For Smithsonian ornithologist Gary Graves it was a captivating spectacle. At an outdoor café in Kingston, Jamaica, Graves watched three mornings in a row as […]

The post Sweet survival: Some birds have a sugar edge appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A global analysis raises the minimum estimated number of tropical tree species to at least 40,000–53,000 worldwide in a paper appearing in Proceedings of the […]

The post Analysis: Many tropical tree species have yet to be discovered appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Orchids account for 10 percent of the world’s plant species, making them the largest plant family. They act as indicators of the health of ecosystems […]

The post The Secret Life of Orchids – Part III: Conservation appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Residents of the southeastern United States might occasionally come across an oddity along a barbed-wire fence: a series of insects, mice or even small birds […]

The post Tiny, fierce and disappearing: breeding program aims to help the loggerhead shrike appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Carnivorous plants are a fascinating example of nature at its best. Living in habitats with nutrient-poor soil, carnivorous plants evolved to attract some insects as […]

The post How Carnivorous Plants avoid eating their pollinating insect friends appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

“When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters,” once a tagline of the American Lung Association, today it might easily describe what is happening in many […]

The post Gasping for air: nutrients, warming trigger ocean oxygen deficit appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Pollinators like butterflies, bees, beetles, flies, and moths help to pollinate almost 80 percent of the world’s flowering plants, one benefit of which is providing […]

The post Oasis in the city appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History announced today that scientists with the museum’s Global Genome Initiative will attempt to capture the genomic diversity of half the […]

The post Smithsonian and Partners To Preserve Earth’s Genomic Plant Diversity appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

On crime scene investigation shows, forensic scientists use remnants of genetic material to solve mysteries in a matter of hours. Researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental […]

The post Environmental “Forensics” Pieces Together Mysterious Plant Invasion appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Nausea, vomiting and weakness are but a few of the symptoms one might anticipate after eating leaves from the Taiwanese shrub Erycibe henryi. This wild […]

The post Meet the (flea) beetles! New species appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

In a study published Sept. 28 in the journal Nature Plants, a team led by Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists found that bigger trees suffer […]

The post Forest Giants Suffer Most During Droughts appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Invasive species have become a problem in marine environments around the world, and the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries are no exception. Non-native species of […]

The post Smithsonian Scientists Work to Stop Invasions appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Although useful to Tarzan, vines endanger tropical forests’ capacity to store carbon. In a major experimental study in Panama, Smithsonian researchers showed that woody vines, […]

The post Climbing plants disturb carbon storage in tropical forests appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This year’s El Niño event is one of the strongest on record and is still ramping up. Large parts of the tropics are turning into […]

The post Major El Nino Perfect opportunity for Global Change Research appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The National Ecological Observatory (NEON) is a large-facility project managed by NEON, Inc., and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). NEON is a continental-scale […]

The post NEON begins to monitor changing ecology of U.S. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

How much is a wetland worth? It’s a question that has plagued policymakers, scientists and other leaders looking to protect their communities and slow down […]

The post New report enables creation of carbon credits for restored wetlands appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Ubiquitous as they may be today, the origin of the Christmas tree is unknown to most. The tradition of decorating a tree, usually an evergreen […]

The post Agustín Stahl: Scientist Who Introduced the “Arbol de Navidad” (Christmas Tree) to Puerto Rico appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

How more than 1,000 tree species may occur in a small area of forest in Amazonia or Borneo is an unsolved mystery. Their ability to […]

The post Trees employ similar strategies to outcompete their neighbors appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Rattlesnake, zebra and peacock plants have a new wild relative, discovered by Rodolfo Flores, Panamanian botanist and intern at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). […]

The post Smithsonian Botanist Discovers New Ground-Flowering Plant in Panama appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

With net in hand and eyes peeled, Mauren Turcatel spent two-weeks last October chasing blood-thirsty predators through the Amazon jungle of Brazil. One-by-one they appeared […]

The post Blood-thirsty jungle horse-flies catch big chill from Smithsonian entomologist appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

What can we discover in just a cubic foot of Earth? As it turns out, a whole lot! Biocubes—the life in a cubic foot of […]

The post Life in One Cubic Foot appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

New results from a long-term Smithsonian study are providing strong evidence of the dramatic impact high numbers of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are having upon […]

The post Deer Discovery: Invasive Plants Get Boost from too Many Deer appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Given its scale and diversity, the Smithsonian’s collection of 154 million items presents a unique digitization challenge. This video showcases a conveyor belt driven imaging […]

The post Digitizing the Smithsonian’s Botany Collection appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Profound ideas don’t need to be complicated. A simple cube made of aluminum tubing, a centerpiece of a new exhibit “Life in One Cubic Foot,” […]

The post From Rochester to Polynesia, a simple cube unveils Earth’s dazzling biological diversity appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you’ve doubtless caught at least a passing reference to the plight of the […]

