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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.

purple fringeless orchid

An endangered purple fringeless orchid discovered on a private farm in Virginia July 24 by citizen scientists.

Photo: Courtesy of October Greenfield

Citizen Scientists Discover Endangered Orchid in Virginia
08.06.2019
Conservation Biology Institute Research News
Bat

Micronycteris microtis in flightcage
Credit: Inga Geipel

Bats Use Leaves as Mirrors To Find Their Prey in the Dark
08.01.2019
Tropical Research Institute Research News
Kirtland’s Warbler

A Kirtland’s warbler.

Photo: Courtesy of Nathan Cooper  

Kirtland’s Warbler No Longer Needs Protection from Brown-Headed Cowbird in Michigan
07.31.2019
Conservation Biology Institute Research News

Expedition to Darien Forest. Photo by Sean Mattson

Study Reveals Unusually High Carbon Stocks and Tree Diversity in Panama’s Darien Forest
07.19.2019
Tropical Research Institute Research News
lion

A male African lion named Luke at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in 2011.

Photo: Mehgan Murphy/Smithsonian’s National Zoo

Male African Lions in Human Care Hit Puberty Earlier Than in the Wild
Nutrition May Be Behind the Difference
07.03.2019
National Zoo Research News
woman with bugs

Amber S. Litterer, University of New Hampshire, loves Docidocercus gigliotosi, a tropical katydid species.

Credit: Ciara Kernan

Insects Need Empathy
Immediate, Science-Based Community Action Can Mitigate Insect Decline
06.27.2019
Tropical Research Institute Research News
People speaking into radio

George H. Clark Radioana Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

Smithsonian Launches Transcription of Audio Collections
Apollo 11 Recordings Among First Projects Available for Volunteers
06.24.2019
Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology Research News
View of distant mountains
Flickering Sky Islands Generate Andean Biodiversity
Video of Páramo Moving Up and Down Mountainsides Puts Climate Change in Context
06.14.2019
Tropical Research Institute Research News
Asian Water Dragon

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo was the first to confirm facultative parthenogenesis in Asian water dragons, a species of lizard. A female Asian water dragon (left) hatched August 2016 and is the only surviving offspring of her 12-year-old mother (right). Photo: Skip Brown/Smithsonian's National Zoo

Scientists Confirm Facultative Parthenogenesis in Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s Asian Water Dragon
Visitors Can See the Offspring on Exhibit at the Reptile Discovery Center
06.05.2019
National Zoo Research News

Photo Credit: Michael Logan

Pathogens May Have Facilitated the Evolution of Warm-Blooded Animals
Fever May Bbe Less Effective at Repelling Infections in Cold-Blooded Creatures
06.05.2019
Tropical Research Institute Research News

Large reef fishes like these bluestripe snappers (Lutjanus kasmira) rely on the smallest of vertebrates—gobies, blennies and other tiny fishes—for daily sustenance, especially as they are growing up. (Credit: Tane Sinclair-Taylor)

Live Fast, Die Young: Study Shows Tiny Fishes Fuel Coral Reefs
05.23.2019
Natural History Museum Research News

Credit: Michael Boyle

Parents Unknown: Mysterious Larvae Found in Panama’s Two Oceans
05.13.2019
Tropical Research Institute Research News
Lunar Lobate Thrust Fault Scarp

This prominent lunar lobate thrust fault scarp is one of thousands discovered in Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) images. The fault scarp or cliff is like a stair-step in the lunar landscape (left-pointing white arrows) formed when the near-surface crust is pushed together, breaks, and is thrust upward along a fault as the Moon contracts. Boulder fields,  patches of relatively high bright soil or regolith, are found on the scarp face and back scarp terrain (right-pointing arrows).

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University/Smithsonian

New Analysis Shows the Moon Is Tectonically Active
Findings Published by Smithsonian Scientist Tom Watters
05.13.2019
Air and Space Museum Research News
Spider Zombie Wasp

Wasp in Pupil Stage. Credit: Marcelo O. Gonzaga

Parasitoid Wasps May Turn Spiders Into Zombies by Hacking Their Internal Code
04.29.2019
Tropical Research Institute Research News
Chick

A newly hatched Guam kingfisher chick at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia. The chick hatched April 22. Guam kingfishers are extinct in the wild and only about 140 of them live in human care.

Credit: Erica Royer/Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

Extinct-in-the-Wild Guam Kingfisher Hatches at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
This Brightly Colored Bird Is One of the Most Endangered Bird Species on the Planet
04.26.2019
Conservation Biology Institute Research News
Artistic reconstruction of Callichimaera perplexa

Artistic reconstruction of Callichimaera perplexa: The strangest crab that has ever lived.

Image credit: Elissa Martin, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Fossil Crab Reveals a New Branch in the Tree of Life
04.24.2019
Tropical Research Institute Research News
wood turtle

A wood turtle in a stream in Virginia.

Photo: Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Smithsonian Scientists Use eDNA for the First Time To Find Wood Turtles in Virginia
The High-Tech Sampling Is as Effective as Traditional Scientific Surveys
04.24.2019
Conservation Biology Institute Research News
Black Hole
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian Plays Central Role in Capturing Landmark Black Hole Image
04.10.2019
Astrophysical Observatory Research News
People in water

Smithsonian marine biologist Linda McCann helps Wilson Iniguez (Charles Darwin Foundation) retrieve underwater plates on San Cristobal Island in the Galápagos. Biologists found nonnative species on the Galápagos by leaving settlement plates in the water for months to see what creatures grew on them. (Credit: Kristen Larson/SERC)

Galápagos Islands Have 10 Times More Alien Marine Species Than Once Thought
03.28.2019
Environmental Research Center Research News
Fossil

Taylor, L., O’Dea, A., Bralower, T., Finnegan, S. 2019. Isotopes from fossil coronulid barnacle shells record evidence of migration in multiple Pleistocene whale populations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1808759116

Deep-Time Tracking Devices: Fossil Barnacles Reveal Prehistoric Whale Migrations
03.26.2019
Tropical Research Institute Research News
Aerial shot of Forrest

A single tropical forest may be home to hundreds of different plant species, as seen in this bird’s eye view of Panama’s Soberania National Park. A new study shows that the interactions between tropical plants and the insects that eat them may be explain tropical forest diversity.

Credit: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Chemical Innovation by Relatives of the Ice Cream Bean Explains Tropical Biodiversity
03.14.2019
Tropical Research Institute Research News
Scientist with soil core

Smithsonian soil scientist Pat Megonigal holds up a soil core in a wetland. Wetlands store carbon more efficiently than any other natural ecosystem, and a new study shows they store even more when sea level rises.  (Credit: Genevieve Noyce/Smithsonian Environmental Research Center)

As Sea Level Rises, Wetlands Crank Up Their Carbon Storage
03.06.2019
Environmental Research Center Research News
Boophis Virdis
Dermal Disruption: Amphibian Skin Bacteria Is More Diverse in Cold and Variable Environments According to Global Survey  
02.21.2019
Tropical Research Institute Research News
scientist with bat
When Does Noise Become a Message?  
Rain Sounds Cue Bats To Stay at Home
02.01.2019
Tropical Research Institute Research News

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