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.

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
Bone
Surfer’s Ear Points to Ancient Pearl Divers in Panama  
12.21.2018
Tropical Research Institute Research News
National Zoo entrance
Smithsonian Scientists Unlock the Mystery of Dragonfly Migration  
Specimens Dating Back 140 Years Could Protect the Future of the Species
12.19.2018
National Zoo Research News
Corn on table

Varieties of maize found near Cuscu and Machu Pichu at Salineras de Maras on the Inca Sacred Valley in Peru, June 2007.

Credit: Fabio de Oliveira Freitas

Scientists Overhaul Corn Domestication Story With Multidisciplinary Analysis  
Semi-wild Proto-corn Spread From Mexico to South America Before Becoming Fully Domesticated, Offering New Clues to Its Future
12.13.2018
Natural History Museum Research News
Coral

Credit: Roshan Patel, Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Smithsonian and Partners Pioneer Method To Boost Endangered Coral Populations Separated by Vast Distances  
Technique Represents Critical Step Toward Buffering Coral Reefs Against Warming Oceans
12.12.2018
National Zoo Research News
túngara frog

A calling male túngara frog with a large inflated vocal sac.

Photo by Marcos Guerra

Frog Sex in the City: Urban Tungara Frogs Sound More Attractive Than Forest Frogs
12.10.2018
Tropical Research Institute Research News
Baleen Whale

Baleen is the soft, hair-like structure on the upper mouth of whales, such as the humpback whale in this photo, which allows them to trap prey in their mouth. 

Credit: Ari S. Friedlaender/University of California, Santa Cruz under NOAA permit

Whales Lost Their Teeth Before Evolving Hair-like Baleen in Their Mouths
Newly Described Fossil Whale in Museum Collections Reveals a Surprising Intermediate Step in Their Evolution
11.29.2018
Natural History Museum Research News
Orcas jumping

Orcas, also known as killer whales, may be on the rise in the Southeastern Pacific, at least as indicated by the number of scars on young humpback whales. 

Credit: Robert Pittman, NOAA, Wikimedia Commons.

First Study of Humpback Whale Survivors of Killer Whale Attacks in the Southeastern Pacific
11.06.2018
Tropical Research Institute Research News

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