Ellis Island gets makeover
About 40 percent of the people living in the U.S. today came through Ellis Island, according to the National Park Service. Today, anyone can go to the…
Author: The Smart Reader Staff
Briefs and quick reads selected and edited by The Smart Reader's editorial team.
Easy way to artistic fame?
How do you get your painting in a famous museum? Years of toil in obscurity, perhaps? You could also just buy a few screws. No one looked twice when a…
Left-handedness might be at least partly genetic
Left-handedness might be in your genes, according to a new study in the journal Nature Communications. About 10 percent of the human population is…
Curiosity earns cat a trip to California
Since at least the late 1500s, authors from Shakespeare to Stephen King have mentioned what happens to curious cats — and it’s never good. But for one…
Zipline flying high with a million drone deliveries
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Wait, no — it might actually be dinner or your latest online purchase. Drone delivery service Zipline recently celebrated its…
Drones becoming a favored crime tool
If you spot a drone watching you or snooping around your property, you may want to keep your eyes peeled. Among other things, criminals have begun using…
The weirdest things you’ll find in space
Could that UFO in the sky actually be a Tesla Roadster? While space exploration is still in its infancy, humanity has already shot a surprising number of…
The rarest modern dime
Would you take a half a million dollars in exchange for a common dime? That’s the value of a proof copy of the 1975 “No S” Roosevelt dime. Only two of…
An ancient and magical word
Consider the neighborhood kid magician doing magical tricks for the little ones. It’s not entirely unlikely that an amazing trick will include the magic…
The big mystery of fingerprints
Fingerprints unlock smartphones. They help detectives identify suspects. But why do we even have them? Researchers are seeking to explain this fascinating…