Robert Andrews Millikan (1868-1953), American physicist and Nobel laureate. This image is one in a collection of thousands of portraits held in the Smithsonian Library’s Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology. The portraits come in a variety of formats: drawings, woodcuts, engravings, paintings and photographs, and are a supplement to the library’s large [...] [...more]
This composite image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) shows the distribution of dark matter, galaxies, and hot gas in the core of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520, formed from a violent collision of massive galaxy clusters that is located about 2.4 billion light years from Earth. [...] [...more]
Olivine is the most common mineral in Earth’s upper mantle. This olivine crystal from the mid-ocean ridge in the Pacific contains tiny bits of volcanic glass, a sample of the liquid rock the crystal grew from. Smithsonian scientists are interested in the composition of this glass, which includes dissolved water. From [...] [...more]
Paleontologists studying an extreme short-term global warming event have discovered direct evidence about how mammals respond to rising temperatures. In a study that appeared recently in the journal Science researchers from eight institutions including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History found a correlation between temperature and body size in mammals by following the evolution [...] [...more]
These butterflies Papilio memnon “Great Mormon” (top), from southern Asia, and Papilio ophidicephalus “Emperor Swallowtail,” from South Africa, appear in the flicker photo set “Nature’s Flying Canvases” from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. These and other living butterflies can be encountered in the museum’s live butterfly exhibit “Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution” [...] [...more]
Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough, left, talks with Carlos Jaramillo, scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, at a research site near the Panama Canal. Jaramillo and his team are collecting and examining prehistoric fossils exposed during the recent widening of the Canal. To date, they have discovered the fossils of a 12-inch-tall [...] [...more]
Anastrepha conflua, one of seven new fruit fly species of the genus Anastrepha Schiner described in a new paper by USDA entomologist Allen Norrbom, Systematic Entomology Laboratory of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and Cheslavo Korytkowski, University of Panama. This is the most diverse genus of fruit flies in the American tropics and [...] [...more]
The figure representing “Science” from the statue “Columbia Protecting Science and Industry” is gently lowered onto a truck. The entire statue was removed from above the north entrance of the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, as the building undergoes renovation. The figure “Science,” is depicted reading a [...] [...more]
Scientists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center have found that fledgling catbirds living in the suburbs are extremely vulnerable. Almost 80 percent are killed by predators before they reach adulthood. Nearly half of the deaths are connected to domestic cats. The team studied catbird nests in 3 suburban neighborhoods in Maryland: Spring Park, Opal Daniels Park, and Bethesda. Learn more about this 2011 study by clicking here. (Catbird photo by Gerhard Hofmann)
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