Then suddenly, at 7:06 p.m., Rome time today, the smoke again appeared. And it was white. We now have a new pope. But what gives the conclave smoke, or the "fumata," its thick, distinctive ...

White smoke has emerged from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, signaling that the cardinals have elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio—a 76-year-old Argentine and archbishop of Buenos ...

As white smoke billowed from ... The visual tradition of conclave smoke may seem like a ritual rooted in the distant past, but its meaning—like its color—is steeped in science.