The post Discovery: Rising CO2 depletes pollen’s nutritional potency, bees suffer appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Engineers shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel—or wings, or sonar systems—when mother nature has already done much of the heavy design work. In fact, finding […]

The post Next Engineering Revolution Is Hiding in Museum Collections appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) celebrated with Panama the completion of the Panama Canal expansion project on June 26, 2016. The $5.6 billion engineering […]

The post Smithsonian celebrates Panama Canal expansion! appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Strategically placed honeybee hives can deter African elephants from raiding crops, but the hives must be actively managed by beekeepers to work, according to a […]

The post Study: Managed beehives can discourage crop-raiding elephants appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Long ago, one great ocean flowed between North and South America. When the narrow Isthmus of Panama joined the continents about 3 million years ago, […]

The post Recent Connection Between North and South America Reaffirmed appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

In the dark recesses of an underground fungus garden, a Panamanian leaf-cutting ant plucks a tuft of mycelia, the wispy part of the basidiomycete fungus […]

The post Mystery solved? Ants Protect Young From Infection By Cocooning Them in Fungus appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Skinny lines of ants snake through the rainforest carrying leaves and flowers above their heads—fertilizer for industrial-scale, underground fungus farms. Soon after the dinosaur extinctions […]

The post Some ants still trying to get crop domestication right appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

During the course of a year, a western gorilla in the Lossi Forest of Northern Congo stuffs its face with a profusion of fruit, including figs, […]

The post Gorillas Aren’t Tricked By a Faux Sugary Fruit Thanks to a Mutation appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Melinda Peters, museum specialist at the U.S. National Herbarium in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, gives an in-depth tour of the U.S. National […]

The post Introduction to the U.S. National Herbarium appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

At the approach of a hungry parrot snake, a tree frog egg transforms from a haven to a prison. With no parent to offer protection, […]

The post Mystery solved: frogs use snout glands in emergency jail break appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Fort Pierce, Fla. – Fall in southern Florida is festival season: when the weather stops being oppressively hot and 70 degrees is positively autumnal.  On […]

The post Annual Smithsonian-led science festival draws crowds in Fort Pierce, Florida appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Internet and phone connections are essential for effective communicators and for success in business. New results from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama show […]

The post Ant bridges connect tropical tree crowns appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

By now, most of the United States has started to feel the first cool caresses of winter. Everything is pumpkin spiced, and the last crickets […]

The post Feathered diplomats unite pupils in North and Central America appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

By charting the slopes and crags on animals’ teeth as if they were mountain ranges, scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History have […]

The post 3D study of teeth in modern mammals opens window to extinct animal diets appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Spending time in a beautiful garden can be transformative. In fact, some visitors to the Smithsonian’s Mary Livingston Ripley Garden in Washington D.C. have taken […]

The post Monarch Butterflies Make the Most of the Smithsonian’s Gardens appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Federal agencies act as custodians of hundreds of diverse scientific collections that contain everything from plant and animal specimens, tissues, and DNA to microbes, minerals, […]

The post One-Stop Shopping for Federal Scientific Collections appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Coastal marine environments are impacted by human disturbance. Dock pilings allow MarineGEO researchers to study these impacts in a standardized way around the world to […]

The post The incredible marine diversity under boat docks appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A newly discovered Hawaiian tree recently had the distinction of being added to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Critically […]

The post Newly named, Hawaiian tree species already critically endangered appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

If you are a plant, when life aboveground turns harsh, you have few options. Some orchids respond by going dormant, spending years to decades underground […]

The post Dormant Orchids Need Fungi to Rise Again appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Living trees can rot from the inside out, leaving only a hollowed trunk. Wood rot in living trees can cause overestimates of global carbon pools, […]

The post Measuring trees with the speed of sound appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Rainforests on infertile wet soils support more than half of all plant species. Shrublands on infertile dry soils in southwestern Australia, jokingly called “knee-high tropical […]

The post Microbes rule in ‘knee-high tropical rainforests’ appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Caribbean coral reefs have become biologically and economically degraded habitats. The relative weight of the big factors in this ecological catastrophe–pollution, overfishing, warming and ocean […]

The post Coral reefs grow faster, healthier when parrotfish are abundant appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation offers a range of compelling residential, hands-on, interdisciplinary programs in conservation biology for undergraduate and graduate students and professionals at […]

The post Field Research: Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian is joining with local communities and the Nigerian Montane Forest Project to better understand and conserve montane forests in Nigeria.

The post Taking the Pulse of Our Planet’s Forests: appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Muted moans of sadness punctuated the pandemonium that engulfed the Smithsonian’s National Zoo over the weekend as throngs of well-wishing visitors flooded through the Zoo’s […]

The post Bon Voyage Bao Bao! Washington loses its precious treasure appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Finding a mouse in your morning coffee might give you an unwelcome jolt, but there’s a strong connection between small mammals, birds and the plantations […]

The post Of mice and macchiato: Bird Friendly coffee gives a paw-up to small mammals as well appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.