Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Arts

Victorians Made Jewelry Out of Human Hair

Hair work went out of fashion around 1925, but it was popular for hundreds of years before that

This Sea Slug Was Just Named After a Game of Thrones Character

There’s a Stephen Colbert beetle, a Lady Gaga genus of plant, and a Beyonce bee. And now, a Game of Thrones slug

Playing an Instrument Won’t Make Your Kid Smarter

Music can, however, boost children’s creativity and teach them important life skills such as discipline and concentration—but so can other hobbies

Fingerbreaking

Breakdance Competitions Are Adding Fingerbreaking to Their Lineup

This is not a bad-cop interrogation method, but rather a newly recognized form of dance

Image: William Zeitler

Benjamin Franklin Invented a Glass Harp

Here you can hear a man play the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies on the armonica - which looks a lot like a man massaging a stack of plastic cups

The Pictures in Your Home Goods Catalogs Are Probably Computer Rendered

Some materials are harder to render than others, but soon those catalogs will be full of space that never existed in the real world

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Which Seat Should You Pick at the Movie Theater?

When you walk into a theater, you’re probably still going to argue with your friends about which seat to pick. But now you know the right answer

Here’s How Disney Animates Snow

In the Disney animation studio, different types of snow are made by tweaking a computer model. In the real world, they’re made by changing the temperature

None

This Museum Exhibit Shows How Awesome Overlooked Female Drummers Actually Are

It turns out that there are, in fact, women who drum. And they are amazing

Cheese made from human toe bacteria

This Exhibit Features Cheese Made From the Bacteria of Human Tears, Belly Buttons And Noses

The artists recently held a wine and cheese pairing event, in which visitors stuck their noses close to the human cheese and took a big whiff

None

Watch Beethoven’s Ninth Played on a Glockenspiel Made out of Tools

You’ve probably heard Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony before. But chances are you haven’t heard it played on a glockenspiel made out of tools

None

There Are 58 Versions of Little Red Riding Hood, Some 1,000 Years Older Than the Brothers Grimm’s

Brothers Grimm may have popularized the tale but they certainly didn’t win any prizes for originality

This Is the Most Expensive Piece of Art Ever Auctioned

All told, that auction raked in $691.5 million, the highest anyone has ever made at an auction in history

Art Meets Science

Do Our Brains Find Certain Shapes More Attractive Than Others?

A new exhibition in Washington, D.C., claims that humans have an affinity for curves—and there is scientific data to prove it

Franz Marc’s Horses in a Landscape was one of the recovered pieces of art.

A Trove of Art, Recovered Decades After Nazis Stole It, Is Going On Virtual Display

After more than 70 years, these great works of art are starting to go online

Conrad Heyer, a Revolutionary War Veteran, Was the Earliest-Born American To Ever Be Photographed

Conrad Heyer fought with Washington in the Revolutionary War

Tufa Dinku studies how satellites can be used to measure rain and temperature and other things relevant to understanding the climate.

This “Climate Models” Calendar Wants You to Check Out These Model Scientists—And Their Work

These climate scientists had some fun posing n landscapes representing their very serious work

Blue, Australian Kelpie, Age 19

This Photographer Captures the Beauty And Dignity of Elderly Animals

Photographer Isa Leshko says the project originally began as a form of self-therapy, but it evolved into a traveling photography exhibition

This Movie Has Been Rated S for Sexist

Even with the bar set incredibly low, most movies fail this simple test for sexism

A poster for the Degenerate Art exhibit that ran in Munich’s Residenz in 1937

A Billion Dollars of Modernist Art, Stolen by Nazis, Was Just Recovered in Munich

As many as 1,500 pieces of modernist art were just found in a Munich apartment

Page 57 of 67