Head of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center Scott Sillett.

National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Birds Connect Our World

As the sounds of traffic and crowds have hushed, you may have noticed more birdsong than usual. Stay-at-home measures keeping most of us indoors are likely emboldening our feathered friends, and many more humans are stopping to listen.

Dr. Suzan Murray, Program Director for the Smithsonian’s Global Health Program, reading her testimony at the House Science Subcommittee’s Coronaviruses: understanding the Spread of Infectious Diseases and Mobilizing Innovative Solutions hearing that occurred in March 2020.

Office of Academic Appointments and Internships

Science, Policy, and Pandemics

For years, the dangerous virus currently making global headlines was circulating in wild animals, replicating and spreading with little notice from the host that carried it. This virus, that scientists now believe originated in bats, quickly turned from a benign hitchhiker to a deadly producer of disease when it was introduced to an animal population it had never come in contact with before – humans.

© Cristina Mittermeier

Life on a Sustainable Planet

Framing Hope Through A Photographer's Lens

Following the 2020 Earth Optimism Digital Summit, photographer Cristina Mittermeier tells us how she is able to portray optimism in her images.

More From Smithsonian Voices
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Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery

Mysteries of the First Mastodon

Conservator Ariel O'Connor unearths the mysteries behind Charles Willson Peale’s mastodon.

Some of the most exciting discoveries in human evolution happened in the last decade. (Human Origins Program, Smithsonian Institution)

National Museum of Natural History

These are the Decade’s Biggest Discoveries in Human Evolution

Celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Smithsonian’s “David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins” with some of the biggest discoveries in human evolution from the last 10 years.

Chiura Obata,

Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery

Chiura Obata: Artist Interrupted

In our time of social distancing, Obata's handwritten notes have us thinking about how we communicate with one another, and how important a simple note can be.

The Smithsonian's Earth Optimism Summit was a 3-day global live-streamed event that took place on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22, 2020, through April 24.

Life on a Sustainable Planet

Positivity Has a Voice in Science

A reflection on the 2020 Earth Optimism Digital Summit.

What's a mastodon doing at SAAM? Dr. Advait Mahesh Jukar, a Deep Time Fellow and Paleontologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, answers our questions.

Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery

Hips Don't Lie: The American Incognitum

Dr. Advait Mahesh Jukar, a Deep Time Fellow and Paleontologist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, talks with us about mastodons.

Catch Bill's 90-minute special on Saturday April 25, 2020 on CNN.

Life on a Sustainable Planet

Bill Weir's Road to Optimism

CNN's Climate Correspondent Bill Weir talks finding optimism in a contentious climate.

Chapter three begins with an image of a black walnut branch and its hanging flowers.

Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery

Designing for Humboldt: Five Questions with Karen Siatras

How a graphic designer at SAAM was inspired to incorporate Humboldt's ideas about nature into the exhibition catalogue

Frederic Edwin Church, “Study for “The Heart of the Andes,”” 1858, oil on canvas, 10 1/4 x 18 1/4 in., Olana State Historic Site, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, OL.1981.47.A.B.

Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery

A Brush with Nature: Alexander von Humboldt and Frederic Church

Humboldt's ideas on art, nature, and philosophy helped to shape American artists, including the influential Hudson River school painters

Female Guam kingfisher Giha at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. Guam kingfishers are extinct in the wild, but scientists are working to change that by breeding the species for release in the near future.

National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Some Egg-citing News and a Few Love Bites

There are only 135 Guam kingfishers in the world. The species is extinct in the wild, but scientists are working to change that by breeding the species for release in the near future.

Mangroves line a channel connecting the Belize River to the coastal lagoon system. These trees are hundreds of years old and provide important habitat to both terrestrial and marine species. (Steve Canty, Smithsonian Marine Station)

National Museum of Natural History

Together, We Can Save the Mangroves

Scientists hope to save mangroves with global collaboration.

A Malayan tiger like this one was diagnosed with COVID-19 at the Bronx Zoo.

Smithsonian Science Education Center

How Does a Disease Transfer from an Animal to a Human and Back?

COVID-19 has taken over world headlines since it first emerged in December of 2019. As the disease spread into a pandemic, scientists have scrambled to learn as much about it as quickly as possible. An early bright spot in the overwhelmingly negative news about COVID-19 was that it was believed pets could not get or carry the virus. However, recently a tiger at the Bronx Zoo tested positive for COVID-19, which opened the questions: Can I infect my pet or another animal? And can an infected animal infect me?

A female Guam kingfisher at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in 2012.

National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Guam Kingfishers: A Truly Rare Breed

As an animal keeper at SCBI, some of my favorite birds to work with are small but sassy. Guam kingfishers certainly fall into this category. We have three pairs to introduce during this year's breeding season, so we have our work cut out for us.

Jessie A. Walker,

Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery

Animals in Art and At Home

Because at SAAM everything eventually comes back to American art, some of us have been inspired to model our sweet, sassy, bored, annoyed, sleepy, amusing pets after favorite artworks in our collection. We offer them as amusement and inspiration, and as evidence of the creativity and sense of humor we appreciate in each other.

Scientists from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (including Nick Pyenson, left) and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute collect a fossil dolphin from the Caribbean coast of Panama. The fossil is encased in a white plaster jacket, and recovered as the tide rushed in. © Aaron O'Dea / Smithsonian Institution

Life on a Sustainable Planet

Digging Into the Past to Find Optimism for the Future

We know that story of what will happen in the coming decades and centuries... what's different about where we're going has to do with the rate of these changes and the biodiversity at hand.

Gather your supplies for flower exploration and natural dye lab. All photos by Gloria Kenyon.

Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery

Flower Exploration and Natural Dye Lab

Bring nature indoors in this easy-to-do craft inspired by explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt

Ceramic olla purchased from Soledad Lala (Soboba Luiseño), Riverside, California, for the collections of the Museum of the American Indian, with a sketch by the collector, E. H. Davis. Olla: NMAI 7/1952. Drawing: Expedition Sketch Book, No. 2, November 1917. Edward H. Davis Papers, Huntington Free Library Collection 9166, Cornell University Library (National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian; sketch courtesy of the Cornell University Library)

National Museum of the American Indian

Spotlight on Collections: Reuniting Objects and Expedition Field Notes

The collections of the National Museum of the American Indian include thousands of objects and images acquired during expeditions conducted or sponsored by our predecessor institution, the Museum of the American Indian–Heye Foundation. While some expeditions are well documented in collectors’ field notes and early publications, much of the information about specific objects or the individuals associated with them was never recorded on the museum’s catalog cards. A long-term, multi-institutional project to reconstruct objects’ acquisitions histories is reuniting this information with the collections. Here are a few things we’ve learned so far.

The Smithsonian Latino Center offers fun learning opportunities that celebrate Latinidad.

National Museum of the American Latino

Six Fun Learning Activities for April

The Smithsonian Latino Center offers caregivers and teachers fun learning opportunities to share with families and students.