According to the weekly report of the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program, gas-and-ash plumes rose nearly one mile above the crater of Mexico’s Popocatépetl volcano from […]

The post Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano active again appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Many traits unique to humans were long thought to have originated in the genus Homo between 2.4 and 1.8 million years ago in Africa. A […]

The post Human Evolution Rewritten: We owe our existence to our ancestor’s flexible response to climate change appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A 3-D rendering of the Apollo 11 Command Module with a view inside the hatch. The seats inside are where astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin […]

The post Apollo 11 Command Module in 3D! appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Looking for another Earth? An international team of researchers has pinpointed which of the more than 4,000 exoplanets discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission are most […]

The post Another Earth? Kepler astronomers pinpoint likeliest candidates appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Appendices B4 and B5 of Cayron [Acta Cryst. (2019), A75, 411–437] contain equations involving the point group and the metric tensor in which the equality symbol should be substituted by the inclusion symbol.

The generalized Darwin–Hamilton equations [Wuttke (2014). Acta Cryst. A70, 429–440] describe multiple Bragg reflection from a thick, ideally imperfect crystal. These equations are simplified by making full use of energy conservation, and it is demonstrated that the conventional two-ray Darwin–Hamilton equations are obtained as a first-order approximation. Then an efficient numeric solution method is presented, based on a transfer matrix for discretized directional distribution functions and on spectral collocation in the depth coordinate. Example solutions illustrate the orientational spread of multiply reflected rays and the distortion of rocking curves, especially if the detector only covers a finite solid angle.

The Crab Nebula is one of the most studied objects in the night sky. First observed by Chinese astronomers in 1054 A.D., and possibly others, this supernova remnant and its neutron star have become favorite targets for amateur and professional astronomers alike. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.

The post Chandra X-Ray Observatory podcast: The crab nebula appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post Conservators challenged by contemporary artworks at the Hirshhorn Museum appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Digging up early human and animal remains from the field in Africa, performing examination and publishing research about her findings, then enticing and educating the public about the implications are all in a week's work for Briana Pobiner.

The post Meet Our Scientist–Briana Pobiner, human origins researcher at the National Museum of Natural History appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Kari Bruwelheide, forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, discusses how she came to work at the museum, the power of human remains and the information that bones can contain. She and her colleagues continue to discover new ways to interpret evidence from bones and burials.

The post Kari Bruwelheide, forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, discusses the power of bones. 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 Short video featuring the fieldwork of Smithsonian scientists created in 2000, posted by the Smithsonian Archives 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 Barro Colorado Island: The Smithsonian’s research outpost in the Panama Canal appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The post Kepler 11: A Six-Planet Sonata by Alex Parker, postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 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.

This shell-less gastropod was found during the Marine Larvae course at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Bocas del Toro Research Station. It was so unusual […]

The post Naked sea angel! (Pteropod larva) appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Ever wonder what it’s like to be an endocrinologist at the National Zoo? Meet Sarah Putman, endocrinologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

The post Meet the Smithsonian’s poop sleuth appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The moon passed between the Earth and the sun on Thursday, Oct. 23. While avid stargazers in North America looked up to watch the spectacle, the […]

The post Polar-orbiting satellite captures amazing X-ray footage of solar eclipse appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This video highlights the mass-digitization of the National Postal Museum’s Sidney N. Shure Collection of Israeli and Palestinian stamps and covers.

The post National Postal Museum Rapid Capture Project 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.

To mark the 47th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission, the Smithsonian has made available a high-resolution 3-D scan of the command module “Columbia,” […]

The post Apollo 11 Command Module in 3D appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This video is from a course on Taxonomy and Ecology of Caribbean Sponges, held in the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Bocas del Toro Research Station […]

The post Caribbean Sponge Ecology appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Known around the world for personal and culturally inspired choreography, Dana Tai Soon Burgess has been named the Smithsonian’s first choreographer-in-residence at the National Portrait […]

The post Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company @ Portrait Gallery appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Get a quick tutorial on how to upload a story about your local culture and experiences to the Smithsonian’s storytelling website, located www.museumonmainstreet.org Museum on […]

The post Posting Your Story to Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street Website appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Smithsonian staff gathered on Thursday, June 1 outside the National Museum of African American History and Culture to show their support and listen to Director […]

The post Smithsonian staff rally to support African American History Museum after noose incident appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

