Research News

Newsroom of the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian is one of the world’s foremost research centers in science, the arts, and the humanities. In addition to research pursued by the museums, our research centers specialize in areas of inquiry spanning the globe and the farthest reaches of the universe.

Yellow frog on green grass — Hourglass treefrog *(Dendropsophus ebraccatus).* Amphibians, which face some of the steepest declines worldwide, saw some of the biggest benefits to living in protected lands. (Credit: Justin Nowakowski)

Protecting Lands Slows Biodiversity Loss Among Vertebrates by Five Times

Effective Government Key To Ensuring Protected Areas Safeguard Biodiversity

09.27.2023

Environmental Research Center Research News

Elkhorn Coral — Roshan Patel/Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

New Technique Could Facilitate Rapid Cryopreservation of All Coral Species

Successfully Cooling and Thawing Coral Fragments Key to Global Conservation Milestone for Vanishing Coral Reefs

08.23.2023

National Zoo Research News

Still life photo of various clams and other bivalves spilling from a bushel basket — Human-harvested shellfish from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History research collections. (Credit: Brittany M. Hance and James D. Tiller, Smithsonian)

More Than 800 Human-Harvested Shellfish Species Tend To Be More Resistant to Extinction

Researchers Caution That Harvests Must Be Sustainably Managed To Preserve Populations for Future Generations

08.15.2023

Natural History Museum Research News

Analysis Reveals Ancestry, Possible Descendants of Enslaved and Free African Americans

Scientists Analyzed DNA From an African American Burial Ground Located at a Historic Maryland Ironworks

08.03.2023

Natural History Museum Research News

Huge tree on Barro Colorado Island — One of the largest trees on Barro Colorado Island in Panama. Tropical forests pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere where it causes global warming and store it as wood. But the amount of carbon stored varies depending on tree species, age, climate conditions and other factors. Verifiable estimates of carbon stored in forests are necessary to calculate carbon credits. (Photo by Steve Paton)

Bezos Earth Fund Grants $12 Million to Smithsonian To Support Major Forest Carbon Project

07.06.2023

Tropical Research Institute Research News

Three bones showing cut marks from stone tools — Briana Pobiner

Humans’ Evolutionary Relatives Butchered One Another 1.45 Million Years Ago

Cut Marks on a Fossil Leg Bone Belonging to a Relative of Modern Humans Were Made by Stone Tools and Could Be Evidence of Cannibalism

06.26.2023

Natural History Museum Research News

Fisherman casting seine net — Credit: Luciano Candisani

Marine Protected Areas Improve Health, Wealth of Nearby Communities

New Smithsonian-Led Study Shows Protecting Marine Life Can Support Multiple U.N. Sustainable Development Goals in Mesoamerican Reef

06.22.2023

Environmental Research Center Research News

Camels traversing Kenyan desert — Caravan of camels moving across the edge of the Chalbi Desert in Marsabit County, Kenya. (Photo by James Hassell, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute).

Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and Kenyan Partners Awarded $5 Million Grant To Prevent Emerging Diseases in Northern Kenya

Five-Year Study of Three Animal-Borne Pathogens Aims To Enhance Local and Global Health Security

06.06.2023

Conservation Biology Institute National Zoo Research News Administrative News

Scientists working on inaugural BiodiversiTREE project pose for group shot — The team of scientists and interns who planted BiodiversiTREE in 2013, along with roughly 100 volunteers. From left: Susan Cook-Patton, Whitney Hoot, Caitlyn Cecil, Jess Shue, John Parker, Kim Holzer and Lada Klimesova. (Credit: Susan Cook-Patton)

Tree Species Diversity Increases Likelihood of Planting Success

Researchers and Volunteers Planted 20,000 Tree Saplings in Reforestation Experiment; Ten Years Later, the Results Are In

05.23.2023

Environmental Research Center Research News

Exoplanet LP 791-18 d — LP 791-18 d, illustrated here, is an Earth-size world about 90 light-years away. The gravitational tug from a more massive planet in the system, shown as a blue disk in the background, may result in internal heating and volcanic eruptions—as much as Jupiter’s moon Io, the most geologically active body in the solar system. Astronomers discovered and studied the planet using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite along with many other observatories.

Astronomers Find Potentially Volcano-Covered Earth-Size World

05.17.2023

Research News

Earth rising on the horizon of the moon — NASA

Study Presents New Clues About the Rise of Earth’s Continents

One Popular Explanation for Properties That Result in Dry Land Is Unlikely According to New Experiments

05.04.2023

Natural History Museum Research News

Kirtland's Warbler — Research ecologist Nathan Cooper holds a radio-tagged Kirtland’s Warbler just before releasing it in The Bahamas. Credit: Tim Romano/Smithsonian

Night Flight: Tracking Data Reveal When and Why Songbirds Begin Their Massive Journeys and How They Decide To Leave

Most Birds Start Within a 69-Minute Window Just After Dusk

05.01.2023

Research News

Smithsonian’s Center for Environmental Justice at the Anacostia Community Museum Launches on Earth Day

04.07.2023

Anacostia Community Museum Research News Public Programs

Close up of coral polyps underwater — A close-up ofextended polyps of an apparently healthy great star coral colony (*Montastraea cavernosa*) on a reef near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The tentacles surrounding the mouth of each polyp help trap food particles for the coral to eat. The brown coloration is from the symbiotic microalgae (Symbiodiniaceae) that live in the coral tissues. Credit: Valerie Paul

Newly Discovered Probiotic Could Protect Caribbean Corals Threatened by Deadly, Devastating Disease

New Treatment Offers an Alternative to Antibiotic Treatment, Reducing Risk of Resistant Pathogenic Bacteria

04.06.2023

Natural History Museum Research News

Unraveling a Microbial Mystery

Why Are Some Bacteria Making Environmental Mercury Even More Toxic?

04.04.2023

Environmental Research Center Research News

Global Natural History Initiative Builds Groundbreaking Database To Address 21st-Century Challenges

Effort Connects More Than a Billion Objects in Scientific Collections Across 73 Museums in 28 Countries

03.23.2023

Natural History Museum Research News

Open book with dozens of painted silhouettes — Credit: Page spread from William Bache’s Silhouettes Album, black paper-coated silhouettes mounted on paper. Digitized by Mark Gulezian/NPG. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; partial gift of Sarah Bache Bloise

Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery Reveals Identities of Hundreds of People in Early 19th-Century Portrait Album

Portrait Gallery Research and Conservation Project Used Getty Grant To Create a Microsite Featuring 1,800 Paper Silhouettes From Political Elite to Everyday People

03.20.2023

Portrait Gallery Research News