Catalina Suarez Gomez made the type of discovery that most scientists only dream about – and she did it while interning at the Smithsonian Tropical […]

The post Intern aids in discovery of Titanoboa appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va., are celebrating the anniversary of the first birth of a Przewalski’s horse by artificial […]

The post First Przewalski’s horse born by artificial insemination birthday appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

New data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory offer a glimpse into the environment of a star before it exploded earlier this year, and insight into […]

The post Chandra Observatory searches for trigger of nearby supernova appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Bright orange with a distinctive call the Panamanian poison dart frog Andinobates geminisae lives in only a small area of the Caribbean Coast of Panama. […]

The post In modern amphibian “ark,” new species added with due diligence appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The genomes of modern birds tell a story of how they emerged and evolved after the mass extinction that wiped out dinosaurs 66 million years […]

The post International team maps ‘big bang’ of bird evolution appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Cassiopeia A, or Cas A for short, is one of the most well studied supernova remnants in our galaxy. But it still holds major surprises.  […]

The post 3-D Map of Supernova Remnant Reveals Frothy Interior appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new DNA study of ancient corn kernels and cobs from archaeological sites across North America has settled a long debate as to exactly where […]

The post Corn entered Southwest U.S. first along highland route, DNA shows appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Ah, that new car smell. New plane smell is nice, too. Bright and shiny and fresh is good, right? Sure, unless it is a very […]

The post To Preserve Rare WWII bomber, Conservators Turn to Science appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The odds of being attacked and castrated by a variety of parasitic flatworms increases for marine horn snails the farther they are found from the […]

The post Parasitic flatworms flout global biodiversity patterns appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

If you were dumped into the middle of a desert, your first instinct would be to look for water—it is, after all, the stuff of […]

The post In Western China’s deserts an ancient competition for water resumes appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

California’s Channel Islands are located dozens of miles west of the state’s coast and surrounded by Pacific waters, yet they too are experiencing the same […]

The post Drought slows wildlife reproduction on California’s Channel Islands appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

After decades of attempts, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) scientists and researchers at Cornell University have become the first to successfully use in vitro fertilization […]

The post Smithsonian-Cornell Partnership produces First Domestic Puppies by In Vitro Fertilization appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Through sheer coincidence, two Smithsonian researchers at the National Zoological Park have discovered that 18 percent of the white-tailed deer population in the Eastern United […]

The post Smithsonian study reveals white-tailed deer in eastern U.S. are infected with a malaria parasite appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

On September 14, 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes 29 and 36 times the […]

The post Ligo’s Twin Black Holes Might Have Been Born Inside a Single Star appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

If you were an average person in the 18th and early 19th centuries, chances are your wardrobe was 50 shades of beige, with maybe a […]

The post A Purple Accident and Its Vibrant Impact on the Modern World appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

For the first time, scimitar-horned oryx are going to be reintroduced to the wild in Chad. Extinct in the wild since the mid-1980s, the species’ […]

The post 25 Scimitar-Horned Oryx to be Reintroduced to the Wild in Chad appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Thirty years after the scimitar-horned oyrx were driven to extinction, the desert antelope will return to the last-known place it existed: Chad’s Sahelian grasslands. The […]

The post Extinct-in-the-Wild Antelope Return to the Grasslands of Chad appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

For the first time in 25 years, primate staff at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo are celebrating the birth of a male Bornean orangutan. He was […]

The post Orangutan Born at Smithsonian’s National Zoo appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Finding clean ways to store water is a challenge that humans have faced for millennia. In a new paper in Environmental Health, anthropologist Sabrina Sholts […]

The post Study shows ancient California Indians risked toxins from bitumen-coated bottles appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Great Cats keepers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo are celebrating the birth of a Sumatran tiger, a critically endangered species. The cub’s mother, 8-year-old Damai, […]

The post Sumatran tiger cub born National Zoo appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The famous fictional British spy, James Bond (code name 007), whose action-packed exploits and international adventures are depicted in books and movies, got his name […]

The post Bond, James Bond: The ornithologist appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This user-friendly, portable, and extensive identification guide features large color illustrations of more than 900 species; the first range maps published to show the distribution of Panama's birds and concise text that describes field marks for identification, as well as habitat, behavior, and vocalizations.

The post Smithsonian ornithologist publishes new guide to the birds of Panama appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

As command module pilot for the Apollo 15 mission to the moon in 1971, Al Worden spent six days orbiting the moon, including three days completely alone, the most isolated human in existence. In Falling to Earth, Worden tells for the first time the full story around the dramatic events that shook NASA and ended his spaceflight career.

The post “Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut’s Journey to the Moon” by Al Worden with Francis French appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Well known for its collection of children’s books, the Cooper Hewitt Library holds a rare 19th century illustrated German nursery rhyme children’s book titled Paradiesfibel, written and illustrated […]

The post Learning to sign: Rare book appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Liza Botros MD., Manon C. A. Pronk PhD., Jenny Juschten MD., John Liddle, Sofia K. S. H. Morsing, Jaap D. van Buul PhD., Robert H. Bates, Pieter R. Tuinman MD. PhD., Jan S. M. van Bezu, Stephan Huveneers PhD., Harm Jan Bogaard MD. PhD., Victor W. M. van Hinsbergh PhD., Peter L. Hordijk PhD., and Jurjan Aman MD. PhD.

