To help regulators and engineers develop and test such treatment systems, and ultimately enforce these standards, a team of researchers developed a statistical model to see how to count small, scarce organisms in large volumes of water accurately.

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On the heels of spring’s arrival, a wattled crane (Bugeranus carunculatus) chick hatched at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo March 20, the third of its kind […]

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“Our results support the idea that environmental conditions on tropical non-breeding areas can influence the departure time for spring migration,” said Colin Studds, a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Migratory Bird Center and lead author of the study.

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The April 5 exhibits, “In the Mummy’s Tomb,” “Making a Mummy” and “What’s in a Face,” focus on Egyptian burial rites.

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Looking at more than 200 skulls dating to 20th and 16th century Spain, as well as approximately 50 skulls from 20th century Portugal, the researchers found that craniofacial differences between contemporary men and women are less pronounced than they were in the 16th century.

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If intelligent and more advanced civilizations exist on other planets then its a good bet that some of these civilizations turned to asteroid mining long ago. If so, the hallmarks of their mining activities, such as unusual dirty halos of cast-off dust and debris around large asteroids, might be detectable from earth.

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The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has been selected by the National Science Foundation as the recipient of a 12-meter (39-foot) radio antenna designed for submillimeter-wavelength astronomy. The ALMA Vertex Prototype Antenna was one of three antennas built as prototypes for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, a 66-dish radio observatory currently being constructed in Chile.

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Giant squid eye, 2008 Giant squid have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom—at up to 10 inches in diameter, they are the size of […]

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Astronomers have just discovered an amazing pair of white dwarfs whirling around each other once every 39 minutes. This is the shortest-period pair of white dwarfs now known. Moreover, in a few million years they will collide and merge to create a single star.

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In a recent study of the mating behavior of these Asian spiders, researchers found that 87.5 percent of males had both palps amputated during copulation.

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Sita (SEE-ta), a 2-year-old female clouded leopard at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va., gave birth to these two cubs on Monday, […]

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According to new research by Nick Stone and Avi Loeb (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), upcoming sky surveys might offer astronomers a way to catch a gorging black hole "in the act."

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Discovery, the longest-serving orbiter in the space shuttle fleet, will be accepted into the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum collection. The space shuttle has been the icon for American spaceflight for a generation, and Discovery has flown every type of mission during its 27-year career.

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A new bacterial genome sequence could help researchers solve a mystery as to how microorganisms produce a highly toxic form of mercury.

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A team of scientists led by the Smithsonian Institution has discovered a fossilized dinosaur skull and neck vertebrae that not only reveal a new species, but also an evolutionary link between two groups of dinosaurs.

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BROOKINGS, S.D. — Julie DeJong can’t set foot on the ground of an Oregon marsh to gather duck eggs on a spring day in 1875. […]

The post Work of 19th-century oologists enables researcher to track climate change with duck eggs appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Astronomers of the future won't have to take the Big Bang on faith. With careful measurements and clever analysis, they can find the subtle evidence outlining the history of the universe.

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A remarkable 5,000-year-old deposit of bones representing an entire herd of Persian gazelles recently discovered in northeastern Syria is firm evidence, scientists say, of an ancient hunting practice largely responsible for the near extinction of gazelles in this region today.

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For decades, astronomers divided supernovas into two groups: one from young stars that explode and one from old stars that explode. They now have evidence for a new, third type of supernova explosion whose source is still a mystery.

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An international team of astronomers has revealed details of a “super-exotic” exoplanet that would make the planet Pandora in the movie Avatar pale in comparison.

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In addition to the species name, Leafsnap provides high-resolution photographs and information about the tree's flowers, fruit, seeds and bark—giving the user a comprehensive understanding of the specie

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has made available to the public a new online collection of images that capture the excitement of planetary exploration and the journey to understand the origin and evolution of the solar system.

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Titan is the largest of the 53 known moons orbiting Saturn. Despite its distance from the Sun, Titan is arguably one of the most Earth-like […]

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The expanded and remodeled Mathias Laboratory, named in honor of U.S. Senator Charles "Mac" Mathias Jr. (1922-2010) (R-Md.) will have a low environmental impact on all fronts, from where it gets its power to where it gets its materials.

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The new research reveals that from the period between 1100-1600 small agricultural settlements up and down the Delaware River Valley caused a 50-percent increase in sediment runoff into the Delaware River.

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The predictability and scale of seasonal changes in a habitat help determine the distance migratory species move and whether the animals always travel together to the same place or independently to different locations.

