Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Cool Finds

While on tour in the 1980s and 1990s, Ray Charles played this Yamaha KX88 electronic keyboard MIDI controller, customized with Braille.

Cool Finds

How the Library of Congress Is Digitizing Its Braille Music Collection

It’s not as simple as putting it through a scanner

The newly opened glass bridge in Zhangjiajie Forest Park

Cool Finds

Gulp: The World’s Highest, Longest Glass Bridge Opens in China

The new bridge in Hunan’s Zhangjiajie Forest Park overlooks the mountains that inspired Avatar

Murray Buttes may look like an earthbound mesa, but there's a difference: It's on Mars.

Cool Finds

Here’s a Panoramic Glimpse of the Curiosity Rover’s Next Destination

Welcome to Murray Buttes. You are now free to rove about the landscape

Adonis, a Bosnian pine, is the new oldest tree in Europe

Cool Finds

Celebrating at Least 1,075 Years, This Pine Could Be Europe’s Oldest Tree

The Bosnian pine stands in a forest of ancient trees in the Pindus Mountains

Gotta catch 'em all.

Forget Bowling: Taiwan Has Shrimping Alleys Instead

Catch-your-own shrimp bars are one of Taiwan’s tastiest trends

Lake Burlinskoye in June, 2016.

Cool Finds

Summer Heat Turns This Siberian Lake Bright Pink

And it’s not the only one

This 2,000-year-old scroll is covered with mysterious words in Aramaic.

Cool Finds

A Guide to Ancient Magic

In antiquity, love or revenge was just a spell away

One of Johnny Cash's last cars, whose design was inspired by the song "One Piece at a Time."

American South

Explore Johnny Cash’s Tennessee Ranch-Turned Museum

Complete with a car built “one piece at a time”

Including it's current dirt and plaster packing, the skull weighs roughly 2,500 pounds.

Cool Finds

Rare Complete T. Rex Skull Found in Montana

The “Tufts-Love skull” will be cleaned and put on display at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture

The Olympics' highest honor is named for Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games

Cool Finds

This Olympic Medal Is Even Harder to Win Than the Gold

The International Olympic Committee values sportsmanship above all else

A street scene in Kigali. The city's population is expected to nearly triple by 2020.

Cool Finds

Why This Rwandan City Bans Cars Once a Month

Kigali’s #CarFreeDay is a first for Africa

The sloop Washington, which sank in Lake Ontario in 1803

Cool Finds

Explorers Find Second Oldest Shipwreck in the Great Lakes

The merchant sloop Washington went down in a storm in 1803 on Lake Ontario

One of the dig sites at Durrington Walls where researchers have uncovered a post that once held a large, prehistoric timber post.

Cool Finds

The So-Called “Superhenge” Was Made of Wood, Not Stone

New research shows that the ancient structure was also taken down in a hurry

Cool Finds

Adorable Stubby Squid Found Off the Coast of Southern California

Researchers aboard the E/V Nautilus happened across a particularly cute stubby squid

Grab a book, grab a mic, get down.

Cool Finds

Finland’s Hot New Karaoke Bar Is a Public Library

Don’t stop believin’ in the power of music

The remains of a teenage boy found near an altar dedicated to Zeus at Mt. Lykaion

Cool Finds

Did the Ancient Greeks Engage in Human Sacrifice?

The remains uncovered at an altar to Zeus on Mount Lykaion may confirm legends about human sacrifice at the shrine

Cool Finds

Tourists in Hawaii Accidentally Discovered Ancient Petroglyphs

A stroke of luck on the beach

Children salute the American flag in 1915.

Cool Finds

The Rules About How to Address the U.S. Flag Came About Because No One Wanted to Look Like a Nazi

During the National Anthem, Americans are asked to put their right hands over their hearts. But why?

Book carts can already get out of control quickly, so careening them along a twisty course was treacherous indeed.

Cool Finds

Librarians Have an Olympics, Too

Brains met brawn in a bookish competition for the ages

Excavations at Tell Yunatsite, Bulgaria

Cool Finds

World’s Oldest Gold Object May Have Just Been Unearthed in Bulgaria

A small gold bead shows that Copper Age people in the Balkans were processing gold 6,500 years ago

Page 117 of 281