Kandula, an 8-year-old male Asian elephant at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, recently demonstrated to researchers for the first time that elephants are capable of insightful problem solving.

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Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered the first pair of supermassive black holes in a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way. Approximately 160 million light years from Earth, the pair is the nearest known such phenomenon.

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Invertebrates make up more than 80 percent of all known species and provide humans with a myriad of valuable services—from crop pollination to their use as food—yet they are overlooked and underrepresented in conservation decisions and on priority lists of threatened and endangered species.

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Now, for the first time scientists at the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute have developed a fast and reliable method to date silk.

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The fossil represents the youngest nodosaur ever discovered, and the only known specimen of a new genus and species of dinosaur that lived approximately 110 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous Era.

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Thunder, lightning and strong winds greeted the National Zoo’s two female red panda cubs when they were born June 17, and that stormy night has […]

The post National Zoo’s red pandas named “Pili” and “Damini” for stormy night appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

These green crabs have been doing a number on native shellfish. They eat a lot of clams. And they're a very cosmopolitan species—they've now spread all over, to places as far afield as the West Coast of the U.S. and South Africa.

The post Location matters: For invasive aquatic species, it’s better to start upstream appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

New observations by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, show there are significantly fewer near-Earth asteroids in the mid-size range than previously thought.

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Smithsonian scientists and collaborators have determined the evolutionary family tree for one of the most strikingly diverse and endangered bird families in the world, the Hawaiian honeycreepers.

The post Complete evolutionary tree of the Hawaiian honeycreepers traced by Smithsonian scientists, collaborators appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

In a new study researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics used DNA from coyote scat (feces) to trace the route that led some of the animals to colonize in Northern Virginia.

The post New genetic evidence confirms coyote migration route to Virginia and hybridization with wolves appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The first DNA barcoding survey of crustaceans living on samples of dead coral taken from the Indian, Pacific and Caribbean oceans suggests that the diversity of organisms living on the world’s coral reefs—one of the most endangered habitats on Earth—is seriously underestimated.

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In a new paper, Avi Loeb, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Edwin Turner, Princeton University, suggest a new technique for finding aliens: look for their city lights.

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Viewed from inside the SOMATOM Emotion 6CT scanner used at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the skeleton and internal organs of this well-preserved […]

The post Peruvian mummy as seen by a SOMATOM Emotion 6CT scanner appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Suzan Murray, chief veterinary medical officer at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park, recently returned from Hanoi, where she led a team of scientists training pathologists from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to better sample, recognize and detect wildlife diseases in hopes of preventing emerging pandemic disease.

The post Q&A: National Zoo veterinarian Suzan Murray is working to halt pandemic disease in hotspots around the world appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Nearly 20 years after the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute became the first to produce an Eld’s deer fawn through artificial insemination, SCBI scientists have now contributed to the birth of the first Eld’s deer via in vitro fertilization.

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A member of one of the world’s most endangered species—the brown kiwi (Apteryx mantelli)—successfully hatched at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s Bird House Dec. 11 at 10:25 a.m. The egg was laid Oct. 1 and keepers began looking for signs of the chick hatching starting in early December. The chick is the sixth kiwi successfully hatched at the National Zoo.

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Both investigations were carried out through DNA analysis of fish tissue performed in a laboratory using a U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol that originated largely at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. DNA from the fish in question was identified by matching it against a database of DNA fish barcodes that again, has its origins at the Smithsonian.

The post Smithsonian research with DNA barcoding is making seafood substitution easier to catch appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

An excavation at a site in South Africa has unearthed the 190-million-year-old dinosaur nesting site of the prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus–revealing significant clues about the evolution of complex reproductive behavior in early dinosaurs.

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"X-Ray Vision: Fish Inside Out," is a new exhibition of striking x-rays that reveal the complex bone structure of fishes in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

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The fastest wind ever discovered blowing off a disk around a stellar-mass black hole has been observed by a team of astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

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Paleontologists studying an extreme short-term global warming event have discovered direct evidence about how mammals respond to rising temperatures. In a study that appeared recently […]

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The discovery of two new extinct camel species by scientists from the University of Florida and the Smithsonian is casting new light on the history of the tropics, a region containing more than half the world's biodiversity and some of its most important ecosystems.

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A baby boom is underway at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Two Guam rail (Gallirallus owstoni) chicks hatched March 3 and 4; they join six others in the Zoo’s collection—three of which live at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va.

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Jeholopsyche liaoningensis is a new genus and species of flying insect from northeastern China, recently revealed in two new fossil specimens.

