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Science / Our Planet

The spotted lanternfly has landed. This adult was seen in Pennsylvania, hard hit by the alien species.

Can Scientists Stop the Plague of the Spotted Lanternfly?

The voracious, shape-shifting insect native to Asia is attacking crops, vineyards and trees

When Alexander von Humboldt (right) traveled to England in 1790, he met a young chemist named James Smithson, the founder of the Smithsonian. Humboldt's influence still resonates throughout the massive museum and research complex.

Alexander von Humboldt

How the Revolutionary Thinker Alexander von Humboldt Helped to Create the Smithsonian

The 19th-century polymath continues to influence the Institution’s research; a major Smithsonian exhibition explains how and why

This marks the first time the fossil has been back in America since 1847, when it made its way through Europe and ultimately ended up at The Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt in Germany.

Alexander von Humboldt

This Mastodon Is a Centerpiece of an Art Exhibition. Why?

Meet the hugely influential Alexander von Humboldt, who foretold of climate change and inspired artists, writers and presidents

Fabien Cousteau's Proteus will be the first underwater research habitat built in decades.

Jacques Cousteau’s Grandson Wants to Build the International Space Station of the Sea

Off the coast of Curaçao, at a depth of 60 feet, aquanaut Fabien Cousteau is looking to create the world’s largest underwater research habitat

About 70 miles south of the Natural History Museum, Westmoreland State Park’s Fossil Beach is a hotbed for prehistoric shark teeth.

Five Places Where You Can Collect Fossils in the D.C. Area

You don’t have to venture far to make awesome finds

The Mississippi Delta, seen from space in 2001.

America's Waterways: The Past, Present and Future

The 70 Million-Year-Old History of the Mississippi River

Dive into the secret past and uncertain future of the body of water that has defined a nation

Smithsonian Geologist Liz Cottrell answers your questions in the National Museum of Natural History’s YouTube series, “The Doctor Is In.”

Smithsonian Voices

How to Identify Rocks and Other Questions From Our Readers

Don’t miss the season finale of the National Museum of Natural History’s popular YouTube series, the “Doctor Is In”

Sahara Conservation Fund ecological monitoring member Habib Ali (next to vehicle) engaging in typical day-to-day monitoring of reintroduced oryx.

Smithsonian Voices

Continuing Conservation in a Planet on Lockdown

Capacity building and local community involvement are key to continuing conservation during the current pandemic

Bat ticks (Ornithodoros) under a microscope. These parasites primarily feed on bats and were collected from bats roosting beneath a Mayan Temple in Belize. Very little is known about these ticks and many species are unknown to science.

Smithsonian Voices

Why We Need to Save the Parasites

Extinction will have lasting and far-reaching consequences for biodiversity, and subsequently for humans

A scene of the wreckage left behind by a hurricane that swept through the Florida Keys in 1935.

How Hurricanes Have Shaped the Course of U.S. History

A new book examines the 500-year record of devastating storms affecting the nation’s trajectory

Joshua Bell is the curator of globalization at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. He is working on a new exhibit about the global history of cellphones.

Smithsonian Voices

Meet the Scientist Studying How Cell Phones Change Societies

“Smartphones embody globalization,” says the Smithsonian cultural anthropologist Josh Bell

Quantum physicist Amruta Gadge became the first to create a Bose-Einstein Condensate—the exotic, elusive fifth state of matter—remotely.

Covid-19

Five Scientific Achievements That Happened During Coronavirus Lockdown

Quarantine did not stop these innovators from discovering new species, creating the elusive fifth state of matter remotely, and more

A home burns as the Camp Fire moves through the area on November 8, 2018 in Paradise, California.

Covid-19

How COVID-19 Will Change the Way We Fight Wildfires

Prepare for the return of the Smokey Bear method as social distancing prevents firefighters from using more modern strategies

Smithsonian Geologist Liz Cottrell answers your questions in the National Museum of Natural History’s YouTube series, “The Doctor Is In.”

Smithsonian Voices

Do Volcanoes Spew a Cooler Lava?

Smithsonian geologist Liz Cottrell has answers to your questions on black lava and the Earth’s molten outer core in the “Dr Is In” video series

As the ocean continues to warm, scientists look to the past for answers on how to manage today’s environmental problems.

Smithsonian Voices

This Climate Detective Reconstructs What the Ocean Was Like Millions of Years Ago

Yet, the biggest concern, says Smithsonian curator Brian Huber, is how rapidly the ocean has changed in the past few decades

The first #BlackBirdersWeek celebrates Black birders and nature enthusiasts while inspiring more conservation-curious to join their community.

Smithsonian Voices

Meet the Organizers of #BlackBirdersWeek

Many of us had shared experiences of racism while being black outdoors, say Ashley Gary, Sheridan Alford, Chelsea Connor and Joseph Saunders

As erosion reshapes England’s Jurassic Coast, ancient fossils are revealed.

Virtual Travel

Why the Jurassic Coast Is One of the Best Fossil-Collecting Sites on Earth

Along a famed stretch of English coastline, amateurs and professionals collect 200-million-year-old treasures before they are reclaimed by the waves

Smithsonian Geologist Liz Cottrell answers your questions in the second season of the National Museum of Natural History’s YouTube series, “The Dr. Is In.”

Smithsonian Voices

What Is Hotter Than the Sun?

Get the facts from Smithsonian geologist Liz Cottrell in the latest episode of “The Doctor Is In.”

Your questions answered by Smithsonian Geologist Liz Cottrell in season two of "The Dr. Is In."

Smithsonian Voices

Smithsonian Volcano Expert Answers Questions on Topics Ranging From Yellowstone’s ‘Big One’ to Skunk Pee

Geologist Liz Cottrell answers your questions in the second season of the National Museum of Natural History’s YouTube series, ‘The Dr. Is In’

“Footprints give us information about anatomy and group dynamics that you just can’t get from bones,” says the Smithsonian's Briana Pobiner.

Ancient Toes and Soles of Fossilized Footprints Now 3-D Digitized for the Ages

New research suggests that for the prehistoric foragers that walked this path, labor was divided between men and women

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