Smart News

Left: Half-restored version of Vermeer's "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window" / Right: Unrestored version

Cool Finds

Restoration Reveals Long-Lost Cupid Painted Over After Vermeer’s Death

In an unusual move, the Dresden gallery has opted to display the half-restored painting prior to concluding conservation efforts

Horrific conditions of captive bred lions on a captive lion breeding farm in South Africa. Photos provided to Humane Society International by an anonymous source.

108 Neglected Lions Found on South African Breeding Farm

The animals’ plight highlights existing concerns about a controversial wildlife industry

Raising a trilithon

A Missing Piece of Stonehenge Has Been Returned to the U.K.

The 'core' may shed light on the mysterious origins of the monument’s huge stones

Iris Scott, "Tiger Fire," 2019

Iris Scott, the World's First Professional Finger-Painter, Launches NYC Show

While the artist isn't the first to use finger painting in her work, she is the first to dedicate her career to the technique

Cool Finds

1,000-Year-Old Pouch From Bolivia Contains Traces of Five Mind-Altering Drugs

The ingredients include coca leaves and two compounds used in modern ayahuasca rituals

Norma Miller photographed in 2015

Norma Miller, the ‘Queen of Swing,’ Has Died at 99

An electric performer of the Lindy Hop, Miller dazzled audiences on stage and screen

152 Nassau

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

The Site of Country Music's First Recorded Hit Is Set to Be Demolished

152 Nassau Street in Atlanta was home to the first country music recording hit made before the genre even had a name

C.D.C. Says More Than Half of the U.S.’ Pregnancy-Related Deaths Are Preventable

African-American, Native American and Alaska Native women are around three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related issues than white women

Haze at Joshua Tree National Park.

New Research

Signficant Air Pollution Plagues Almost All U.S. National Parks

Ozone and other pollutants are obscuring views, hurting plants and causing health concerns for visitors at 96 percent of parks

The statue "Another time V," part of British sculptor Antony Gormley's exhibiton "Sight," is displayed on the Greek island of Delos, a UNESCO World Heritage protected ancient archaeological site.

The Ancient Greek Island of Delos Gets Its First Contemporary Art Installation

The esteemed British artist Antony Gormley has brought his signature “bodyforms” to the island

The board was likely used in the bath house at Vindolanda, one of 14 forts along Hadrian's Wall, but was repurposed as a floor stone in the adjacent building after it was broken.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Uncover an Ancient Roman Game Board at Hadrian's Wall

The cracked stone board was likely used to play ludus latrunculorum, Rome's favorite game

Nine Gray Whales Have Washed Up Dead in the San Francisco Bay Area

Some were hit by ships, but others died of malnourishment—a sign that the whales’ Arctic food sources may have been disrupted

To some, beets' soil-like smell is so strong that eating the vegetable holds the same appeal as dining on a chunk of dirt.

New Research

New Study Reveals How One Person’s ‘Smellscape’ Can Differ From Another’s

A single genetic mutation could determine whether you perceive beets’ soil-like smell, whiskey’s smokiness and lily of the valley’s sweetness

New Research

This New Plastic Can Be Endlessly Recycled

The new material, dubbed PDK, can be deconstructed down to the molecular level

Max Peintner, "The Unbroken Attraction of Nature," 1970-71, handcolored by Klaus Littmann in 2018

Art Meets Science

Curator Will Plant 299 Trees in a Stadium to Make Statement on Climate Change

After the installation closes, the makeshift forest will be relocated to a public space, where it will remain accessible as a 'living forest sculpture'

Archeologist Rhonda Kimbrough (left) discusses the survey strategy at Prospect Bluff with author and historian Dale Cox and SEAF Treasurer Janet Bard

Relics of Rebel Slave Fort Unearthed by Hurricane Michael

The site was recently listed as part of the NPS’ Underground Railroad Network to Freedom

Celine Dion arrives for the 2019 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

How Well Did This Year's Met Gala Exemplify ‘Camp’?

The concept of camp goes far beyond what Susan Sontag wrote in her seminal essay

Participants use magnetic landscape tiles to build a perfect planet

This Board Game Asks Players to Craft a Perfect Planet

In 'Planet', players compete to create worlds capable of sustaining the highest possible level of biodiversity

An artist's rendering of how Suskityrannus hazelae may have looked.

When Tyrannosaurs Were Tiny

A new study describes an early T. rex relative that stood about three feet tall and weighed no more than 90 pounds

New Research

How Do You Educate Climate Change Skeptics? Empower Their Kids to Teach Them

A new study shows that educating children may be the best way to reach parents who don't seem to care about climate change

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