Smart News: Ideas & Innovations | Smithsonian Magazine

Cool Finds

The Hidden Costs of Having a Gifted Child

Exceptional talent in children can be a source of financial and emotional stress for parents who don’t feel equipped

November 17, 2015

To this day, the shapely glass bottle defines the classic drink

November 16, 2015

Cool Finds

Minnesota Is Expanding Its Bike Share to Include Canoes

Because bikes and boats are a perfect pair

November 16, 2015

Ships along the Mississippi River in New Orleans

The USDA has a plan to help the troubled watershed

November 16, 2015

Cool Finds

These French Vending Machines Sell Short Stories

Super-short fiction that’s as good as any snack

November 13, 2015

Soon, space miners could lay claim to minerals in asteroids like this one.

The new Space Act would open up the potentially lucrative field of asteroid mining

November 12, 2015

A painted wooden coffin beside a looted tomb in the Abu Sir al Malaq necropolis in Bani Suef, Egypt.

Cool Finds

This Ingenious Archaeologist Uses Satellites to Hunt Down Tomb Raiders

Can satellite imagery help protect humanity’s priceless artifacts?

November 12, 2015

Cool Finds

Happy Birthday Hedy Lamarr, Hollywood Star Turned Scientist

The beauty had brains—after all, she invented the tech behind Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS

November 9, 2015

Distilleries could soon be helping save the environment as they bottle up their next batch of brown

November 9, 2015

Cool Finds

This Keyboard Lets You Type in Emoji

[heart-shaped eyes] + [clapping hands] + [money bag]

November 6, 2015

Cool Finds

Forget the Hazy Clouds—The Internet is in the Ocean

This new video explores the 550,000 miles of cable that keeps the internet humming

November 5, 2015

Russia's Anna Sidorova plays during the 2014 World Women's Curling Championship.

Is new technology too dominant for the Olympic sport?

November 3, 2015

Cool Finds

How Computers Learned to Play Nintendo

Super Mario World is a great test for artificial intelligence

November 3, 2015

Cool Finds

Pink Gumdrops Are Solving a Sticky Crisis in London

The receptacles are part of the world’s first chewing gum recycling program

November 2, 2015

For now, visually impaired people must rely on captions like these for descriptions of the images on the internet. (This is a picture of an eye reflecting Facebook's home page).

Cool Finds

In the Future, Facebook Will Describe Photos for Blind People

A visual internet poses many challenges for people that are visually impaired

October 29, 2015

New Research

Future Cops May Track Down Criminals By Making Fingerprints Glow

One scientist’s revenge could be the ultimate crime-fighting tool

October 23, 2015

Cool Finds

This Norwegian Modern Art Museum Is Also a Bridge

An ingeniously twisted design blends art with infrastructure

October 23, 2015

Cool Finds

Great Scott! Stanford Invented a Self-Driving DeLorean Just in Time for Back to the Future Day

But does it use 1.21 gigawatts of electricity?

October 21, 2015

Was this article written by a data-driven word processing machine...or a robot?

Cool Finds

The Robo-Journalists Are Coming

But did a machine write this story?

October 21, 2015

Lee Harvey Oswald stands in his backyard with Marxist newspapers and a rifle. This photo has been looked on with suspicion ever since Oswald called it a fake after John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

New Research

3D Model Showed Controversial Photo of John F. Kennedy’s Assassin Is Not a Fake

Doubts surrounded the incriminating photo since Kennedy was assassinated in 1963

October 19, 2015

Smart News / Smart News Ideas & Innovations