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Technology

An installation view of "Automania" at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. The red car in front is a Cisitalia 202 GT Car (1946) designed by Italian firm Pininfarina; the green car in the background is a German "Beetle," a.k.a. a Volkswagen Type 1 Sedan (1949). The lithograph on the wall is Watch the Fords Go By (1937) by A. M. Cassandre.

How the Automobile Changed the World, for Better or Worse

New MoMA exhibition explores artists’ responses to the beauty, brutality and environmental devastation of cars and car culture

Officials unveiled the hypogeum—a system of underground tunnels beneath the Colosseum—during a ceremony on Friday.

The Tunnels Beneath Rome’s Colosseum Are Open to the Public for the First Time

The chambers are finally on view after a $29.8 million restoration

This image from Seabed 2030 shows how much of the seafloor has been mapped, with black areas representing places without data yet.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Can Scientists Map the Entire Seafloor by 2030?

Two non-profit organizations are betting that with the help of research institutions, private vessels and new technologies, they can do just that

An engineer demonstrates a car phone five months before the historic first call on a competing company’s commercial mobile telephone service in 1946.

The First Mobile Phone Call Was Made 75 Years Ago

The evolution of the cell phone illustrates what it takes for technologies to go from breakthrough to big time

Combining carbon dioxide and calcium creates calcium carbonate rocks such as limestone.

To Combat Climate Change, Researchers Want to Pull Carbon Dioxide From the Ocean and Turn It Into Rock

Running seawater through an ocean carbon capture plant could chemically convert carbon dioxide to limestone on a grand scale

Xerox technology completely streamlined the animation process.

How ‘One Hundred and One Dalmatians’ Saved Disney

Sixty years ago, the company modernized animation when it used Xerox technology on the classic film

Nyan Cat, a 2011 animated feline with a Pop Tart body, first became a popular YouTube video but was reclaimed by its creator, a young Dallas artist named Chris Torres, as an NFT that sold for $587,000 in February.

Hirshhorn Hosts Panel of Experts to Hash Out the Brave New World of Non-Fungible Tokens

The unexpected $69 million sale of a digital artwork shocked the art world and now disruption is the name of the game

Before donating the 45.5-carat Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution, the jeweler Harry Winston had Bradford Bachrach photograph Eleanor Kidd—the face of Lucky Strike cigarettes—wearing the gem in 1958.

The Story Behind the Photography Studio That Captured America

For generations, Bachrach Photographers made everyone, from JFK to Duke Ellington to everyday people, look great

Zipline has started to deliver Covid-19 vaccines in Ghana.

Covid-19

Drones Are Delivering Covid-19 Vaccines to Underserved Communities

The company Zipline is using the technology to provide medical resources to rural areas in markets around the world

Across the globe, culling has become the default strategy for the egg industry to eliminate the unwanted hatchlings.

Can New Technologies Eliminate the Grim Practice of Chick Culling?

As the U.S. egg industry continues to kill male chicks, scientists are racing to develop accurate and affordable ways to sex a chick before it hatches

Because of their honeycomb shape, the huts can fit together like a beehive, expanding to fit growing needs.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

The World’s First 3-D Printed School May Soon Be a Reality

Thinking Huts, a nonprofit founded by a 15-year-old, plans to kick off construction in Madagascar this summer

Beeple's Everydays: The First 5000 Days, a non-fungible token, or an entirely digital work, will go up for auction at Christie's later this month.

Entirely Digital Artwork Sells for Record-Breaking $69 Million

The sale marks the third-highest auction price achieved by a living artist

MyHeritage introduced 'Deep Nostalgia' to allow users to see their ancestors or late relatives come to life but is also being used to animate portrait art, statues and historical figures. Pictured: Smithsonian founder, James Smithson.

New A.I. Tool Makes Historic Photos Move, Blink and Smile

The algorithm matches pre-recorded video with the photo depending on the subject’s pose and applies natural facial movements to the image

Artificial Intelligence has been used to help caregivers focus on patients most at-risk, sort threats to patient recovery and foresee spikes in facility needs for things like beds and ventilators.

How Doctors Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Battle Covid-19

Software is helping to shape treatment, but experts worry that some tools are approved too soon and others are biased

Left, a portion of the patent plan designed by Marie Van Brittan Brown and her husband Albert, right.

Women Who Shaped History

A Brief History of the Invention of the Home Security Alarm

A hardworking nurse envisioned a new way to know who was at the door

Artist's rendering of "Futures," an upcoming exhibition at the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building

Futures

From Floating Cities to Biodegradable Burial Pods and Flying Cars, the Smithsonian Envisions a Multitude of Futures

The Arts and Industries Building will reopen this November with a thought-provoking exploration of what lies ahead for humanity

NASA's Perseverance rover will store rock and soil samples in sealed tubes on the surface of Mars.

Exploring Mars

Perseverance Kicks Off Elaborate Effort to Bring Mars Rocks to Earth

The decade-long mission requires dozens of glass tubes, two rovers and three more rocket launches, including the first from another planet

A student does her remote learning at a Boys and Girls Club in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Education During Coronavirus

Ten Research-Backed Tips on Parenting in a Digital Era

With screen time at a high during the Covid-19 pandemic, two educators offer some advice

Ingenuity undertakes its first test flight on Mars in this illustration.

Exploring Mars

NASA’s Helicopter Ingenuity Will Attempt the First Flight on Mars

If the craft succeeds, it will provide crucial information for exploring the other planets by air

An illustration of the Perseverance rover on Mars

Exploring Mars

Exploring Mars

Space agencies are launching new missions outfitted with revolutionary technologies, including the Perseverance rover, to learn more about the Red Planet

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