Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Arts

None

Solar System Lollipops And Other Food That Looks Like Things

Food that looks like things, things that look like food, and food that look like other food. Chaos!

Happy 100th Birthday to John Cage, Who Made a Lot of People Angry

Sixty years ago, John Cage put on a performance of a piece called 4‘33” or “four minutes, thirty-three seconds.” Today would have been his birthday

None

This Is What Extinction Sounds Like

Before-and-after audio records show how ecosystems change

None

The Stunning Results of Throwing a Water Balloon at a Bald Man’s Head

Photographer TIm Tadder’s “Water Wigs” makes a splash in this collection of unique images

Director cat needs to adjust the composition.

At the Internet Cat Video Festival, LOLcats Become Art

The Internet Cat Video Festival brought LOLcats inside the walls of the gallery

None

Playing Video Games At Home Turns 40

The Magnavox Odyssey went on sale 40 years ago, sparking the home video game revolution

None

Teen ‘Sick-Lit’ Should Leave Parents Feeling Queasy

The newly defined genre of “teen sick-lit” is awash with tear-jerking stories of ill adolescents who seek only to find the love of their life during their final days, but researchers say it reinforces negative stereotypes of the ill

A wanna-be ninja

Meet Jinichi Kawakami, Japan’s Last Ninja

This 63-year old engineer, is probably Japan’s last true ninja

None

Was Vincent van Gogh Color Blind? It Sure Looks Like It

Filtering van Goghs works to simulate color blindness unlocks strikingly different images, perhaps revealing something about the way the famous painter saw the world

Left, the Kingdom Tower of Jeddah. Right, the Tower of Babel.

Better, Faster, Taller – How Big can Buildings Really Get?

The race for the tallest structure in the world has been with us since humans built structures, and today it is going strong. But where’s the limit?

The Gabarnmung cave paintings lie in southwestern Arnhem Land, in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Is This the Oldest Cave Art on the Planet?

Underneath a rock slab which rests on dozens of narrow stilts researchers have found the world’s oldest stone axe, and a vast collection of painted artwork

None

Science Proves: Pop Music Has Actually Gotten Worse

Science confirms what you’ve always suspected: music these days is worse than it used to be

Behind the doors of the Geneva Freeport are untold treasures.

Hollywood’s Next Heist Movie Should Be Shot Here

No one knows exactly what’s hidden in a giant warehouse in Sweden, but everyone agrees that it’s really, really valuable

Jean Jacoby's Corner, left, and Rugby. At the 1928 Olympic Art Competitions in Amsterdam, Jacoby won a gold medal for Rugby.

When the Olympics Gave Out Medals for Art

In the modern Olympics’ early days, painters, sculptors, writers and musicians battled for gold, silver and bronze

Today’s the Shared Anniversary of Ruin Porn Poster Children Detroit, Machu Picchu

July 24th marks double jackpot for the intrepid explorers of years past as well for as fans of the latest photographic trend, “ruin porn.”

Page 64 of 66