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In an event that has astronomers mystified; the famous Crab Nebula supernova remnant has erupted in an enormous flare five times more powerful than any flare previously seen from the object.

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Image right: A sea of dunes, sculpted by the wind into long lines, surrounds the northern polar cap of Mars, covering an area as big […]

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A study published in the journal Global Change Biology finds that while fertilizer has been the dominant source of nitrogen pollution in Caribbean coastal ecosystems for the past 50 years, such pollution is on the decline, thanks in part to the introduction of more advanced, environmentally responsible agricultural practices during the last decade.

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Scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo detected a secondary rise in urinary progesterone levels in the Zoo’s female giant panda Mei Xiang (may-SHONG). This hormone rise indicates that it should be 40 to 50 days before Mei Xiang either gives birth to a cub or comes to the end of a pseudopregnancy, or false pregnancy, which is common in giant pandas.

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The most widely used methods for calculating species extinction rates are "fundamentally flawed" and overestimate extinction rates by as much as 160 percent, life scientists report May 19 in the journal Nature.

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Researchers at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and partnering organizations will build a frozen repository of Great Barrier Reef coral sperm and embryonic cells. Genetic banks composed of frozen biomaterials hold strong promise for basic and applied research and conservation of species and genetic variation.

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Smithsonian scientists have discovered hundreds of new species around the world. To mark this year’s International Day for Biological Diversity, May 22, here is a […]

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By compiling and comparing long-term data from stranding records and visual sighting records, both taken from nearly every ocean basin in the world, Pyenson verified that stranding records “faithfully reflect the number of species and the relative abundance” found in live surveys.

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NASA's Kepler spacecraft is proving itself to be a prolific planet hunter. Within just the first four months of data, astronomers have found evidence for more than 1,200 planetary candidates. Of those, 408 reside in systems containing two or more planets, and most of those look very different than our solar system.

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Collecting trips for Charles Doolittle Walcott (1850-1927), paleontologist and fourth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, were often a family affair. This 1910 photograph shows their […]

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Today, Wednesday, May 25, astronomers unveiled the most complete 3-D map of the local universe (out to a distance of 380 million light-years) ever created. Taking more than 10 years to complete, the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) also is notable for extending closer to the Galactic plane than previous surveys – a region that’s generally obscured by dust.

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This new research, which involved both surface and aerial surveys, has revealed an enormous aggregation of whale sharks—the largest ever reported—with up to 420 individuals off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

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Lookdown fish (Selene vomer) specimens in an x-ray exposure from the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service exhibition “X-ray Vision: Fish Inside Out.” The collection of these […]

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Five billion years from now, our Milky Way galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy. This will mark a moment of both destruction and creation. The galaxies will lose their separate identities as they merge into one. At the same time, cosmic clouds of gas and dust will smash together, triggering the birth of new stars.

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Puffer fish (Tetraodontidae) are masters of self-defense. When threatened they blow up like a balloon. Not only does this make them harder to swallow, but […]

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The National Zoo’s great cat program recently expanded with the arrival of two-and-a-half-year-old female Sumatran tiger, Damai, who is now out of quarantine and spending time outside in her exhibit where visitors can see her.

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A local supernova factory has recently started production, according to a wealth of new data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory on the Carina Nebula.

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The National Zoo has received a breeding pair of Asian small-clawed otters at Asia Trail for the first time. Mac, a three-year-old male from the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Wash., and Smidge, a five-year-old female from the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, arrived in April and are now in their exhibit.

The post Keepers are optimistic about Zoo’s new breeding pair of Asian small-clawed otters appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Five cheetah cubs were born May 28 to 6-year-old Amani at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. Amani is a dedicated mother according to keepers, who have observed her nursing and grooming the cubs.

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Any adventurer, hiker or backyard naturalist with a camera can help scientists survey and hopefully save the world’s amphibians thanks to a new social networking site that links “citizen scientists” with researchers tracking the decline of amphibians around the globe.

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The recent field of invasion biology faces a new challenge as 19 eminent ecologists issue a call to "end the bias against non-native species" in the journal Nature.

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In 1987, light from an exploding star in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, reached Earth. Named Supernova 1987A, it was the closest supernova explosion witnessed in almost 400 years, allowing astronomers to study it in unprecedented detail as it evolves.

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One of the most challenging aspects of this research is simply studying these insects as they are falling, says Yanoviak, a tropical arthropod ecologist at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. Small body size, rapid descent, and the long distances that they can fall, make accurate data taking a challenge.

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A description and photos of the green-headed tanager (Tangara seledon), a bird native to east-central South America, can be found in the Species of the […]

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