Richard Wunderman is managing editor of the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network and a geologist in the Division of Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian’s […]

The post Q&A: Smithsonian volcanologist Richard Wunderman answers questions about the Aug. 23, East Coast earthquake appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The humble salamander may provide evidence to support a controversial claim that North and South America were joined together much earlier than previously thought. The […]

The post Salamander DNA reveals evidence of older land connection between Central and South America appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A hunter touches an infected animal’s blood, a farmer breathes the moist air exhaled by sick cows, contaminated meat is served at an outdoor market—these […]

The post What causes disease outbreaks and how can we stop them? appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Rick Wunderman of the Global Volcanism Program at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History talks about the current volcanic activity in Iceland.

The post Smithsonian volcanologist Rick Wunderman talks about volcanos and the recent eruptions in Iceland appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Keeper Tracey Barnes talks about Billie Jean, an Andean bear, and her two new cubs at the Smithsonian's National Zoo.

The post Keeper Tracey Barnes talks about the National Zoo’s Andean bear, Billie Jean, and her two new cubs appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Dr. Mary Hagedorn, a marine biologist at the Smithsonian Institution, talks about her research to understand and conserve our oceans' corals. To meet more scientists, visit https://insider.si.edu.

The post Coral biologist Mary Hagedorn speaks about her research to conserve our ocean’s corals appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Here come the stinkbugs...With the cooler temperatures of fall the brown marmorated stinkbug begins a determined quest to find a warm place to spend the winter. Crowding around window screens and searching for other ways to get inside, homeowners in the United States will share their indoor living space this winter with millions of brown marmorated stinkbugs. In this video Gary Hevel, an entomolgist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, shares some information about these interesting creatures, as well as some advice about how to deal with those that inevitably gain entry to your home.

The post Smithsonian entomologist Gary Hevel gives information and advice about stinkbugs in your home appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post Learn about the National Zoo’s flamingo flock with keeper Sara Hallager appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Which is more important for a career as a scientist, good grades in math or a strong sense of adventure? Hear what Smithsonian geologist Liz Cottrell has to say as she recounts her own school years and the steps that led to a career she can't imagine ever giving up.

The post Smithsonian geologist Liz Cottrell talks about what it takes to be a scientist. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Paleoecologist Conrad Labandeira travels to the Karoo Basin of South Africa to find leaf fossils from the Permian-Triassic boundary, the time of the Earth's largest mass extinction. What can bug bites on leaves tell us about our own uncertain times?

The post Video: On the hunt for 251-million-year-old insects in South Africa appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

"I'm getting paid to do what I like doing," says entomologist David Roubik. He loved nature and being outdoors when he was a kid, and now he does fieldwork in the tropical forests of Panama. He loves to travel, and his research takes him around the world. Can his work, then, be called a job?

The post Tropical Research Institute entomologist David Roubik talks about his life as a scientist based in Panama appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post Learn about the ash that comes from volcanoes with Dr. Liz Cottrell, a geologist from the National Museum of Natural History appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post Smithsonian anthropologist JoAllyn Archambault speaks about the outstanding research of 19th-century anthropologist James Mooney appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

William Fitzhugh - Edward Nelson's 1877-1881 Western Alaskan Expedition

The post Smithsonian anthropologist William Fitzhugh speaks about Edward Nelson’s 1877-1881 Western Alaskan Expedition appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post What will invasive round goby fish do to Great Lakes streams? Join SERC post doc Matt Kornis and find out. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post Belize’s South Water Caye Marine Reserve protects biodiversity of Belizean Barrier Reef appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post Barro Colorado Island: The Smithsonian’s research outpost in the Panama Canal appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

How do you train a wild animal to come back to you after you have set it free? If it is a fringe-lipped bat, Trachops […]

The post Rockin’ out: Bats learn to love heavy metal music appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Get a look behind the scenes as we installed “Outside the Spacecraft: 50 Years of Extra-vehicular Activity,” a new exhibition on view at the Museum […]