The post Meet the 125-million-year-old pollinator “Jeholopsyche liaoningensis” appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Seven years ago, astronomers boggled when they found the first runaway star flying out of our Galaxy at a speed of 1.5 million miles per hour. Theorists wondered: Could the same thing happen to planets? New research shows that the answer is yes.

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An international team of scientists has discovered an ‘ordinary’ black hole in the galaxy Centaurus A. This is the first time that a normal-size black hole has been detected away from the immediate vicinity of our own Galaxy.

The post “Ordinary” black hole discovered in a galaxy 12-million-light-years away appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The same device used to detect early warning signs of heart disease in humans will now benefit two male sub-adult gorillas at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.

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The crustaceans are much more effective when they fight together than when they fight alone, a process McKeon calls the Multiple Defender Effect. “It is a clear example of synergy, and one that underscores the importance of biodiversity in the ocean.”

The post Preventing home invasions means fighting side-by-side for coral-dwelling crabs and shrimp appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The young primate seems bright, alert, and increases its activity and independence day by day.

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Incredibly, the narwhale’s only visible tooth is outside of its mouth. Its tusk, in fact, is a giant canine tooth—that can grow as long as 9 feet!

The post For a dentist, the narwhal’s smile is a mystery of evolution appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

To celebrate its 22nd anniversary in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope has released a dramatic new image of the star-forming region 30 Doradus, also known […]

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The National Museum of Natural History will construct a new dinosaur exhibition hall made possible by a $35 million donation from David H. Koch, executive vice president of Koch Industries and philanthropist.

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The only explanation for such symmetry across these vast distances, explains Smithsonian anthropologist Dennis Stanford, is that the method of creating the points was handed down from person to person.

The post 3-D imaging adds remarkable new understanding of North America’s mysterious Clovis people appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists have discovered several specimens of tiny insects covered with pollen grains in two pieces of amber, revealing the first record of pollen transport and social behavior in this group of animals.

The post First ever record of insect pollination captured in 100 million-year-old amber appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of researchers producing the first complete human genome sequence — the genetic blueprint of the human body — the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, will open a new high-tech, high-intensity exhibition in 2013.

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Recent geologic mapping of the Medusae Fossae Formation on Mars—an intensely eroded deposit near the northern edge of the cratered highlands—has revealed a wider distribution of its western component than was previously recognized.

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Scientists have discovered an incredible story of fungal fidelity among certain species of ants.

The post Fungal fidelity: some ants have been eating the same meal for 5 million years! appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A July 12 news alert from NASA indicates a X1.4 class solar flare erupted from the center of the Sun, peaking July 12 at 12:52 P.M.

The post Coronal mass ejection from July 12 solar flare headed toward Earth; minor geomagnetic storm activity predicted appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

By attaching tiny radio transmitters to more than 400 seeds, Patrick Jansen, scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Wageningen University, and his colleagues found that 85 percent of the seeds were buried in caches by agoutis, common, house cat-sized rodents in tropical lowlands.

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Today, astronomers are releasing the highest-resolution images ever taken of the Sun's corona, or million-degree outer atmosphere, in an extreme-ultraviolet wavelength of light.

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Two Cuban crocodiles were born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo on July 6 and 14 and they are among the most genetically valuable in the […]

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“Ignition Sequence,” 1968, Vincent Cavallaro, oil on canvas. The power of the ignition and launch sequence of a NASA rocket is portrayed in an abstract […]

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JoVonn Hill, a research associate with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station at Mississippi State University, recently borrowed 32,000 grasshoppers from the Smithsonian’s National […]

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Mei Xiang (may-SHONG), the National Zoo’s female giant panda, gave birth to a cub Sunday, Sept. 16, at 10:46 p.m.

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The Smithsonian’s National Zoo community mourns the loss of the giant panda cub born Sunday, Sept. 16.

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A new study finds that since 1985, half of Australia's Great Barrier Reef coral has died.

The post Smithsonian marine biologist Nancy Knowlton discusses Great Barrier Reef coral dieoff on PBS NewsHour appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A specimen recently pulled from deep in the southwest Atlantic may represent a new species of squid, say scientist who have studied the animal’s unusual morphology. But then again, it may not…

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The Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation, a unique program in terms of its academic offerings and contributions to the field of conservation, celebrated the completion of its expansive new academic facilities today, Oct. 18, at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va.

The post Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and George Mason University dedicate new academic facilities in Front Royal, Va. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Justin Touchon, post-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, discovered that climate change in Panama may be altering frogs’ course of evolution.

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The goal of the project—the Smithsonian’s Tennenbaum Marine Observatories—is to monitor the ocean’s coastal ecosystems over a long period of time.

The post Smithsonian launches Global Marine Biodiversity Project with $10 million donation appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.