Arts & Culture

On Black Day, single Koreans drown their sorrows in a bowl of jjajang myeon noodles.

Korea’s Black Day: When Sad, Single People Get Together And Eat Black Food

Each year on April 14, singles in South Korea drown their sorrows in a bowl of black noodles

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World War I: 100 Years Later

Unmanned Drones Have Been Around Since World War I

They have recently been the subject of a lot of scrutiny, but the American military first began developing similar aerial vehicles during World War I

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The Masked Merriment of Mardi Gras

For centuries, the day's revelry has featured the liberated feeling of hiding in plain view

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This Artist Uses Meat As His Medium

Dominic Episcopo's red and raw images capture the spirit of Americana.

Shura City

Imagining a Drone-Proof City in the Age of Surveillance

As drones become common as tools of the military and intelligence agencies, how are architects and designers responding?

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The Unsettling Beauty of Lethal Pathogens

British artist Luke Jerram's handblown glass sculptures show the visual complexity and delicacy of E. coli, swine flu, malaria and other killing agents

Lipstick stencil, 1920s

The History of the Flapper, Part 2: Makeup Makes a Bold Entrance

It's the birth of the modern cosmetics business as young women look for beauty enhancers in a tube or jar

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The Privacy Wars: Goggles That Block Facial Recognition Technology

For designers, the battle over what it means to be private in a very public world is a new frontier to be conquered

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The Year’s Most Outstanding Science Visualizations

A juried competition honors photographs, illustrations, videos, posters, games and apps that marry art and science in an evocative way

Delphine Atger, 1920s

The History of the Flapper, Part 1: A Call for Freedom

The young, fashionable women of the 1920s define the dress and style of their peers in their own words

Made from vinyls and plastics, these fake foods on display in Japan aren’t the only fakes around.

Don’t Get Duped: Six Foods That Might Not Be The Real Deal

Colored sawdust instead of saffron? Corn syrup instead of honey? It's all in the newly updated USP Food Fraud Database

A leaf grasshopper (Phyllophorina kotoshoensis).

Honey, I Blew Up the Bugs

Italian artist Lorenzo Possenti created 16 enormous sculptures of giant insects, all scientifically accurate, now on display at an Oklahoma museum

A traditional Punch and Judy puppet show.

Are Punch and Judy Shows Finally Outdated?

For a wife-beating, baby-squashing scofflaw, Mr. Punch has done pretty well for himself

The chicken wing, now a ubiquitous bar food, was often thrown out or cooked into stock as recently as the 1960s

A Brief History of the Buffalo Chicken Wing

How the wing went from a throwaway to a delicacy in 50 years

The Stealth Wear hoodie in thermal IR

Drone Couture: Designing Invisibility

While scientists work toward perfecting the invisibility cloak, one designer has already developed a line of clothing that makes people invisible to robots

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"Evolution of the Host"—A New Poem by Robert Pinsky

"Evolution of the Host"—A New Poem by Robert Pinsky

The watercolor above is an East African myth: Juok the Creator (shown twice) molding Egyptians from reddish brown clay and Southern Sudanese from the black earth. MacMillan says this image came faster than any of the others, "I literally did the entire thing in an hour and a half, just at home with no prior planning or sketching."

An Illustrated Guide to the World’s Creation Myths

Each culture has its own version of how the universe began. Artist Noah MacMillan brings this “visual vocabulary” to life

Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley: The Original Folkways Recordings, 1960-1962

Listen to Doc Watson Picking Away at his Banjo

A new release from Smithsonian Folkways highlights the talent of a bluegrass master

Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures

New Books, Reviewed: Animal Emotions, Deconstructing Detroit and the Science of Winning

Taking a closer look at some of the newest releases in non-fiction

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A Nike Shoe, Now a Part of the Smithsonian

The Flyknit racer is currently in the collections of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

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