Butterfly brooch
The National Museum of Natural History’s gem collection has a new addition: the Cindy Chao Black Label Masterpiece Royal Butterfly Brooch. Created by Chao in 2009 and donated to the museum by the artist, the...
Science Spotlight
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Supermassive black hole spins super fast
Imagine a sphere more than 2 million miles across – eight times the distance from Earth to the Moon – spinning so fast that its surface is traveling at nearly the speed of light. Such...
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Small migratory birds age faster in stressful places, study reveals
Small migratory male birds that winter in a stressful environment age faster than those that winter in a high-quality habitat, according to research stemming from a collaborative National Science Foundation grant between the University of...
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New evidence of extraterrestrial life may come from dying stars
Even dying stars could host planets with life – and if such life exists, we might be able to detect it within the next decade. This encouraging result comes from a new theoretical study of...
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Belize’s South Water Caye Marine Reserve protects biodiversity of Belizean Barrier Reef
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Browsing suburbia: Virginia’s parceled-up farms and forests are ideal refuge for white-tailed deer
Forget the deep forest, “today the highest densities of deer in the state of Virginia are in suburbia,” says William McShea, ecologist and research scientist at the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va.
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Clean bill of health for cubs
Animal keeper Karen Abbott holds one of the National Zoological Park’s twin 8-week-old Andean bear cubs during its first veterinary exam. The cubs received a clean bill of health Feb. 20 from Zoo veterinarians during...
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Samuel P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian, and his development of the ill-fated Aerodrome A
