/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/conflict-october-2013-631.jpg)
Is Your Cell Phone Helping to Fund a Civil War?
The rare minerals used to build your cell phone are coming under scrutiny by federal regulators
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Curiosity Discovers a New Type of Martian Rock That Likely Formed Near Water
The rock closely resembles mugearites, which form after molten rock encounters liquid water
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What Your Messy Desk Says About You (It’s a Good Thing)
Recent research suggests that working in a sloppy setting may actually help inspire creative thinking
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3,000 Years of Human History, Described in One Set of Mathematical Equations
A surprisingly accurate model shows that warfare and military technology determined where empires arose
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Sonic Bloom! A New Solar-Powered Sculpture
Dan Corson’s latest installation in Seattle—flower sculptures that light up at night—show that solar energy is viable even in the cloudy Pacific Northwest
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Could Panda Poop Be the Secret to More Efficient Biofuel?
Unique microbes in a panda’s gut efficiently break down bamboo—mass producing these microbes could help scientists make sustainable biofuels
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How Chemistry Can Explain the Difference Between Bourbon and a Tennessee Whiskey
The unique flavor of a whiskey or scotch might be more than pure luck—it might be a science
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Google’s Rick Needham is Feeling Lucky About the Future of Sustainable Energy
Google’s Rick Needham is Feeling Lucky About the Future of Sustainable Energy
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Can Kenya Light the Way Toward a Clean-Energy Economy?
The absence of a robust fossil fuel infrastructure makes the African nation ripe for energy innovation
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What Digitization Will Do for the Future of Museums
The Secretary discusses his new e-book about how the Smithsonian will digitize its collections and crowdsource its research
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Think You’re Doing a Good Job? Not If the Algorithms Say You’re Not
Relying on data collected through smartphones, Gigwalk says it knows more about its workers than any company ever has
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From Gunpowder to Teeth Whitener: The Science Behind Historic Uses of Urine
Preindustrial workers built huge industries based on the liquid’s cleaning power and corrosiveness—and the staler the pee, the better
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10 Things We’ve Learned About Learning
For starters, laptops in classrooms are a big distraction, singing phrases can help you learn a language and multitasking isn’t good for your grades
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Can Swarming Robots and Cloud Umbrellas Help Save Coral Reefs?
As reefs continue dying off, scientists have started to think more boldly about how to protect them
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Cosmic Portraits Created From Hubble Space Telescope Images
Sergio Albiac generates images of people by collecting their head shots and replacing pixels with snippets from pictures of stars and galaxies
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Why the Next Silicon Valley Will Be in the Middle East
Venture capitalist Christopher Schroeder sees the Arab Spring giving rise to a new innovative center in Egypt and beyond
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Science Can Help Us Live Longer, But How Long Is Too Long?
Will 100 become the new 60? And do we really want that to happen?
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Science Shows How Reddit Users Are Like Sheep
A new study shows that users on social news sites view a comment differently based on the judgement of users before them
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11 Strange Science Lessons We Learned This Summer
In vitro meat? Teeth grown from urine? Screaming rocks and singing bats? It’s all real science from the summer of 2013
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A Week of Camping Can Turn You Into a Morning Person
Getting away from artificial light and basking in sunlight can reset your internal clock, new research shows
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