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Oasis in the city
The Smithsonian Pollinator Garden on the grounds of the National Museum of Natural History. (Smithsonain Gardens photo) Pollinators like butterflies, bees, beetles, flies, and moths help to pollinate...
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Smithsonian and Partners To Preserve Earth’s Genomic Plant Diversity
Once captured, genomic samples will be stored in the Smithsonian’s biorepository, a complex of sub-zero freezers which can hold up to 4 million cryo-preserved samples in perpetuity, located at the...
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A Precocious Black Hole
In this illustration a black hole emits part of the accreted matter in the form of energetic radiation (blue), without slowing down star formation within the host galaxy (purple regions). (Illustration...
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Kickstarter funding: Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit
This spacesuit was worn by astronaut Neil Armstrong, Commander of the Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first man on the moon on July 20, 1969. (Image by Mark Avino, National Air and Space Museum)...
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CASSIOPEIA’S HIDDEN GEM: THE CLOSEST ROCKY, TRANSITING PLANET
This artist’s conception shows the silhouette of a rocky planet, dubbed HD 219134b, as it passes in front of its star. (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech) Skygazers at northern latitudes are familiar...
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Smithsonian Enlists Star Trek Fans to Send USS Enterprise Back in Time
The National Air and Space Museum is asking Star Trek fans to search their memory banks for firsthand, pre-1976 images or film of the original studio model of the USS Enterprise. Conservators are...
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Colorful Caterpillar Chemists
The bright stripes and bristles of this skipper butterfly caterpillar, Pyrrhopyge thericles warn predators that it packs a toxic punch, thanks to an exclusive diet of toxic plants of the genus Vismia....
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Climbing plants disturb carbon storage in tropical forests
Stefan Schnitzer, a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, talks about lianas, or woody vines, on Panama’s Barro Colorado Island. (Photo by Sean Mattson/STRI) Although...
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Nano Bible donated to Smithsonian
The Bible is only 0.5 square millimeters – much smaller than the head of a pin. The text was etched with a focused beam of energetic gallium ions. (Photos courtesy Technion-Israel Institute of...
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Smithsonian lab receives GreenGov Presidential Award
The Mathias Laboratory at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md. Throughout 2015 the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Md., has marked its 50th...
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Research shows same growth rate for farming, non-farming societies
University of Wyoming students excavate a prehistoric rock shelter in the Big Horn Mountains of northern Wyoming during the summer of 2015. (UW Photo) Prehistoric human populations of hunter-gatherers...
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The Power of Touch: Sex-changing snails switch sooner when together
Many animals change sex at some point in their lives, often after reaching a certain size. Snails called slipper limpets begin life as males, and become female as they grow. A new Smithsonian study...
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Trees employ similar strategies to outcompete their neighbors
By studying forests in the same way at sites around the world, the Smithsonian ForestGEO network provides some of the best on-the-ground data to understand forests and their responses to global change....
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Elusive bush dog widespread in Panama
Bush dogs photographed in Donoso, Colón Province, Panama, Dec. 7, 2012. (Image provided by Ricardo Moreno, MWH Global, Inc., Minera Panama S.A.) The bush dog is one of the most enigmatic of the world’s...
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Invasive Cobia Spreads in Panama
Cobia, a promising fish for aquaculture, lives throughout the world’s oceans except in the Central and Eastern Pacific. In August 2015, a large number of young fish escaped from offshore cages in...
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‘The Wrong Wrights’: A Graphic Novel from Smithsonian Books
In the first volume of the Secret Smithsonian Adventures graphic-novel series from Smithsonian Books, The Wrong Wrights, four middle-school kids visit the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum to...
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Sun-like Star Shows Magnetic Field Critical for Life on the early Earth
In this artist’s illustration, the young Sun-like star Kappa Ceti is blotched with large starspots, a sign of its high level of magnetic activity. New research shows that its stellar wind is 50 times...
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Discovery: trap-jaw spiders snap prey with super-spidey speed and power
“Chilarchaea quellon,” male: looking at the face of a trap-jaw spider, the long chelicerae are in front and the fangs at the tip. A team of researchers led by Smithsonian scientist Hannah Wood has...
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25 Scimitar-Horned Oryx to be Reintroduced to the Wild in Chad
Scimitar-horned oryx being released into a large fenced area at the Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve in Chad. The herd will be fully reintroduced to the wild during summer 2016. (Environment...
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First North American Monkey Fossils Found in Panama Canal Excavation
“Cebus capucinus,” the species of Cebus common in Panama today. (Photo by Andres Hernandez, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) Seven fossil teeth exposed by the Panama Canal expansion project are...
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When is a blue bird not Blue?
Mountain Bluebird, Cabin Lake Viewing Blinds, Deschutes National Forest, Near Fort Rock, Oregon (Photo by Elaine R. Wilson) When is a blue bird not blue? The answer to this question is always. There...
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Red pandas come back to Zoo
Female red panda Asa explores her habitat on the Asia Trail at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. (Photo by Adam Mason, Smithsonian’s National Zoo)In this photo: The National Zoo’s red panda habitat on...
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Planet 9: A world that should not exist
Artist’s conception of Planet Nine. (Image courtesy Caltech/R. Hurt) Earlier this year scientists presented evidence for Planet Nine, a Neptune-mass planet in an elliptical orbit 10 times farther from...
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Ancient Native-American methods may be key to sustainable oyster harvests
Chesapeake oysters in a bushel basket (Photo courtesy Chesapeake Bay Program) Oysters are keystone organisms in estuaries around the world, influencing water quality, constructing habitat and providing...
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Endangered Kiwi Chick Hatches
A brown kiwi chick, hatched at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI). The chick is the first to hatch from an egg that was laid and incubated at SCBI. For the first time, an egg laid by...
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