Newly displayed 1,300-year-old doodles suggest that medieval monastic life wasn’t all about solemn chants and holy scripture. Now on view at the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare Street, the ...

Karl Simon visits Highgate Cemetery to show us the importance of contrast in black-and-white painting on a tablet.

Along with some 100 images of everyday objects and scenes, “Point Blank” will include vignettes by the writers Lucy Sante and Jackie Hamilton.

Colette Laxton and Mark Curry use the two-color scheme for the packaging on the products for their company, the Inkey List, and as a philosophy for their relationship — “total honesty always ...

Historically, the white smoke was created by burning the ballots together with dry straw. The black smoke was made from the ballots, wet straw, and with the addition of pitch to darken the color.

Here's how the conclave creates black and white smoke and why the Catholic Church began using them to signal whether a new pope has been elected.

Black smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel's chimney on Wednesday, signaling that the College of Cardinals had not elected a pope.

All eyes are on the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, where either black smoke or white smoke will emerge to signal whether a new pope has been selected. According to historians, smoke in some form has ...

Today, thanks to modern chemistry, the smoke is unmistakable — thick black billows for inconclusive votes, or a bright white plume when a new pope is elected.

Black smoke indicates a non-conclusive answer, and white smoke indicates that a new pope has been selected. Here's what to know about the black and white smoke used during a papal conclave.