Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Cool Finds

Cool Finds

Virtual Reality is Coming to Real-Life Rollercoasters

Soar with Superman or pilot an alien-fighting jet

Cool Finds

Don’t Miss Jupiter Shine Bright Tonight

As Earth moves between Jupiter and the sun, the gas giant will outshine the stars

A satellite photo of an almost-finished solar farm near Walt Disney World in Orlando reveals a familiar face.

Future of Energy

The Shifting Shapes of Solar Farms

They’re more than just massive fields of black panels

Cool Finds

This Machine Makes Music With Marbles

The absurd-looking device is a marble-powered, one-man band

Paul Johnson explores "landthropology" through his nature photography.

Cool Finds

This Designer Makes Animations With Nature

Paul Johnson turns Twin Cities landscapes into hypnotic stop-motion

An annular solar eclipse is observed in Yantai, Shandong province, China, January 15, 2010.

Cool Finds

A Solar Eclipse Will Darken Pacific Skies This Week

Though the actual eclipse can only be seen from select locations, don’t miss the live stream of the event online

Cool Finds

Deep-Sea Robot Spies Ghostly, Unknown Octopus

Previously-undiscovered octopus spotted hanging out on the ocean floor

Meet GN-z11, the "newest" old galaxy discovered by Hubble.

Cool Finds

Hubble Spotted the Oldest Galaxy It Has Ever Seen

Look back in time with a glimpse at a galaxy that’s 13.4 billion light years away

Interacting with a velociraptor robot is just part of the Henn-na Hotel's efficient charm.

Cool Finds

Japan Has a Hotel Staffed by Robots

Androids, velociraptors and talking toys are all part of the experience at the Henn-na Hotel

Shoppers walk down a corridor in Istanbul's fabled Grand Bazaar.

Cool Finds

Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar Is Getting a Makeover

The bazaar has withstood at least seven fires and several major earthquakes

The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument in Riverside Park, New York, was dedicated at 72nd Street on October 5, 1996.

Cool Finds

It’s Way Too Hard to Find Statues of Notable Women in the U.S.

Only a handful of the country’s sculptures honor women

This 1956 poster is just one of thousands of items of Rosa Parks' personal collection now digitized by the Library of Congress.

Cool Finds

Rosa Parks’ Papers Are Now Online

Read about everything from her meditations on the Civil Rights Movement to her recipe for “featherlite” peanut butter pancakes

The secretly-made 3D scan of Nefertiti's bust.

Cool Finds

Thanks to Sneaky Scanners, Anyone Can 3D Print a Copy of Nefertiti’s Bust

Scans of the famous sculpture are free for the taking

Beijing's CCTV Tower has been compared to a pair of glorious pants.

Cool Finds

These Are 10 of China’s Strangest Buildings

Chinese officials want to ditch the country’s bizarre architecture

Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (Mrs. Alexander Hamilton), 1787, Ralph Earl (1751-1801).

Cool Finds

Elizabeth Hamilton Once Posed for a Portrait in a New York City Prison

There was a dire need for painters to immortalize America’s elites

Shackleton brought everything from trashy novels to accounts of Arctic rescues with him to Antarctica.

Cool Finds

Historians Finally Figured Out What Was on Shackleton’s Bookshelf

The brave explorer likely found solace in his library

Cool Finds

This Twitter Account Turns Emojis Into Gallery Art

Tiny pictures, high art?

Harper Lee didn't like publicity.

Cool Finds

Listen to a Rare Interview With Harper Lee

“[A]ll I want to be is the Jane Austen of South Alabama,” she told radio host Roy Newquist in 1964

NASA's OSIRIS-REx project will send a craft to a near-Earth asteroid and take a sample to study back on Earth.

Cool Finds

NASA Wants You to Send Your Art to an Asteroid

The agency is looking for creative contributions as it readies its mission to study and sample a near-Earth asteroid

Cool Finds

This French Town Is Covered in Citrus Sculptures

Ten-foot-tall lemon sculptures herald the Fête du Citron

Page 131 of 282