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Fifty Years of Arctic National Wildlife Preservation
Biologist George Schaller on the debate over ANWR conservation and why the refuge must be saved
March 10, 2011 |
By Molly Loomis
Why Bird Brains Bloom in Spring
Aah, springtime. Crocuses are blooming, squirrels are cavorting, birds are singing ... and the HVc region of the neostriatum, the robust nucleus of the archistriatum and area X of the parolfactory lobe are recrudescing. Those are the bits of a male bird's brain responsible for singing, and they are...
March 07, 2011 |
By Laura Helmuth
Looking Back at A&E's "Dinosaur!"
In 1991, the cable channel A&E ran a four-part prehistoric extravaganza hosted by Walter Cronkite and simply called Dinosaur! I was only eight when it aired, and I remember begging my parents to stay up to watch the episodes. Irrepressible little dinosaur...
March 02, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Quagga: The Lost Zebra
Name: Quagga (Equus quagga quagga)Description: A type of zebra from South Africa whose stripes faded below the neck. Once thought to be a separate species, scientists who have performed DNA analyses on zebras now say that the quagga is a subspecies of the plains zebra.Why the Quagga is "Lost": Larg...
March 01, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Nothing Can Stop the Zebra
A 150-mile fence in the Kalahari Desert appeared to threaten Africa's zebras, but now researchers can breathe a sigh of relief
March 2011 |
By Robyn Keene-Young
Studying the Bond Between a Cat and Its Human
It took 120 hours of observing 40 cat-human pairs for scientists to conclude that the bond between the two can be similar to other human relationships. And, yes, I know that most of you who have cats---or know someone who has a cat---will not find that surprising, so let's delve into the details. I...
February 28, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Accidental Cure for Hair Loss
Before I go any further, I have to warn any balding individuals reading this hoping for a solution to their hair loss problems that I'm going to talk about a study in mice. Nothing—yet—has been tested in humans, so don't get too excited.Our story starts with a group of scientists studying chronic s...
February 17, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Biology’s Ten Worst Love Stories
Animal sex can get pretty weird. And we're not comfortable with some of its variants. I'm sure I'm on someone's watch list after researching this post; while searching for juicy examples, I kept coming across sites barred by the Smithsonian's internet filter—such as the Wikipedia entry on "sexual c...
February 14, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Crested Gibbons Sing in Different Dialects
Crested gibbons of the genus Nomascus are small apes that live in the dense rainforests of Cambodia, China, Laos and Vietnam. All seven species communicate by singing—they sing to define their territory and find a mate, and male-female pairs sing duets to strengthen their bond, rather like a Bollyw...
February 08, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Survival Training, Ferret Style
Before the captive animals can go free, they have to hone their killer instinct at a conservation center in Colorado
February 2011 |
By Morgan Heim
Tracking the Elusive Lynx
Rare and maddeningly elusive, the "ghost cat" tries to give scientists the slip high in the mountains of Montana
February 2011 |
By Abigail Tucker
Are Humans an Invasive Species?
Some readers of recent Smithsonian stories on wild pigs in Texas and the world's worst invasive mammals list have argued that we may have left out the worst invasive species of them all: Homo sapiens. But are humans really an invasive species?Let's start with the definition of an invasive species. ...
January 31, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Shark That Will Give You More Nightmares Than Jaws
If the movie Jaws scared you away from swimming, perhaps you should avoid the "Journey through Time" section of the Sant Ocean Hall at the National Museum of Natural History. There you'll find a collection of fossil marine life dating back as far as 500 million years ago. In one case is possibly th...
January 26, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Rare Sunda Clouded Leopards Come in Two Varieties
Clouded leopards—named for their large, cloud-like spots—are rare. They are medium-sized (a bit bigger than a housecat) tree dwellers with big teeth and big paws that let them hang upside down among the foliage. In 2006, scientists used DNA studies to determine that there were two species of cloude...
January 25, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
A Colorful Zebrafish
Each summer, scientists gather in Woods Hole, Massachusetts to conduct research and take courses at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Last year, MBL held a scientific photography contest that anyone involved with the institution was allowed to enter. The winner, Albert Pan, a post-doc at Harvard Un...
January 14, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Male and Female Butterflies Take Turns at Courting
When it comes to butterflies, males are usually the pretty ones. They have to be, since they're also usually the ones that do the courting. But male and female squinting bush brown butterflies (Bicyclus anynana) that live in central Africa look alike, at least to us. Both are equally beautiful in ...
January 10, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
North American Bumblebees on the Decline
"The bees are disappearing." It's such a well-known fact that it even became a key plot point in season 4 of Doctor Who (with the explanation that the bees were aliens simply returning to their home planet). Most of the concern has centered on honeybees and the problem now known as colony collapse ...
January 04, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
A Plague of Pigs in Texas
Now numbering in the millions, these shockingly destructive and invasive wild hogs wreak havoc across the southern United States
January 2011 |
By John Morthland
The Elephant Family Tree, Extinct and Extant
Are you getting impatient for scientists to resurrect an extinct species? Me, too. Jurassic Park popularized the idea that ancient DNA could be used to reanimate dinosaurs. The cloning of Dolly the sheep provided a plausible mechanism, and the discovery of soft tissue in dinosaur bones and the reco...
December 27, 2010 |
By Laura Helmuth
