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Science

North American River Otter (Lontra canadensis) at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.

Smithsonian Voices

River Otters Take ‘Party Pooping’ to a New Level

Latrines keep otters up to date on who is around, how they are feeling, and who’s ready to have babies

A Centrosaurus skeleton in the mass dearth assemblage at the Royal Tyrrell Museum

Dinosaurs Suffered From Cancer, Too

A bone containing signs of cancer is the first of its kind found in the fossil record

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 healthy coral reef in the South Pacific. Coral reefs may migrate to new area as the climate warms.

Should Plants and Animals That Relocate Because of Climate Change Be Considered Invasive?

Some researchers are calling for a more nuanced approach when it comes to flora and fauna that adjust their range to accommodate a warming world

Sperm swimming illusion when seen from above. The sperm tails seems to move symmetrically from one side to another. This view on how sperm moves was established since first observed by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1677, more than three centuries ago.

Researchers Discover How Human Sperm Really Swim

A new 3-D microscopy study overturns hundreds of years of reproductive science

Three dogs sit at attention

What a Crowdsourced Study Taught Us About How Dogs Learn

A new study looks at the genes that underlie traits from self control to communication

Jill Heinerth, a Canadian cave diver, underwater explorer, writer, photographer and filmmaker, shares stories from her expeditions in a live-streamed event on Aug. 12.

Smithsonian Voices

Exploring Underwater Caves and 22 Other Smithsonian Programs Streaming in August

Exploring Underwater Caves, Battle of Midway, Economics + Harry Potter. Don’t miss out

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

Perseverance, which has six wheels and is about the same size as a small car, looks very much like the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity.

Smithsonian Voices

Why NASA Is Headed Back to Mars With the Rover Perseverance

Find out why the next mission to Mars is so exciting on the National Air and Space Museum’s podcast AirSpace

An artist's rendering of the Perseverance rover on Mars

To Make Oxygen on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance Rover Needs MOXIE

A new tool from the space agency may produce the gas, completing the next step for planning a round trip voyage

Jewish doctors give medical examinations in the Warsaw Ghetto

Covid-19

How a Public Health Campaign in the Warsaw Ghetto Stemmed the Spread of Typhus

A new study shows how life-saving efforts by Jewish doctors helped curb an epidemic during World War II

Even though social insects tend to live in super-tight quarters, colonies of such species are somehow able to limit the spread of contagions.

Covid-19

In Social Insects, Researchers Find Clues for Battling Pandemics

Studying the ability of some ants, termites, bees and wasps to contain pathogens may help human societies control diseases of their own

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

Baby sauropod on a nest, taken at the American Museum of Natural History's World's Largest Dinosaurs exhibit.

How Dinosaurs Raised Their Young

New research into eggshells and nesting sites help paleontologists unravel the family lives of the Mesozoic

A boy has his temperature checked as he receives a free COVID-19 test in Los Angeles.

Covid-19

What Scientists Know About How Children Spread COVID-19

As communities struggle with the decision over whether to open up schools, the research so far offers unsatisfying answers

he Hope spacecraft of the United Arab Emirates' Emirates Mars Mission during testing.

Smithsonian Voices

Launching Hope to Mars

National Air and Space Museum director Ellen Stofan reflects on the significance of the United Arab Emirates upcoming mission to Mars

A stone point from Chiquihuite cave

Discovery in Mexican Cave May Drastically Change the Known Timeline of Humans’ Arrival to the Americas

In a controversial new study, scientists cite artifacts dating the event to more than 26,000 years ago

Nobody knows when Fungie, a solitary cetacean, arrived in the waters off Dingle, a town on the southwest coast of Ireland.

A Dolphin Has Been Living Solo in This Irish Harbor for Decades

Named Fungie, the cetacean draws thousands of tourists to Dingle—and may teach us how to protect other solitary-sociable animals in the wild

Like statues, animals named after controversial historic figures are sparking a conversation about "relics of systemic oppression" in science.

A Bird Named for a Confederate General Sparks Calls for Change

McCown’s longspur has launched a renewed reckoning over the troubling histories reflected in taxonomy

For the first time, an ultra-black skin color or pigmentation that protects 16 varieties of deep-sea fishes has been documented.

Elusive, Ultra-Black Fish Are Cloaked to Survive in the Deep Ocean

Special pigment cells in deep-sea fish may provide clues to cancer treatment and stealthy new materials

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