It is one of the largest and most productive estuaries in the world, yet dramatic changes are in store for the Chesapeake Bay in coming decades if climate change predictions hold true, say a team of scientists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the University of Maryland, Pennsylvania State University, and other research organizations in [...] [...more]
There are several hypotheses about how amphibian chytrid has spread around the world, but the trade in amphibians for food, bait, pets and laboratory animals has been identified as the most likely mode of spread [...more]
Tidal Freshwater Wetlands focuses on wetlands found in North America and Europe near the mouths of rivers that flow into estuaries like the Chesapeake Bay. [...more]
The way that massive stars form remains mysterious, in part, because massive stars are rare and tend to spend their youth shrouded by dust and gas and hidden from view. [...more]
FluMist is not only the first intranasal administered influenza vaccine in the United States, it’s also the first live virus influenza vaccine approved in the United States. [...more]
Nearly 100 years ago, scientists detected the first signs of cosmic rays—subatomic particles (mostly protons) that zip through space at nearly the speed of light. Astronomers questioned what natural force could accelerate particles to such a speed. Now, new evidence from the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) telescope array in Southern Arizona [...] [...more]
George Smith, a marine biologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, explains his work of finding ways to prevent invasive species from being released in Baltimore Harbor in the ballast water of large ships. [...more]
Smithsonian scientists and colleagues, however, have recently found evidence that gymnosperm plants shared an intricate pollination relationship with scorpionfly insects 62 million years before flowering plants appear in fossil records. [...more]
Kiwis come to National Zoo. The Smithsonian’s National Zoo will be using a new kiwi pair donated by the New Zealand Embassy to establish a breeding science center. Both birds came from the Ngati Hine people in New Zealand. Adding these animals to the genetic pool in North America is a rare and valuable opportunity. This pair came with another pair that will continue on to Germany and one bird that went to the San Diego Zoo. Kiwis are native to New Zealand and have been there for more than 60 million years, making them New Zealand’s most ancient bird. (Photo by Mehgan Murphy)
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