Smart News: Ideas & Innovations | Smithsonian Magazine

Companies like Hallmark are experiencing hard times as social media and ecards gain steam

July 13, 2015

Does she look like she would enjoy being jabbed with a needle? Conservationists have used assassin bugs to test the blood female Iberian lynx, like the mother picture above with her cubs, for pregnancy.

Cool Finds

How Do You Give an Iberian Lynx a Pregnancy Test? Use an Assassin Bug

Researchers used the insects to keep tabs on population growth in the threatened species

July 10, 2015

Trending Today

Cannabis is Being Used to Build Homes

“Hempcrete” turns weed into building materials

July 10, 2015

Cool Finds

Here’s How to Make a Record Out of a Tortilla

Yes, it’s edible

July 9, 2015

A rash of injuries while taking selfies prompted the new campaign

July 9, 2015

People Who Bring Their Own Grocery Bags are More Likely to Buy Junk Food

It’s all about perceived virtue

July 9, 2015

Cool Finds

This is What Happened When an Australian City Gave Trees Email Addresses

Trees get fan mail and even write back to Melburnian residents

July 8, 2015

Swiss researchers want to build a spacecraft to eat their tiny satellites after they stop working.

Cool Finds

This Pac-Man Spacecraft Will Devour a Satellite

Swiss researchers are designing a tiny satellite to eat their defunct cube satellite and clean up space junk

July 8, 2015

Cool Finds

Look Up: Clouds Could be the Next Movie Screens

An abandoned military strategy leads to the first “cloud movie”

July 8, 2015

New Research

Ultrasonic Fingerprint Readers Can Unlock Phones Even When Your Fingers are Gross and Sweaty

Experts say ultrasound fingerprint sensors are harder to hack

July 7, 2015

Cool Finds

Researchers Are Using Facial Recognition Software To Save Lions

Software algorithms offer a non-invasive way to track the big cats

July 7, 2015

Immersive storytelling brings a bit of sobering reality to would-be donors

July 7, 2015

The robot from Toshiba sporting two cameras

Cool Finds

This Scorpion-Shaped Robot Will Enter One of Fukushima’s Reactors

The nuclear power plant’s owners still don’t know exactly what is going on inside the three reactors that melted down

July 6, 2015

Gallons of urine will be used to fertilize barley for future festivalgoers

July 2, 2015

Recent losses have left other SpaceX customers in limbo

July 2, 2015

An active basalt lava flow in the wild (from a volcano, not from the lab)

Cool Finds

To Better Understand Lava, an Artist and Scientist Make Their Own

A lab at Syracuse University creates melts basaltic rock in a modified furnace

July 2, 2015

Cool Finds

In the Future, Grocery Stores May be More Like ATMs

Robots and motion detection expand the idea of what it means to shop

July 1, 2015

Cool Finds

Canned Goods and Cucumber Seeds: Food Banks Are Starting to Give Out Garden Starters

Canned goods take a backseat to freshly-grown produce

June 30, 2015

While downsizing the military, Germany sets aside land for wildlife

June 30, 2015

Screenshot from "Toy Figurines / How It’s Made"

Cool Finds

Here’s How Plastic Toy Dinosaurs are Made

A series of molds help the toy creators’ vision pop into 3-D

June 30, 2015

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