Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Stories from Elizabeth Gamillo

Park visitors walk along a section of the Great Salt Lake that used to be underwater at the Great Salt Lake State Park near Magna, Utah. 

Utah’s Great Salt Lake Is Drying Out

Water levels, the lowest ever measured, are placing migrating birds, local communities and economic development at high risk

The gophers spend most of their time underground and only venture to the outside world to forage for food or mate.

Pocket Gophers May Be the First Non-Human Mammal to ‘Farm’

The rodents don’t plant, of course, but they do tend to roots in their tunnels that they then eat

Brooding requires a significant sacrifice for a mother Bathyteuthis berryi. Though she can't feed or quickly escape from predators while carrying her eggs, she can ensure her young stay in water that has the right temperature, salinity and oxygen levels.

Watch a Deep-Sea Squid Carry Hundreds of Pearl-Like Eggs

Footage taken 56 miles off California’s coast documents rarely-observed brooding behavior

V. boliviana is now the world’s largest known giant waterlily species, with leaves that can grow almost ten feet wide in the wild.

New Species of Giant Waterlily Is the Largest in the World

The discovery of the enormous plant type surprised researchers

The shortlisted images range from showing Earth as blue marble against thousands of twinkling stars, distant nebulae, swirling galaxies, and stunning photos of the solar system.

View Amazing Shots of Space From the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Contest

Each shortlisted photo is in the running to win the grand prize and will be on display at the National Maritime Museum in London

Both Pfizer and Moderna already developed updated shots to target Omicron variant BA.1, and their data showcasing superior antibody responses against the Omicron variant were evaluated by the panel of experts deciding which strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus should be included in updated booster shots.

FDA Panel Endorses Updated Covid Boosters Targeting Omicron Subvariants

Updated vaccines will target both virus strains that dominated in the past and current Omicron subvariants

The vaccine, known as BPL-1357, was developed by experts at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and contains four strains of non-infectious, chemically inactivated avian influenza, thought to be not highly pathogenic.

Universal Flu Vaccine Enters Clinical Trials in Humans

The test will inoculate 100 volunteers with a vaccine that protected mice from lethal doses of six different flu strains

CAPSTONE is currently in low-Earth orbit and will take about four months to reach lunar orbit. (Pictured: An illustration of CAPSTONE)

NASA Launches CubeSat to Orbit the Moon

The CAPSTONE mission will help the agency plan upcoming lunar missions

The bacterium, roughly the shape and size of an eyelash, was first discovered in 2009 in the mangrove swamps of Guadeloupe, an island in the Lesser Antilles. The bacteria appeared as long translucent centimeter-long strings on decaying leaf matter in the water.

World’s Largest Bacterium Discovered in Caribbean Mangrove Swamps

The bacterium is the size of an eyelash and visible to the naked eye

The carbon-rich asteroid is of interest to researchers because the chunk of rock has remained unchanged since the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.

Building Blocks of Life Found on Samples Collected From an Asteroid

The find suggests that amino acids could land on Earth on meteorites

Previously other companies have used 3D printing technology to produce custom prosthetic limbs from lightweight plastics and materials. Still, the ear implant is the first known example of a 3D implant made from living tissue.

Surgeons Transplant 3-D-Printed Ear Made From Patient’s Own Cells

The 3-D printed implant is the first made from living tissue

The image captured in South Texas shows cactus bees (Diadasia rinconis) in a rare and intimate moment as they swarm into a mating ball for a chance to mate with one female bee.
 

Winners of the 2022 Big Picture Natural World Photography Competition Announced

From mating bees to starfish devouring a sea lion, the photos captured the beauty and diversity of life on Earth

The new gel uses a protein called ecarin from the venom of the saw-scaled viper and the protein textilinin from the eastern brown snake’s venom to seal wounds. (Pictured: An eastern brown snake)

Made From Snake Venom, These Hydrogels Could Treat Uncontrolled Bleeding

Scientists have found that two proteins repurposed from snake venom can initiate blood clotting in under 60 seconds

Boeing's Ascent/Entry Suit (AES) design was drawn up by ILC Dover, an engineering development and manufacturing company based in Delaware.

Boeing Reveals New Space Suit Design for Starliner Missions

The snazzy outfit, unveiled at the Kennedy Space Center, is expected to be worn by astronauts starting in 2023

In total, researchers made CT scans of the inner ears of 147 frog species. With these scans, the team determined that Brachycephalus toads' semicircular canals are the smallest ever recorded for adult vertebrates.

The Pumpkin Toadlet’s Miniature Size Makes It a Lousy Hopper

These amphibians’ tiny inner ear canals make balancing mid-jump a challenge

Vets of the study say that if breeders and the public stop selecting the bulldog’s current characteristic features, the future English bulldog will have a longer face, trimmer head, and no skin folds.

The Selective Breeding of English Bulldogs Has Led to a Lot of Health Problems

Their deep facial folds, pronounced underbite and other distinctive features lead to issues

Despite only uncovering one bone, researchers were able to identify it as an abelisaurid by the distinct structures that stuck out on the top left and top right of the neck vertebrae called epipophyses. (Pictured: Graduate student, Belal Salem holding the neck vertebra of the unamed abelisaurid theropod found in the Bahariya Oasis)

New Dinosaur Species With Bulldog-Like Face Uncovered in Egypt

The fossil is the first evidence of a bipedal abelisaurid in the one of the world’s richest fossil deposits

Before and after images of four study participants who recieved 36 weeks of treatment for severe alopecia areata with the drug baricitinib.

FDA Approves First Drug to Treat Hair Loss Caused By Alopecia

In a clinical trial with 1200 patients, more than half grew their hair back after a year

After the researchers identified it as a subterranean river and gathered at the site in Antarctica, they drilled down 1640 feet below the ice's surface using a hot water hose to melt the ice.

Hidden Life Found Far Beneath World’s Largest Ice Shelf

Hundreds of shrimp-like creatures were found living 1640 feet beneath Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf

Scientists had long speculated that egg-laying dinosaurs would have an umbilical scar, but this study is the first to find evidence of one. (Pictured: artist representation of a Psittacosaurus and its umbilical scar)

First Dinosaur Belly Button Discovered in Fossil From China

The navel was found with unique imaging technology and is similar to scars living alligators sport

Page 2 of 19