The post “Outside the Spacecraft,” a new exhibition at the Air and Space Museum appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Arachnophobes fearful of spiders jumping, creeping or falling into their beds now have something new to worry about. Some spiders might also glide in through the window. […]

The post Scientists study Skydiving spiders in South America appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

“The Outwin 2016: American Portraiture Today” exhibition is on view at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery from March 12, 2016 – January 8, 2017. The Outwin […]

The post The Outwin 2016: American Portraiture Today appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Watch this video before the solar eclipse on August 21, 2017!

The post 7 Facts About Solar Eclipses appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

“Dunkirk” director, Christopher Nolan, talks to National Air and Space Museu curator, Jeremy Kinney, about one of the movie’s stars, the Spitfire. The movie is based […]

The post “Dunkirk” director talks about the Spitfire appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

“Parallax Gap” transforms the Renwick Gallery’s Bettie Rubenstein Grand Salon into a visual puzzle. This immersive, site-specific installation explores examples of interplay between craft and […]

The post About the Renwick’s “Parallax Gap” appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Smithsonian scientists and colleagues, however, have recently found evidence that gymnosperm plants shared an intricate pollination relationship with scorpionfly insects 62 million years before flowering plants appear in fossil records.

The post Prehistoric pollination: Scorpionfly mouthparts fit tubular channels of gymnosperm cones appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post Cool science is being carried out on a Smithsonian island in the Panama Canal appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Can a tendency to get distracted lead to a career in science? It did for paleoecologist Conrad Labandeira. Working on his family's farm, he would find himself falling into a study of insect life in the fields. "If you go after what interests you," he says, "the rest will always fall into place."

The post Smithsonian paleoecologist Conrad Labandeira talks about how he became a scientist and why he loves his work appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Smooth and shiny, the tough body of the South African beetle Pedinorrhina trivittata, a flower eater, appears to be a non-inviting surface for pollen grains […]

The post Caught on camera: Despite hard shells pollen sticks to South African beetles appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

What plant species has just been discovered but is almost gone? Bidens meyeri–a just discovered flowering plant from the small South Pacific island of Rapa, […]

The post New South Pacific cliff flower is critically endangered appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Why do we love orchids so much? Tom Mirenda, Smithsonian Gardens orchid collection specialist, believes it is partly because orchids seem to look back at […]

The post 5 Crazy Things You Didn’t Know About Orchids 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.

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.

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.

If you’ve seen the movie Jurassic Park, you know that amber played a significant role in rebuilding a lost world: A mosquito trapped within its […]

The post Resin from shipwreck hints at trade routes and botany of ancient Asia appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

To catch lizards on the offshore islands close to St. Croix in the Caribbean, Smithsonian herpetologist Nicole Angeli uses a lasso of thread looped at […]

The post Mongooses wiped them out. Now Nicole Angeli wants the St. Croix ground lizard home again appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Forty percent of the world’s 2.5 billion people live in coastal cities and towns. A team including Smithsonian marine biologists just released 25 years of […]

The post The Caribbean is stressed out appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Camouflage is a valuable survival strategy—just ask a chameleon. Scientists have just discovered a new form of mimicry camouflage: beetles that hide by chewing beetle-shaped […]

The post For millions of years these tiny beetles have chewed their way out of sight appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Attempting to display the contents of an HDF5 file containing fixed-length UTF-8 encoded strings results in an unexpected error in MATLAB.

For example, the following code

  h5disp('myHDF5FileWithFixedLenUTF8Strings.h5')

returns this error:

Error using h5infoc
UTF-8 encoding is only supported for variable length strings.

Error in h5info (line 108)
hinfo = h5infoc(filename,location, useUtf8);

Error in h5disp>display_hdf5 (line 121)
hinfo = h5info(options.Filename,options.Location);

Error in h5disp (line 99)
display_hdf5(options);