Humanity's most complex ground-based astronomy observatory, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), has officially opened for astronomers at its 16,500-foot high desert plateau in northern Chile.

The post Center for Astrophysics project gets first look through new ALMA telescope appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Adding wings to a robotic bug helped it run faster and better, but was it enough to achieve takeoff?

The post Tree dwelling animals were first to fly, study shows appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Our studies of the genetic relationships between these bees tells us that they originated in the Amazon about 22 million years ago and that they moved north into Central America before 3 million years ago.

The post Two closely related bee species discovered far apart in Panama and northern Colombia appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

For the first time, astronomers have detected around a burgeoning solar system a sprawling cloud of water vapor that’s cold enough to form comets, which could eventually deliver oceans to dry planets.

The post Frigid water cloud may be source of water delivered to dry planets by comets appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Ornithologists Carla Dove and Storrs Olson used 700- to 1,100-year-old feathers from a long extinct species of Hawaiian ibis to help determine the bird’s place in the ibis family tree. The feathers are the only known plumage of any of the prehistorically extinct birds that once inhabited the Hawaiian Islands.

The post Fossil feathers from a Hawaiian cave help reveal lineage of extinct, flightless ibis appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Molynocoelia erwini, is a new species of fruit fly from Ecuador recently described by USDA entomologist Allen Norrbom, who works in the Systematic Entomology Laboratory […]

The post “Molynocoelia erwini,” a new species of fruit fly from Ecuador 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.

The post First Eld’s deer born from in vitro fertilization with help of Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

For the first time, researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Migratory Bird Center analyzed how songbirds are affected by both general noise and the acoustics of hard human-made surfaces in urban areas.

The post Urban songbirds adjust melodies to adapt to life in the big city, Smithsonian scientists find appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and other partnering organizations spent two weeks at the end of November collecting sperm and embryonic cells during spawning from two species of coral and have built the first frozen repository for the Great Barrier Reef.

The post Smithsonian scientists help build first frozen repository of Great Barrier Reef coral appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

In 2011, scholars from three institutions—National Museum of American History Curators Carlene Stephens and Shari Stout, Library of Congress Digital Conversion Specialist Peter Alyea and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Scientists Carl Haber and Earl Cornell—came together in a newly designed preservation laboratory at the Library of Congress to recover sound from those recordings made more than 100 years ago.

The post Digital technology allows Alexander Graham Bell’s 1880s disc recordings to be played again appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Small monkey groups may win territorial disputes against larger groups because some members of the larger, invading groups avoid aggressive encounters.

The post Members of small monkey groups more likely to fight, researchers find appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

In a laboratory at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md., scientist João Canning Clode and colleagues tested the cold-water tolerances of a number of invasive green porcelain crabs.

The post Cold spells spell trouble for warm-weather invasives appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

As a coastal archaeologist and expert in prehistoric and historic settlement sites in the Chesapeake Bay region, Darrin Lowery of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and University of Deleware, is carefully watching the effects of coastal erosion and rising sea levels on coastal archaeological sites.

The post Rising seas, development are altering prehistoric artifacts in the Chesapeake’s tidal zone appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The image shows one of the most active and turbulent regions of star birth in our galaxy, a region called Cygnus X.

The post New Spitzer Space Telescope image shows space nursery appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A box jellyfish from the Caribbean appears to have recently become established in the red mangroves of Florida near Boca Raton.

The post Caribbean box jellyfish now thriving in southern Florida appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Today, Marra is helping launch an Animal Mortality Monitoring Program in Africa intended to serve as an early warning system for emerging infectious diseases that can pass from animal populations into the human population.

The post Uganda park rangers with cell phones may help stop next world influenza epidemic appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new study of marmosets, small South American monkeys, indicates that obesity may begin very early in life and suggests that marmosets may be a helpful model for obesity in humans.

The post Is obesity predestined at infancy? Marmoset study may help scientists find out. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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.

The post Chandra X-ray Observatory clocks stellar wind at 20 million mph appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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.

The post Two new species of extinct camels discovered in Panama Canal excavations appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and University of Costa Rica studying why spiders do not stick to their own sticky webs have discovered that a spider's legs are protected by a covering of branching hairs and by a non-stick chemical coating. Their results are published online in the journal, Naturwissenschaften.

The post Fancy footwork and non-stick leg coating helps spiders not stick to their own webs appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Slithering in at 48 feet long and weighing an estimated one-and-a-half tons, the largest snake the world has ever seen is being brought back to […]

The post Largest snake the world has ever seen is being brought back to life by Smithsonian Channel appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A newly described species of toothed whale that lived some 3-4 million years ago during the Pliocene, is causing scientists to reconsider what is known about its living cold-water relatives: narwhals and belugas.

