Smart News: Ideas & Innovations | Smithsonian Magazine

Alaska's yellow-cedar forests are slowly dying as climate change takes root.

Anthropocene

This Music Was Composed by Climate Change

Dying forests make magnificently melancholy listening

September 23, 2016

A concept design for the completed Glenner Town Square.

Cool Finds

Fake Towns Could Help People With Alzheimer’s Live Happier Lives

Model towns meant to spark memories could help patients with dementia

September 21, 2016

These flowers may look beautiful, but in the imagination of Tamiko Thiel, they've turned hostile due to climate change.

Cool Finds

Augmented Reality Art Imagines What Could Be Seattle’s Weird, Bleak Future

Artist envisions mutant flowers and drone-like seaweed that may one day take over a post-climate change Seattle

September 19, 2016

Kayak may be the best way to explore the climate change memorial of the future.

Anthropocene

What Will the Memorials of the Future Look Like?

From underwater trees to mechanical parrots, the memorials of tomorrow don’t look much like the ones that exist today

September 13, 2016

Cool Finds

Explore Skulls and Artifacts From a 16th-Century Warship

The Mary Rose was the pride of Henry VIII’s fleet before it sank at sea

September 7, 2016

Put down your pencil—convincing computer-generated handwriting is here.

New Research

This Algorithm Lets You “Write” Like the Greats

Your words, their handwriting

August 26, 2016

New Research

This Robot Is Soft and Squishy Inside and Out—No Wires or Batteries Necessary

“Octobot” uses a deceptively simple fuel source and inspiration from the depths of the sea

August 25, 2016

Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park is one of the parks featured in the virtual reality tours.

Virtual Travel

Explore Some of America’s Greatest National Parks in Virtual Reality

The next best thing to celebrating the Centennial in person

August 25, 2016

A street scene in Kigali. The city's population is expected to nearly triple by 2020.

Cool Finds

Why This Rwandan City Bans Cars Once a Month

Kigali’s #CarFreeDay is a first for Africa

August 19, 2016

The TEB is the latest iteration of a concept that’s been “floating” for decades, but it has some big problems

August 11, 2016

"Portrait of a Woman" being scanned by the synchrotron.

New Research

Scientists Uncover a “Hidden” Portrait by Edgar Degas

A powerful X-ray unveiled one of the painter’s rough drafts

August 4, 2016

The viewing pod slides up and down the tower, which has been acknowledged as world's most slender by Guinness World Records.

Cool Finds

New Observation Tower Is World’s Thinnest

Brighton’s West Pier comes back to life…as a crazy vertical viewing tower

August 4, 2016

An artist's concept of Moon Express's MX-1 Micro Lander, which may head to the moon as soon as next year.

Moon Express will head to Earth’s nearest neighbor in 2017

August 3, 2016

Checkpoint "Dityatki," an entrance to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Future of Energy

Chernobyl Might Get a Second Life as a Solar Power Plant

From nuclear disaster to renewable energy

July 29, 2016

Cool Finds

How Sojourner Truth Used Photography to Help End Slavery

The groundbreaking orator embraced newfangled technology to make her message heard

July 28, 2016

The final VCRs will ship later this month, but if recent history is any indicator, it doesn’t mean the VHS format will vanish for good

July 26, 2016

Athletes with Down Syndrome compete in the first-ever Olympic-style competition for people with the condition.

Cool Finds

Italy Just Hosted the First Olympics-Like Competition for People With Down Syndrome

The unique competition drew 1,000 athletes

July 25, 2016

Avi Avital is the featured performer in "InstaConcerto for Mandolin and Orchestra," a 75-second concerto written for Instagram.

Cool Finds

This Classical Mandolinist Makes Music With…Instagram?

“InstaConcerto for Mandolin and Orchestra” plays with a genre known more for its selfies than its chamber music

July 20, 2016

A 3D view of the console of the Apollo 11 "Columbia" command module.

Cool Finds

Explore the Apollo 11 Command Module in 3D

For the first time, you can peek inside the craft that enabled “one giant leap for mankind”

July 20, 2016

Pure Human features clothing made from leather that is produced from the DNA of designer Alexander McQueen—and that includes freckles, realistically placed tattoos and even sunburns.

The late designer’s DNA is part of a bizarre experiment in fashion ethics

July 20, 2016

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