Tag Archive | "plants"

Medieval book is important resource for how plants were once collected, treated and used

Medieval book is important resource for how plants were once collected, treated and used

Latinus 9333 is the Latin translation of the so-called Tacuinum sanitatis, a medieval handbook on wellness written in Arabic by the 11th-century physician ibn Butlan. It deals with factors influencing human health: from the air, the environment and food, to physical exercise and sexual activity. [...more]

Book Review Comments (4)

Camera traps & radio collars reveal hoarding strategies of the South American agouti

Camera traps & radio collars reveal hoarding strategies of the South American agouti

In a series of ongoing experiments on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal, Kays and other researchers are using camera traps, radio collars and palm nuts with tracking transmitters attached to them to take a closer look at the nut-hoarding strategies of the agouti. [...more]

Featured, zoology Comments (1)

Prehistoric pollination: Sawfly mouthparts fit tubular channels of gymnosperm cones

Prehistoric pollination: Sawfly mouthparts fit tubular channels of gymnosperm cones

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]

Featured, paleontology Comments (0)

Mangroves research by Candy Feller, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center botanist

Mangroves research by Candy Feller, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center botanist

Follow botanist Candy Feller of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center as she conducts field work on mangrove ecosystems at Carrie Bow Cay, a Smithsonian field research station in the Caribbean. [...more]

Video, conservation biology Comments (0)

Salad science: Coaxing caterpillars to reveal the secrets of their leafy desires

Salad science: Coaxing caterpillars to reveal the secrets of their leafy desires

Testing caterpillars’ taste buds is no simple task. Just like your local salad bar, plants in the wild come in different shapes, textures and flavors. Herbivores rely on each of these cues to tell them what to eat. Deciphering this code is Lind’s task. He’s examining 40 different plant species – half invasive, half native. [...more]

Featured, conservation biology Comments (1)

New Acquisition: Namibian specimens come to the herbarium of the National Museum of Natural History

New Acquisition: Namibian specimens come to the herbarium of the National Museum of Natural History

Dried specimens of nearly 800 flowering plants were acquired by the Botany Department of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History from the National Botanical Research Institute in Windhoek, Namibia, Africa. The collection includes nearly 160 specimens from the Compositae, or sunflower family. [...more]

New Acquisitions, conservation biology Comments (0)

Fossils Show Prehistoric Global Warming

Fossils Show Prehistoric Global Warming

For those who think that global warming is a 21st-century phenomenon, Scott Wing, a scientist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, has news about the past. [...more]

Featured, paleontology Comments (0)

Meet our Scientists—Videos!

Science Spotlight


Caught on camera!

This short video of an ocelot was taken by Smithsonian scientists during a recent camera-trap survey of these animals in the Peruvian Amazon.[...more]

(Courtesy of Joseph Kolowski)
More...

Twitter

SmithsonianSci

twitter