Smart News

A cyclist braves Beijing's smog with a face mask last month.

Trending Today

Beijing Just Issued Its First “Red Alert” for Smog

Will the city's latest smog crisis spur international action on climate change?

A diver inspects the plane's forward turret.

Cool Finds

View a Rare Seaplane Lost Just Before the Pearl Harbor Attack

The plane was a casualty of the first phase of the raid that took place on December 7, 1941

Mount Etna's eruption on December 3, 2015 was powerful enough to produce volcanic lightning

Trending Today

Watch Mount Etna and Momotombo Erupt in All Their Glory

Photos and video catch the spectacular events in action

How many curls can you count?

Cool Finds

A Buddha in Japan Is Missing Half of Its Curls

What happened to the Buddha of Nara's famous 'do?

Artist Johanna Barron's recreation of a Gene Davis painting called "Black Rhythm" that belongs to the CIA's art collection.

Cool Finds

The CIA Won’t Reveal What’s in its Secret Art Collection

An art installation questions why the CIA is keeping mum about a series of abstract paintings

Cool Finds

There’s a Philly Sign Language Accent

The unique signs used by people in Philadelphia hint at the history of sign language in the U.S.

This 19th-century cartoon depicts a corpse brought back to life through the power of "galvanism."

Cool Finds

How Twitching Frog Legs Helped Inspire 'Frankenstein'

Galvanism sought to reanimate the dead—and in doing so provided the impetus for one of literature's most famously frightful books

Trending Today

It Can Take More Than 10 Years of Work to Get a Christmas Tree Ready for Market

Helicopters can speed along the harvest, however

An ultra-marathoner runs the Ultra tour de Mont Blanc

New Research

An Unexpected Effect of Ultra-Marathons: Brain Shrinkage

Don’t worry, it isn't permanent

Geminid meteors streak across the sky behind a barn in western Iowa.

Trending Today

Catch a Glimpse of the Comet Catalina and the Geminid Meteor Shower

The meteor shower peaks next week as comet Catalina gets closer throughout the month

The LISA Pathfinder probe on display in September, 2015.

Trending Today

A Space-Based Physics Lab Could Help Scientists Study How Gravity Warps Spacetime

The LISA Pathfinder Probe could help reveal the ripples caused by black holes and supernovae

A close-up of what might be one of the oldest depictions of a human dwelling.

New Research

Does This Carving Depict a Paleolithic Campsite?

A chunk of stone may be marked with one of the oldest drawings of a human campsite

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Visit Machu Picchu With Google Street View

Armed with a backpack and 15 high-res cameras, Google just tackled one of the world's wonders

An electronic weapon from Taser International

Cool Finds

The Word "Taser" Comes From a Young Adult Sci-Fi Novel

Massively popular at the time, the Tom Swift books have not aged very well

The top of Mauna Kea with Keck Observatory in the foreground

Trending Today

Court Revokes the Construction Permit for Contentious Hawaiian Telescope

Protestors physically blocked access to the Mauna Kea construction site for more than a year and now the project faces another roadblock

Residents evacuate their homes in Chennai during catastrophic floods.

Trending Today

Five Things You Should Know about the Catastrophic Flooding in Chennai

Mass evacuations, a submerged airport and questions about the city's urban planning

Cool Finds

Here’s What Happens When You Age Whisky

Hint: The barrel really does matter

Twelve decades worth of averaged yearbook portraits

New Research

Yearbook Photos Show How Smiles Have Widened Over the Decades

An analysis of roughly 38,000 high-school senior portraits shows Americans’ frowns turning upside down

Screenshot from "Fairy Lights in Femtoseconds: Tangible Holographic Plasma (SIGGRAPH)"

New Research

This Holograph Can Be Touched and Manipulated

Tiny interactive displays use lasers to create touchable plasma

Trending Today

Hundreds of Fake Ads Protest Paris Climate Summit’s Corporate Sponsors

Artists in Paris distributed 600 posters calling out companies' hypocrisy

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