Arts & Culture

Would you use these crystals in your kitchen if they were called “super delicious umami crystals?”

It’s the Umami, Stupid. Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow

Few remember that the food pariah and hot trend are so closely connected

Mood: experimental. Desired quality: active.

These Abstract Portraits Were Painted By An Artificial Intelligence Program

The Painting Fool, a computer program, can create portraits based on its mood, assess its work and learn from its mistakes

Okeanos: A Performance Where Dancers Move Like Octopuses and Seahorses

Jodi Lomask, director of the dance company Capacitor, has choreographed an ocean-inspired show, now at San Francisco's Aquarium of the Bay

A portrait of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot and her granddaughter

The Widow Who Created the Champagne Industry

Love champagne? Thank a French widow

A New App Turns Fractals Into Ornate Art

With Frax, users can create mathematically-driven art, adding color, depth and texture to geometric shapes

Rendering of the scaffolding that will surround the dome during its restoration.

Scaffolding is All Over D.C. Here’s Why the Monuments Still Look Majestic

When the beautiful historic buildings of our nation's capital need repair, architects get creative with the exterior work

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Rediscovering the American Art of Baskets

“A Measure of the Earth: A Cole-Ware Collection of American Baskets” opens at Renwick Gallery

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Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on Why Judges Wear Black Robes

The Supreme Court icon breaks down the tradition

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It’s Time to Cut Barbie a Little Slack

Writer Sloane Crosley asks if the doll really represents such a menace to society

Author Martha Stewart writes in our 101 Objects Special Issue: Isaac Merritt Singer's sewing machine was a vast improvement upon earlier versions, capable of 900 stitches a minute -at a time when the most nimble seamstress could sew about 40. Though the machine was originally designed for manufacturing, Singer saw its domestic potential and created a lighter weight version, which he hauled to country fairs, circuses and social gatherings, dazzling the womenfolk. Read more of Martha Stewart's essay.

Martha Stewart on How the Singer Sewing Machine Clothed the Nation

The master of home entertaining takes a look at one of the most game-changing inventions of the 19th century

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A Close, Intimate Look at Walt Whitman

A haunting image captures America’s quintessential poet, writes author Mark Strand

Have you carved your pumpkin yet?

The Patents Designed to Make Carving Your Pumpkin a Little Less Messy

A group of innovators set out to simplify how we make classic Jack-o-Lanterns and their ghoulish grins

Franken Berry cereal was originally released in 1971 by General Mills with his monster-buddy Count Chocula.

Franken Berry, the Beloved Halloween Cereal, Was Once Medically Found to Cause Pink Poop

The red dye used in the popular breakfast cereal resulted in several cases of the benign condition

These Spectacular Cutaways Give You An Insider’s View of Your Food

Nathan Myhrvold and a team of photographers have sliced meats, vegetables, pots, pans and ovens in half to produce stunning cross-sections of cooking

Horseshoe crab

Animal Specimens, From Fish to Birds to Mammals, Get Inked

Inspired by Japanese fish rubbings, two University of Texas biologists make spectacular prints of a variety of species at different stages of decay

Pumpkins and beer make for golden photo ops and marketing gags–but the theme is beginning to feel old.

Pumpkin Beers Don’t Have to Be the Worst Thing to Drink This Fall

In 1984, there was one pumpkin beer in America. This October, there are more than 500. We find the best ones from the patch

Photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher uses a powerful scanning electron microscope to capture all of a bee’s microscopic structures in stunning detail. Above: a bee’s antennae sockets, magnified 43 times.

What Does A Bee Look Like When It’s Magnified 3000 Times?

Photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher uses a powerful microscope to capture all of a bee's microscopic structures and textures in stunning detail

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The Inventive Mind of Walter Hunt, Yankee Mechanical Genius

The compulsively creative Hunt might be the greatest inventor you've never heard of

Why the Avocado Should Have Gone the Way of the Dodo

Its large pit and fleshy deliciousness are all a result of its status as an evolutionary anachronism

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Horrific Tales of Potatoes That Caused Mass Sickness and Even Death

A greened potato indicates the presence of a toxin that can cause gastrointestinal distress, induce coma or even death within 24 hours of consumption

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