Smart News: Ideas & Innovations | Smithsonian Magazine

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts hired art therapist Stephen Legari in 2017

Quebec’s Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Sets Example in Arts-Based Wellness

The social prescribing movement involves the treatment of a wide range of ailments with therapeutic art- or hobby-based activities

March 28, 2019

"Super smeller" Joy Milne (left) poses alongside Perdita Barran, a co-author of the new study

New Research

How a Woman Who Can Smell Parkinson's Disease Helped Scientists Create a New Early Diagnosis Method

Joy Milne first noticed a “sort of woody, musky odor” emanating from her husband some 12 years before he was diagnosed with the degenerative disorder

March 21, 2019

Honey gathered from urban beehives offers a surprisingly accurate measure of surrounding communities’ air quality

How Urban Beehives Can Help Researchers Detect Air Pollution

Trace elements found in honey may be able to lead researchers straight to the source of environmental contamination

March 19, 2019

Compared to traditional open-heart surgery, TAVR is a relatively simple procedure that finds cardiologists using a catheter to insert a replacement valve

This Minimally Invasive Technique Could Reduce the Need for Open-Heart Surgery

Clinical trials suggest TAVR is just as beneficial as, or perhaps even better than, open-heart surgery for low- and high-risk patients alike

March 18, 2019

Georges Seurat's Pointillist "Study for 'A Sunday on La Grande Jatte'" exhibits high levels of entropy but low levels of complexity

Art Meets Science

Physicists Come Up With Intriguing Way to Measure Art's Evolution

By mapping the complexity and entropy of 140,000 paintings created between 1031 and 2016, the researchers demonstrated the interaction of art movements

March 11, 2019

Underdrawing as seen under X-ray (left) and underdrawing superimposed with elements of 1619 portrait (right)

Cool Finds

X-Ray Analysis Reveals Self-Portrait Hidden Under Artemisia Gentileschi Painting

The underpainting closely mirrors an earlier self-portrait depicting the Baroque artist as Saint Catherine

March 8, 2019

The Lady K tow boat kicks up a wake full of green algae a few hundred feet from the city of Toledo's Water Intake on Lake Erie, for testing on Monday, August 4, 2014.

Trending Today

Toledo, Ohio, Just Granted Lake Erie the Same Legal Rights as People

A controversial referendum passed this week establishes a bill of rights for the Great Lake and grants it legal standing in suing polluters

March 1, 2019

The study's authors say search data could be used to better anticipate patients' needs and gauge issues they might feel uncomfortable discussing in person

What Do People Google Before Going to the E.R.?

Study reveals that patients’ health-related searches doubled in the week before an emergency room visit

February 25, 2019

Construction is slated to begin in 2020, with the museum officially opening its doors in late 2022

Art Meets Science

Seoul Will Welcome a Robot Science Museum Constructed by Robots

Robots and drones will be involved in all aspects of the project, including design, manufacture and assembly

February 22, 2019

As visitors mill around the room, Abramović, standing in a roped-off five-meter circle, alternately stands still or makes small movements

New Exhibition Brings Marina Abramović to Life Via ‘Mixed’ Reality

The work places gallery visitors in dialogue with a three-dimensional digital version of the legendary performance artist

February 20, 2019

During the early Triassic epoch, Washington, D.C. was situated in a massive supercontinent called Pangea

This Map Lets You Plug in Your Address to See How It's Changed Over the Past 750 Million Years

The interactive tool enables users to home in on a specific location and visualize how it has evolved between the Cryogenian period and the present

February 15, 2019

Gary Brannan, archivist, and Professor Sarah Rees Jones examine one of the archbishops' registers.

A Medieval Nun Wanted to Escape Her Convent—so She Faked Her Death

This story and others have come to light during a project to translate and digitize a series of texts about archbishops in York, England

February 12, 2019

The Travel Company Making Machu Picchu Wheelchair Accessible

Wheel the World offers travelers specialized wheelchairs that can traverse difficult terrain

February 4, 2019

Neuroscientists Have Converted Brain Waves Into Verbal Speech

Researchers tracked participants' neural activity as they listened to recorded speech, then translated brain patterns into synthesized speech

January 31, 2019

Enrique Linares: "Zambra Gitana at the Roma Neighborhood in Granada." Postcard, Spain, 1910. RomArchive: fla_00026.

New Archive Reclaims the Narrative of the Roma

RomArchive includes more than 5,000 objects that highlight the creativity and self-agency of the often-maligned group

January 31, 2019

The map currently features more than 130 entries divided into five categories

Interactive Map Renders Women's Cultural Contributions to French Capital Visible

The evolving project highlights landmarks in Paris that were “financed, imagined or made by women”

January 30, 2019