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...
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.
Astronomers using NASA’s Kepler mission have detected two Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant star.
But how can the solar atmosphere get hotter, rather than colder, the farther you go from the Sun’s surface? A suborbital rocket launched in July provides the answer.
Archaeologists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama have discovered a cluster of 12 unusual stones in the back of a small, prehistoric rock-shelter near the town of Boquete.
This past summer, Laura Walker became the first scientist to collect slime molds from soils at the Barro Colorado Nature Monument in Panama, a reserve administered by the Smithsonain since 1946.
Two Andean bear cubs born at the National Zoo in the early morning of Dec. 13 to 6-year-old Billie Jean.
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists and collaborators have found that the island scrub-jay’s population on Santa Cruz Island—its only habitat—is significantly smaller than previously believed and that it is therefore at greater risk of extinction....
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