“American Mine” features open pit mines on the Carlin Trend, the most prolific gold mining district in the Western Hemisphere. Mines from this region are the source of devastating mercury emissions, released when ore is heated during the process of gold extraction.
Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Columbus Zoo have successfully transferred cheetah embryos produced by in vitro fertilization to a surrogate cheetah mom for the first time. Two cubs were born Feb. 19 to 3-year-old mom Izzy, though the cubs’ biological mom is 6 1/2-year-old Kibibi.
Frederic Edwin Church, The Natural Bridge, Virginia, 1852, oil on canvas, 28 x 23 in. The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, Gift of Thomas Fortune Ryan.
Three Cassiopea, or upside-down jellyfish, from Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean seen from above in the lab at the Department of Invertebrate Zoology in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