The post New fossil whale species raises mystery regarding why narwhals and belugas live only in cold water appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Sun’s Active Region 1429 has been shooting off flares and coronal mass ejections since it rotated into Earth’s view on March 2, 2012. Two X-class flares have been released overnight, an X1.3 and an X5.4.

The post X-Class flares released by the Sun, March 6, captured by Atmospheric Imaging Assembly appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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.

The post Extremely rare Guam rails hatch at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This composite image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) shows the distribution of dark matter, galaxies, and hot […]

The post Chandra image of the core of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520 appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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.

When most people look at a forest, they see walking trails, deer yards, or firewood for next winter. But scientists at the Harvard Forest and […]

The post Development will reduce carbon stored in forests, Smithsonian & Harvard scientists predict appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

For the last 1,000 days the Infrared Array Camera, aboard NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, has been operating continuously to probe the universe from its most distant regions to our local solar neighborhood.

The post Top 10 gallery celebrates the Infrared Array Camera aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Researchers led by David Nesvorny of Southwest Research Institute and David Kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has inferred an unseen planet, this time orbiting a distant star, marking the first success of this technique outside the solar system.

The post Unseen planet’s gravity allows Kepler Telescope to “see” it appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

More than 70 scientists from 9 institutions including the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, sequenced the entire genome of the butterfly genus Heliconius, a brightly colored favorite of collectors and scientists since the Victorian era.

The post Heliconius butterfly genome explains wing pattern diversity 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.

The post 2013 exhibition to celebrate first complete human genome sequence appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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.

Their research revealed that the types of waterbirds that inhabit urban estuaries are influenced not only by urban development, but also by a far more natural process―rain.

The post Scientists find that rain may not always be a welcome thing to waterbirds appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Accumulations of drifting snow are the most plausible explanation for the presence of a number of puzzling alluvial fan deposits found inside large impact craters on Mars

The post Melting snow likely created fan deposits inside Martian craters, geologists say appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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.

The post Astronomers release highest-resolution images ever of the Sun’s corona appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) has released the largest three-dimensional map of massive galaxies and distant black holes ever created.

The post Largest ever 3D map of the sky released by astronomers appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The dying star, which lit the galactic scene, is the most distant stellar explosion of its kind ever studied.

The post Dying star illuminates distant galaxy, lifting veil of interstellar darkness for astronomers appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scientists at the University of Arizona and in California have completed the most challenging large astronomical mirror ever made.

The post First of seven mirrors completed for Giant Magellan Telescope appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Astronomers have discovered that one well-known elliptical galaxy has a split personality. Centaurus A is hiding a gassy spiral in its center.

The post Split-personality elliptical galaxy holds a hidden spiral appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Deep observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory of Cygnus OB2 have been used to detect the X-ray emission from the hot outer atmospheres, or coronas, of young stars in the cluster and to probe how these great star factories form and evolve.

The post Cygnus OB2: Probing a nearby stellar cradle appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Smithsonian scientists and partners find that technique meant to keep animals and humans safe has opposite effects.

The post Relocating elephants fails to decrease human–wildlife conflict appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This image shows the active star-forming galaxy M82 in three wavelengths: UV (blue), near-infrared (green) and far-infrared (red). New research indicates that even in the […]

The post Active star-forming galaxy M82 in three wavelengths appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Forget the deep forest, “today the highest densities of deer in the state of Virginia are in suburbia,” says William McShea, ecologist and research scientist at the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va.

The post Browsing suburbia: Virginia’s parceled-up farms and forests are ideal refuge for white-tailed deer appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The uplift of the Isthmus of Panama 2.6 million years ago formed a land-bridge that has long thought to be the crucial step in the […]

The post Alligator relatives crossed ancient seaway appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

New maps of the subsurface of Mars show for the first time buried channels below the surface of the red planet. Mars is considered to […]

The post Water channels discovered on Mars appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Cheeseburgers. Ice cream. French fries. These are a few of the culprits, doctors warn us, responsible for atherosclerosis, a disease commonly known as hardening of […]

The post Ancient mummies reveal atherosclerosis is very likely just a part of aging appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Marmosets on track for obesity appeared to be more efficient in their feeding behavior. “Although all animals consumed the same amount of liquid, the ones […]

The post Obese marmosets are more developmentally advanced as infants, study shows appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

This simulated image shows the Giant Magellan Telescope in operation in Chile while deploying lasers for its adaptive-optics system. The GMT is scheduled to begin […]

The post Giant Magellan Telescope appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Recent spectroscopic analysis of macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) crest feathers and king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) neck feathers have shown they contain a yellow pigment that […]

The post Yellow pigment in penguin feathers is chemically distinct, spectroscopic studies reveal appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Covered in venomous spines the exotic and strikingly banded Indo-Pacific lionfish would be a painful mouthful to any creature that may try to catch and […]

The post Biologist Andrew Sellers turns lionfish invasion into research opportunity appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.