From lunch counters to bus boycotts, the African American fight for integration and equality touched every aspect of life. What you may not be familiar […]

The post Protesting segregation at public pools appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

On February 12, 2018, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery unveiled its commissioned portraits of former President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama by artists Kehinde […]

The post Installation of the Obama portraits appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) have found that poaching is an emerging crisis for Asian elephants in Myanmar. Researchers first became aware […]

The post Elephant poaching crisis in Myanmar appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Curator Taína Caragol gives you a tour of a portrait of the late sculptor Luis Jiménez by Gaspar Enríquez at our National Portrait Gallery

The post Portraiture and the Mexican American Experience appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Police say TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez was shot and killed last Friday at the base of the escalators of LAX Terminal 3, and not at the checkpoint gates.  Paul Ciancia is accused of killing Hernandez and wounding several others.  Ciancia remains hospitalized in critical condition.

Steve Julian: Business analyst Mark Lacter, how did the airlines respond to shooting and its aftermath?

Mark Lacter: Generally pretty well, Steve, considering that the airport was effectively closed for several hours on Friday, and most of Terminal 3 was out of commission until Saturday afternoon.  You know, there's always this precarious balance in operating airlines and airports, even in the best of circumstances.  Just so many flights coming in and going out, and so many thousands people using the facility at any given time - and it really doesn't take much to upset the balance.  So, when you have something horrific take place and you see all those travelers stranded outside the terminals, the ripple effects are enormous - not just at LAX but all over the country.

Julian: More than a thousand flights were either canceled or delayed on Friday.

Lacter: And, there was a further complication because the airlines flying out of Terminal 3 are not the legacy carriers like United, American, and Delta that have all kinds of resources, but smaller operations with less flexibility.  It's not like there's an empty aircraft just sitting in a hangar waiting to take passengers wherever they want to go.  Actually, the airlines have gotten better at arranging re-bookings when there's a snowstorm or some other emergency that gives them advance warning.  But obviously, there was no advance warning last Friday, so the carriers needed to improvise in handling passengers whose flights were cancelled.

Julian: What did they do?

Lacter: One step was waiving the fees normally charged to re-book flights (and that's gotten to be a pretty penny).  Another was waiving the difference in the price of the original ticket and the re-booked ticket.  But, the policies varied according to the airline, and we heard about travelers not receiving hotel or food vouchers, or having to buy a brand new ticket on another airline if they wanted to avoid the wait - and that can be expensive.  Which raises another issue: planes tend to be completely full these days because airlines have been cutting back on the number of flights.  And that can be a problem if you're taking a route that doesn't have too many flights in the first place.  So, it gets really complicated.

Julian: Why do you think we haven't we heard more horror stories from passengers?

Lacter: Well, look at the cities that the airlines in Terminal 3 fly to - New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas.  They're all served by several other carriers.  L.A. to New York, in particular, is one of the busiest routes in the world, which means that it's also one of the most competitive.  So, even if your flight was cancelled, there's a good chance you'd be able to find space by Saturday (which is normally a slower day for air travel).  This is a big reason, in general, why people like LAX.

Julian: Why don't other local airports handle more of the load?

Lacter: You might remember a few years ago local officials were promoting something called "regionalization" - the idea was that as LAX maxed out on the number of passengers it was allowed to handle each year, then other airports would make up the difference - places like Ontario, Bob Hope in Burbank, and John Wayne in Orange County.

Julian: Right, and they talked about easing traffic congestion by spreading around the flights.

Lacter: Well, regionalization never happened because, first of all, passenger levels at L.A. International didn't come close to maxing out.  But, more importantly, because the airlines decided that using LAX was more efficient for everything from handling baggage to arranging international connections.  So, through the first nine months of the year, passenger traffic at LAX is up 4.2 percent from a year earlier, while at Ontario traffic was down 9.3 percent.  And, we've seen that John Wayne, Bob Hope, and Long Beach are all struggling.  Of course, the challenge at a busy place like LAX is making it as safe as possible, and that will no doubt become a priority in the weeks ahead.

Mark Lacter writes for Los Angeles Magazine and pens the business blog at LA Observed.com.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Power App is a Google Chrome extension that has a description of "This extension configures your Default Search to Power App (searchpowerapp.com)".

This article was published first at Remove the Power App Chrome Extension