Aims: Endothelial barrier dysfunction leads to edema and vascular leak, carrying high morbidity and mortality. Previously, Abl kinase inhibition was shown to protect against vascular leak. Using the distinct inhibitory profiles of clinically available Abl kinase inhibitors, we aimed to provide a mechanistic basis for novel treatment strategies against vascular leakage syndromes.

Methods & Results: Bosutinib most potently protected against inflammation-induced endothelial barrier disruption. In vivo, bosutinib prevented LPS-induced alveolar protein extravasation in an acute lung injury mice model. Mechanistically, Mitogen-activated Protein 4 Kinase 4 (MAP4K4) was identified as important novel mediator of endothelial permeability, which signals via ezrin, radixin and moesin proteins to increase turnover of integrin-based focal adhesions. The combined inhibition of MAP4K4 and Arg by bosutinib preserved adherens junction integrity and reduced turnover of focal adhesions, which synergistically act to stabilize the endothelial barrier during inflammation.

Conclusion: MAP4K4 was identified as important regulator of endothelial barrier integrity, increasing focal adhesion turnover and disruption of cell-cell junctions during inflammation. Inhibiting both Arg and MAP4K4, the clinically available drug bosutinib may form a viable strategy against vascular leakage syndromes.

Several weeks before it went on display in mid-November at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, minerals curator Jeff Post stood in the museum’s […]

The post Colossal diamond’s eerie glow earns it a fiery name appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Single-wavelength X-ray anomalous diffraction (SAD) is a frequently employed technique to solve the phase problem in X-ray crystallography. The precision and accuracy of recovered anomalous differences are crucial for determining the correct phases. Continuous rotation (CR) and inverse-beam geometry (IBG) anomalous data collection methods have been performed on tetragonal lysozyme and monoclinic survivin crystals and analysis carried out of how correlated the pairs of Friedel's reflections are after scaling. A multivariate Bayesian model for estimating anomalous differences was tested, which takes into account the correlation between pairs of intensity observations and incorporates the a priori knowledge about the positivity of intensity. The CR and IBG data collection methods resulted in positive correlation between I(+) and I(−) observations, indicating that the anomalous difference dominates between these observations, rather than different levels of radiation damage. An alternative pairing method based on near simultaneously observed Bijvoet's pairs displayed lower correlation and it was unsuccessful for recovering useful anomalous differences when using the multivariate Bayesian model. In contrast, multivariate Bayesian treatment of Friedel's pairs improved the initial phasing of the two tested crystal systems and the two data collection methods.

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In a 24-hour-period between July 9 and 10, 2009 a clouded leopard cub, a Przewalski's horse, and a red panda cub were all born at Smithsonian's National Zoo's Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia.

The post A clouded leopard cub, a Przewalski’s horse and a red panda cub were all recently born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post Conservators challenged by contemporary artworks at the Hirshhorn Museum 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.

The post Meet Our Scientist: Mary Hagedorn – Coral Science 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.

When birds and planes collide: Carla Dove, a forensic ornithologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, talks about the work of the Smithsonian's Feather Identification Lab and its role in improving aviation safety.

The post Meet Our Scientist: Forensic ornithologist Carla Dove explains bird-strike science appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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

The three male cheetahs that left the Zoo's D.C. campus in 2009 returned in November and are now on exhibit. The five-and-a-half-year-old brothers―Draco, Granger, and Zabini, named after characters in the Harry Potter stories―have been living at the Zoo's Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Cheetah Science Facility in Front Royal, Virginia.

The post The three male cheetahs that left the National Zoo’s D.C. campus in 2009 returned in November and are now on exhibit appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post Invasive Caribbean lionfish under scrutiny by Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute intern appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

School's nearly back in session, but the seven young lions at the Smithsonian's National Zoo have been working hard through the summer months!

The post Lion cub summer school: Instead of learning their ABCs, the National Zoo’s lion cubs are learning behaviors that will help animal care staff evaluate their health. 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 Killer carnivores: Titanoboa vs. T-Rex — Premieres April 1 on Smithsonian Channel 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 Meet Smithsonian archaeologist Stephen Loring and learn how he came work at the Smithsonian’s Arctic Studies Center appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post Conrad Labandiera, Smithsonian palentologist, studies fossils to learn how insects got along before flowering plants arrived 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.

If a supernova vaporized Earth’s ozone layer, what would happen to life in the ocean? Smithsonian biologist Pat Neale shows how UV rays could harm […]

The post If a supernova vaporized our ozone layer, what would happen to life on Earth? appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The National Zoo’s Great Cats team celebrated the arrival of its first litter of African lion cubs in four years. On Jan. 24, the Zoo’s […]

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