Observed in the wild, tucked away in museum collections, and even exhibited in zoos around the world―there is one mysterious creature that has been a […]

The post Smithsonian scientists discover new carnivore: the olinguito appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

In 2009, during an expedition by a Russian research ship, a small length of yellow flesh about 5 centimeters long was dredged up from the […]

The post Last seen 140 years ago, deep sea worm resurfaces, delighting scientists appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

To download the free e-book Best of Both Worlds: Museums, Libraries, and Archives in a Digital Age, by G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian, […]

The post Smithsonian secretary on the future of museums, libraries and archives appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists have studied bird migration for centuries, but it remains one of nature’s great mysteries. How do birds find their way over long distances between […]

The post Young whoopers stay the course when they follow a wise old bird appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics have confirmed that the giant panda cub born at the National Zoo […]

The post National Zoo’s giant panda cub is a girl! appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The center of the Milky Way galaxy, with The supermassive black hole Sagittarius A–at center–is revealed in this image. Astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to […]

The post Sagittarius A: Center of the Milky Way appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Astronomers are constantly on the hunt for ever-colder star-like bodies, and two years ago a new class of objects was discovered by researchers using NASA’s […]

The post Coldest brown dwarfs blur lines between stars and planets appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Hellbenders, aquatic salamanders from the eastern United States, are surprisingly good at dealing with unpredictable weather. In a recent study published in the Journal of […]

The post Zoo scientists find sudden stream temperature changes boost hellbender immune systems appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Microbes that live in rice paddies, northern peat bogs and other previously unexpected environments are among the bacteria that can generate highly toxic methylmercury, researchers […]

The post Toxic methylmercury-producing microbes more widespread than realized appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Grow fast, die young is not a lifestyle normally associated with trees. But in the forests of the Northeastern United States the red maple follows […]

The post Effects of human impact are long lasting for forests in Northeast U.S. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The giant panda cub born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo Aug. 23 received her first veterinary exam late yesterday afternoon and was given a clean […]

The post Panda cub receives first exam appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Roses, carnations and lilies are today among the most popular flowers people use to express sympathy and condolence. The simple act of sending flowers to […]

The post Funeral flowers in the Stone Age: Q&A with Smithsonian anthropologist Reuven Yeshurun appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Sometime during the Middle Eocene a prehistoric mosquito slurped down a final blood meal then died and sank to the bottom of a pond in […]

The post Blood molecules preserved for millions of years in abdomen of fossil mosquito appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

  This image is a close-up of the skull of the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known as the Wankel T. rex which was installed in front […]

The post T-rex to rule Dinosaur Hall appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Hot spots of mercury pollution in aquatic sediments and soils can contaminate local food webs and threaten ecosystems, but cleaning them up can be expensive […]

The post Toxicity of mercury hot spots can be reduced with application of activated carbon, researchers discover appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Mortlock Islands flying fox, a large, breadfruit-eating bat native to a few remote and tiny Pacific islands, has long been regarded as one of […]

The post Scientists shine light on world’s least-studied bat: Mortlock Islands flying fox appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Kepler-78b is a planet that shouldn’t exist. This scorching lava world circles its star every eight and a half hours at a distance of less […]

The post Mystery lava world baffles astronomers appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

It is one of the most sensitive noses in the animal kingdom but what its owner seeks is no pungent bed of roses, in fact […]

The post Study shows turkey vulture is doubly blessed with acute vision and sense of smell appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

  The surface of Venus is hidden beneath a perpetual blanket of clouds, but radar allows scientists at the National Air and Space Museum to […]

The post Mapping Venus with radar appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

“He is a gay Lothario and will covet and steal his neighbor’s wives and daughters; and if his neighbors protest he will fight to the […]

The post The Wild Turkey and its Hunting appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Hopes are high for Comet ISON, which has the potential to become the most spectacular comet seen in years. ISON is speeding through the inner […]

The post Micro-Observatory catches comet ISON appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Found worldwide in tropical and subtropical seas and oceans, Dolabrifera dolabrifera is a species of sea hare, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Aplysiidae. […]

The post Sea hare chemical fights leishmaniasis appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History have just named and described the Spectacular Guyane False-form beetle, or Guyanemorpha spectabilis, from Guyane (French Guiana). […]

The post Remarkably large and colorful new beetle discovered in French Guiana appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The scale of the universe can be difficult to comprehend. Pretend you are going to make a scale model with a basketball representing the Earth […]

The post Can iPads help students learn science? appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Unlocking the mysteries of animal migration through precise, near real-time tracking can solve major conservation challenges and transform wildlife science worldwide. For the past year, […]

The post New project to unlock migration mysteries from air appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Santa Claus and his sleigh full of gifts has been upstaged early this holiday season by news of autonomous drones possibly delivering packages to your […]

