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Smart News / Smart News Travel

The National Museum of China in Beijing is one of many institutions upping its online offerings in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

China’s Art, From Museum Exhibits to Rock Concerts, Moves Online During Coronavirus Outbreak

The government has directed museums to “enrich the people’s spiritual and cultural life during the epidemic [with] cloud exhibitions”

Inspector Clouseau, the world's only known pink manta ray

Rare Pink Manta Ray Spotted Near Australia’s Lady Elliot Island

Researchers suspect a genetic mutation may have gifted the giant fish, named Inspector Clouseau, his rosy hue

Around half of the university's 100 "manuscript cookbooks" are now available online.

Education During Coronavirus

Dozens of Historic Mexican Cookbooks Are Now Available Online

The University of Texas San Antonio’s vast collection makes traditional Mexican and Mexican-American cooking accessible

A rendering of the upcoming Planet Word museum's Great Hall, which will feature an LED globe showcasing dozens of languages from around the world

Upcoming Planet Word Museum Celebrates Language—and Is Slated to Be Talk of the Town

The Washington, D.C.-based museum will open its doors on May 31

Charles Dickens, seen at his desk in 1858

Charles Dickens Museum Acquires Trove of Author’s Unpublished Letters

The London museum recently purchased more than 300 literary artifacts assembled by a private collector in the U.S.

The moai at Easter island, built by the Rapa Nui people

New Research Rewrites the Demise of Easter Island

Yet another spate of evidence suggests the Rapa Nui people were going strong long after Europeans first arrived in 1722

View of the bow of the R.M.S. Titanic, as photographed by an ROV in June 2004

Court Case Alleges Submarine Collision With Wreck of the Titanic Went Unreported

During a 2019 dive, a white fiberglass vehicle sent to explore the site of the wreck resurfaced with a red stain on its side

The Moai sculptures on Rapa Nui are at risk of collapsing into the ocean as coastal erosion continues.

New Tool Tracks Climate Change’s Impact on World Heritage Sites

The online portal showcases the craggy cliffs surrounding Edinburgh Castle, Easter Island’s famed sculptures and other cultural heritage hotspots

Churchill painted Lake Scene at Norfolk with bright colors inspired by Impressionists like Monet sometime in the 1930s.

See Winston Churchill’s Little-Known Art

Best known for serving as Britain’s prime minister during World War II, Churchill was also an amateur painter and avid writer

Researchers diving amongst the wreckage of the S.S. Cotopaxi, which disappeared almost 95 years ago.

Cool Finds

Lost Ship Rediscovered After Disappearing Near Bermuda Triangle 95 Years Ago

Far from falling prey to a paranormal occurrence, the S.S. “Cotopaxi” actually sank during an unfortunate storm

Researchers conducting excavations near Bath Abbey have uncovered the remains of an apse dated to between the late eighth and late tenth centuries.

Cool Finds

Newly Unearthed Anglo-Saxon Monastery May Have Hosted England’s First Coronation

In the millennia since Edgar the Peaceful’s 973 coronation, the content of the royal ceremony has remained largely the same

This concretion, recovered from the Hoi An shipwreck, alludes to the fate of artifacts left underwater.

Who Owns the Art Recovered From Shipwrecks?

A thought-provoking exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco draws on artifacts from two centuries-old shipwrecks

Chagyrskaya Cave in Siberia's Altai Mountains, where researchers uncovered Neanderthal stone blades that resemble tools excavated in Europe

Neanderthals May Have Trekked 2,000 Miles to Siberia

A new tool analysis suggests European Neanderthals migrated east at least twice

Félicette, a former stray who was sent into space by French researchers in 1963, now has a bronze statue in her honor at France's International Space University.

Félicette, the First Cat in Space, Finally Gets a Memorial

Last month, a team unveiled a bronze statue honoring the feline, who launched on a suborbital mission in 1963

Portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama painted by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, respectively

Trending Today

The National Portrait Gallery’s Obama Portraits Will Embark on a Five-City Tour

Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald’s paintings of Barack and Michelle Obama are set to visit Chicago, Brooklyn, L.A., Atlanta and Houston

John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1865-66

The Women Behind the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

An exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London explores 12 women’s contributions to the male-dominated artistic circle

Coronaviruses, like the newly identified Wuhan coronavirus, are so named for their halo- or crown-like appearance.

Covid-19

Officials Pinpoint First COVID-19 Case in United States

The mostly mysterious pathogen is known to pass from person to person, causing respiratory illness

Home to just 780 people, Hallstatt welcomes more than one million tourists each year.

This Picturesque Austrian Town Is Being Overrun by ‘Frozen’ Fans

The 16th-century hamlet, incorrectly believed to be the inspiration for the fictional kingdom of Arendelle, hopes to stem the deluge of tourists

Ginkgo trees, which produce characteristic fan-shaped leaves, can live for thousands of years.

New Research

A Genetic Elixir of Life Helps Millennia-Old Ginkgo Trees Escape Death

These trees have developed an army of molecular weapons to stay healthy in old age

The museum's temporary location will close in February ahead of renovations and expansion scheduled for completion in 2022.

A New Holocaust Museum Is Coming to the Netherlands, With Help From Germany

Germany has pledged €4 million to a project that seeks to revamp the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam

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