Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Cool Finds

Cool Finds

Revenge of the Polar(esque) Vortex

Questions remain as to whether the coming cold snap is a true polar vortex, but either way, the eastern U.S. is about to get much colder

Cool Finds

The North Pole Could Soon Drift Over to Siberia

Earth’s magnetic field seems to be weakening and potentially migrating

Promotional photo provided by Cruise

Cool Finds

With A $10,000 Kit Your Car Could (Kind of) Drive Itself

Instead of waiting to buy a self-driving car, why not give the car you already own an update?

Cool Finds

Children’s Skulls Encircled Some Bronze Age Lake Villages

The bones may have been thought to ward off flooding in lakeside villages

Batchelder tile from the lobby of the El Dorado Lofts in Los Angeles.

Cool Finds

Saving Los Angeles’ Batchelder Tile

Arts and crafts enthusiasts are waiting for a recently rediscovered landmark to reopen

Surely this exoplanet deserves a better name than CoRoT-7b.

Cool Finds

Ok, Now There’s an Actual, Official Contest to Name New Exoplanets

The International Astronomical Union is throwing their own exoplanet naming contest

Cool Finds

In U.S. High Schools, Full-Time International Students Now Outnumber Exchange Students

Public schools are actively recruiting tuition-paying foreign students

Cool Finds

Machine in the Netherlands Collects Plastic Waste, Turns it into Floating Parks

The effort aims to prevent plastic waste from going into the North Sea

This is what an actual Goodwill box looks like.

Cool Finds

Fake Clothing Drop Bins Use Your “Charity” Donations To Make a Profit

From Tampa to Charlotte to New York City, non-legit Goodwill boxes are proliferating

Cool Finds

This Tiny Implant Could Provide Remote-Control Birth Control for 16 Years at a Time

Microchip implants under the skin could last for 16 years

None

Cool Finds

How One 1930s German Photographer Successfully Trolled the Nazi Party

A photograph of a young Jewish girl won a contest to find the “perfect example of the Aryan race.”

Cool Finds

A Quarter of Americans Are Stressed Out—And That’s Probably a Massive Underestimate

Health, family and monetary problems are top causes of stress, as are raising a teenager or being a single parent

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Greece Find Some of the World’s Oldest Erotic Graffiti

About 2,500 years ago, ancient Greeks were boasting of their sexual conquests in long-lasting graffiti

Cool Finds

You Could Visit Dubai And Never Step Outside

The proposed Mall of the World features temperature-controlled walkways

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong (L) and Buzz Aldrin prepare for an EVA training session, watched by Deke Slayton (R) in this undated handout photo courtesy of NASA.

Cool Finds

What Does It Feel Like to Be Told You’ll Be the First Man on the Moon?

A new book describes the conversation when NASA boss Deke Slayton told Neil Armstrong he would lead Apollo 11

Cool Finds

College Students Are Now Paying Extra to Learn Actually Useful Skills

Companies, unaffiliated with universities, are offering courses that provide practical workforce training

The cover of the 1570 rhyming dictionary the Manipulus Vocabulorum

Cool Finds

Write Like a Thespian With the Manipulus Vocabulorum, a 16th Century Rhyming Dictionary

The Manipulus Vocabulorum, from 1570, was the world’s first rhyming dictionary

Cool Finds

Watch a 72-Minute Trailer for a Month-Long Film

When it is released in 2020, Ambiancé is expected to be the longest film in the world

Cool Finds

See a Fire-Breathing Dragon Bridge in Vietnam

A bridge in Da Nang breathes fire and water every weekend

Soviet propaganda, circa 1920

Cool Finds

Thousands of Secret KGB Espionage Documents Are Now Available to the Public

The papers contain names of spies, descriptions of secret weapons and detailed plots against the West

Page 185 of 281