Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Travel

Art installation above the Brandenburg Gate

Thirty Years After Fall of Berlin Wall, a Citywide Celebration

A week-long arts festival will feature concerts, immersive exhibitions, art installations, panel discussions and more

Visitors interact with living sound artworks in the "Sonic Succulents" installation by Adrienne Adar

Listen to the Sounds of Succulents at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

An ongoing installation encourages visitors to interact with prickly cacti, palm plants and potted succulents

Trending Today

London’s ‘Eiffel Tower’ Is Still Losing Money

Built for the 2012 Olympic Games, the ArcelorMittal Orbit has not turned into the tourist attraction it was expected to become

The earliest recorded reference to Tholey Abbey dates to 634 A.D.

New Stained Glass Is Coming to Germany’s Oldest Monastery

Gerhard Richter is set to design a trio of windows for the Benedictine Tholey Abbey

The latest fire forecast from the European Union's Copernicus satellite.

Three Things to Know About the Fires Blazing Across the Amazon Rainforest

Experts say the majority of blazes were set by farmers hoping to clear land for agricultural endeavors

Alvin Baltrop, "Untitled (Portrait of Marsha P. Johnson)," undated

Bronx Exhibition Spotlights Alvin Baltrop, Photographer Who Documented Manhattan’s Underground Queer Community

Baltrop took thousands of snapshots at New York’s West Side Piers between 1975 and 1986

Experts hope the bridge will enable mountain lions to find potential mates and increase the local population's genetic diversity

California Will Build the Largest Wildlife Crossing in the World

The overpass will provide safe passage for mountain lions, coyotes, deer, lizards, snakes and other wild animals crossing the 101 Freeway

One critic of the proposed redefinition says, "It would be hard for most French museums—starting with the Louvre—to correspond to this definition, considering themselves as ‘polyphonic spaces'"

The Term ‘Museum’ May Be Getting Redefined

But experts are divided on the proposed new definition

A park ranger gives the Obama family a tour of Carlsbad Caverns National Park in 2016.

3-D Map to Digitize Part of Carlsbad Caverns Down to the Millimeter

The National Parks Service is also compiling a modern cultural history of the caverns

The underground shelter was transformed into a Resistance command post the week before Paris' liberation

Paris Basement Used as WWII Resistance Headquarters Transformed Into Museum Centerpiece

The soon-to-open museum also explores the lives of Resistance leaders Jean Moulin and General Leclerc

Ping incubates the egg as Skipper keeps guard.

Two Male Penguins in Berlin Join Long Line of Same-Sex Pairs to Adopt an Egg

Skipper and Ping have happily nurtured everything from rocks to fish before zookeepers let them incubate an egg

This picture taken on May 21, 2018 shows discarded climbing equipment and rubbish scattered around Camp 4 of Mount Everest.

New Rules Could Determine Who Gets to Climb Everest

Nepali officials propose new requirements for obtaining a permit to climb the world’s tallest mountain

Artist's conception of the new screening center.

The Washington Monument Will Reopen in September

The discovery of contaminated soil pushed the timeline back for repairs

Edward Hopper, "Western Motel," 1957

Thanks to the Hopper Hotel Experience, You Can Now Spend a Night at the Museum

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will host guests in a 3-D recreation of Edward Hopper’s 1957 painting, ‘Western Motel’

The cloth is embroidered with animals, plants and narrative scenes

See Scrap of Cloth Believed to Be From Elizabeth I’s Only Surviving Dress

The fabric, set to go on view, was previously used as an altar cloth in a small village church

Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece is normally housed in the Louvre's Salle des États gallery

People Aren’t Happy About Their Increasingly Brief Encounters With the ‘Mona Lisa’

The problem stems from the masterpiece’s temporary relocation to a different wing of the museum

A worker sprays a gel on the ground to absorb lead as he takes part in a clean-up operation at Saint Benoit school near Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris during a decontamination operation on August 8, 2019.

Notre-Dame Restoration Delayed Due to Lead Poisoning Concerns

Work is set to continue next week with more stringent safety protocols, decontamination units

A previous strain of the TR4 fungus led banana producers to switch from the Gros Michel strain to the now-dominant Cavendish variety

A Banana-Destroying Fungus Has Arrived in the Americas

The so-called Panama disease targets bananas’ vascular systems to prevent fruit from growing

Trending Today

Welsh Man Is First to Walk the Length of the Yangtze River

Adventurer Ash Dykes took over a year to walk from the river’s source in Tibet to its mouth in Shanghai

A Police officer asks tourists to scoot.

Per Favore, Do Not Sit on the Spanish Steps

Plop down on the landmark and you might find yourself hit with a €250 fine

Page 43 of 117