been converted into a makeshift field hospital

A screenshot of William Wheeler's VR creation showing a barren, sandy landscape to explore

Reach Out and Touch This Virtual Reality Art Installation

“The Sands,” currently on view at Essex Flowers, projects elaborate creations in a physically empty space

The replica bones and teeth in place

Once Plundered by Thieves, Ancient Cave Reopens with 3-D Replicas of Stolen Fossils

It took multiple attempts—and two broken printers—to get the recreations right

A Virtual Exhibit Unites Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers

The global collaboration features five of the six surviving canvases

This is no ordinary origami paper, it's made out of organ tissues and could eventually become a high-tech band aid.

New Research

This “Tissue” Paper Is Made From Real Tissue

Made from powdered organs, the flexible paper could be used as a sophisticated bandage during surgery

Amedeo Modigliani, "Jeanne Hébuterne," 1918

Tate Modern’s Modigliani Exhibition Ventures Into Virtual Reality

The upcoming retrospective couples works by the famed modernist with the museum’s first VR experience

'Vasa' can be visited today at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Bizarre Story of ‘Vasa,’ the Ship That Keeps On Giving

‘Vasa’ sunk in front of horrified onlookers on this day in 1628, claiming 30 lives

Salicylic acid, the main ingredient in aspriin, is found in a number of plants, including jasmine, beans, peas and clover as well as willow trees.

Aspirin’s Four-Thousand-Year History

It’s 2000 B.C. and you have a headache. Grab the willow bark

The sport of angling ("angle" is an old work for "hook") was a popular 1600s pastime that had a number of guides written about it.

This Obscure Fishing Book is One of the Most Reprinted English Books Ever

‘The Compleat Angler’ is much more than an instruction manual on fishing. It’s a Walden-like meditation on nature and friendship

One of the cats involved in the Acoustic Kitty Project was a grey-and-white female.

The CIA Experimented On Animals in the 1960s Too. Just Ask ‘Acoustic Kitty’

Turns out that cats really don’t take direction well

Joseph Moxon, author of 'Mathematicks Made Easie,' was born on this day in 1627.

Is One A Number? According to ‘Mathematicks Made Easie,’ Yes

The ancient Greeks, and people for almost 2,000 years after them, argued over whether one was a number

Cool Finds

This Animated Movie About Van Gogh Is Made Entirely of Oil Paintings

Loving Vincent will include more than 56,000 paintings

Using stiff collars to help a guide dog user communicate with their dog has been around since the 1800s.

The Cuddly Tail of Guide Dogs

Dogs have been assisting blind humans for a very long time, but the arrangement only became formal recently

Alexander Graham Bell used the money from his telephone patent to fund Volta Laboratories, which later became Bell Laboratories.

Telephones Were Silenced for One Minute After Alexander Graham Bell Died

By the time Bell died, he had moved on to other inventions. But the telephone made a huge mark on American society

Once the tablet-like tool is plugged into an individual’s cellphone, it can detect if the device was in use before a crash.

Trending Today

Can the ‘Textalyzer’ Stop New Yorkers From Texting and Driving?

The device would allow police to check if phone usage could be to blame for a car crash, but critics have raised privacy concerns

This engraving from 1870 shows the cramped conditions when a train ran through the Tower Subway tunnel. Even once the train was removed, there wasn't much more space.

19th-Century Londoners Walked Under the Thames in This Creepy Tunnel

The Tower Subway tunnel was only seven feet in diameter

The actual first logo for the World Wide Web, created by the developer of its first web browser.

The World Wide Web Was Almost Known as “The Mesh”

The inventor of the World Wide Web had a few different name ideas

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