The post Package-delivering drones? Q&A with Roger Connor of the National Air and Space Museum appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A groundbreaking study by Harvard University’s Harvard Forest and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute reveals that, if left unchecked, recent trends in the loss of […]

The post Sprawl threatens water quality, climate protection, and land conservation in Massachusetts appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

For scientists who study non-insect invertebrates, the sheer diversity of these odd and fascinating creatures is both intoxicating and daunting. Occupying niches in habitats the […]

The post Non-insect invertebrates are focus of new global genome-sequencing alliance appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Hungry rodents that wake up early are much more likely to be eaten than rodents getting plenty of food and shut-eye, according to new results […]

The post Rain forest rodents risk their lives to eat appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

W49A might be one of the best-kept secrets in our galaxy. This star-forming region shines 100 times brighter than the Orion nebula, but is so […]

The post SMA reveals giant star cluster in the making appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History have discovered a new genus and species of attine ants that reveals key clues in the […]

The post Smithsonian scientists discover new ghost ant genus and species appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

An international team of astronomers has discovered the first Earth-mass planet that transits, or crosses in front of, its host star. KOI-314c is the lightest […]

The post Newfound planet is Earth-mass but gassy appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

After years of sleuthing for clues about where and when pantherine felids (“big cats”) originated, a Smithsonian scientist and an international team of researchers are […]

The post Smithsonian scientist confirms missing link in big cat evolution appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

  Tiny spherules pepper a sandy surface in this 3-centimeter (1.2-inch) square view of the Martian surface. The largest one is broken in half and […]

The post 10 years roving across Mars appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Ants dominate the earth’s ecosystems and many are voracious predators that use their mandibles and sheer numbers to pin down and tear apart most other […]

The post Carabidae in the colony, seven new beetles that bunk with ants: Q&A with Terry Erwin appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute rung in 2014 with the hatching of the most endangered species in its collection—a Micronesian kingfisher—Jan. 1. The chick, whose […]

The post Micronesian kingfisher chick hatches at the National Zoo’s Conservation Biology Institute appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Out in Montana’s Big Sky Country Dale Greenwalt spends his summers seeking the incredibly tiny and fragile. Armed with a putty knife honed razor-sharp on […]

The post Quality of insect fossils from Montana’s Flathead River astounds scientists appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Our solar system seems like a neat and orderly place, with small, rocky worlds near the Sun and big, gaseous worlds farther out, all eight […]

The post Asteroid diversity = “snow globe” Solar System appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Animal keepers at the National Zoo have been hand feeding a female gray seal pup, born Jan. 21 at 10:21 p.m., in the holding area […]

The post Gray seal pup born appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new coral species, Psammogorgia hookeri, has been collected by scuba divers from rocky ledges at depths to 25 meters in Peru’s Paracas National Reserve. The […]

The post Fiery-red coral species discovered in the Peruvian Pacific appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

As the male túngara frog serenades female frogs from a pond, he creates watery ripples that make him easier to target by rivals and predators […]

The post Bats use water ripples to hunt frogs appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Paddling the remote oxbow lakes and bayous of the White River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas, the team of scientists was seeking proof of a […]

The post Nest discovery turns back the clock to days of Daniel Boone and Colonial America appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

It has all the hallmarks of a paleontological crime scene: a massive graveyard along a remote desert highway containing the fossil bones of at least […]

The post Algae assassin found responsible for whale mass grave in Chile appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

An 880-pound asteroid moving at 38,000 miles per hour hit the moon last September with a blast equivalent to 15 tons of TNT. While errant […]

The post Give us the telescopes and we’ll find the asteroid mines! appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Carla Dove is an Ornithologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. In this Feb. 12 Webcast join her in analyzing the remains of […]

The post Webcast w/ bird detective, Carla Dove appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new species of mite discovered recently in Ohio is so tiny that it lives in the space between particles in sandy, impoverished soils. Despite […]

The post New dragon-like mite found in Ohio is gentle, reclusive appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Partners in the Sky: Aviation and Aerospace Industry Leaders Join The Smithsonian In Worldwide Conservation Efforts Partnership Will Revolutionize Animal Tracking

The post Partners in the Sky appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents announced today it elected Dr. David J. Skorton, president of Cornell University and a board-certified cardiologist, as the 13th […]

The post David Skorton to lead Smithsonian appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The largest fully preserved great ape collection in the world is about to make its online debut.

The post Unlocking secrets–technology allows scientists to peer inside great apes appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Almost 14 billion years ago, the universe we inhabit burst into existence in an extraordinary event that initiated the Big Bang. In the first fleeting […]

The post Astronomers observe first direct evidence of Cosmic Inflation appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.