Research News

Newsroom of the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian is one of the world’s foremost research centers in science, the arts, and the humanities. In addition to research pursued by the museums, our research centers specialize in areas of inquiry spanning the globe and the farthest reaches of the universe.

Black and white graphic of small shell shape from bottom, top and side. — Brian Huber, Smithsonian.

NMNH Surface Temp - Falsostuarti

Microscopic, single-celled organisms called foraminifera have a fossil record that extends from today to more than 500 million years ago. Although each organism is just a single cell, they build complex shells around themselves from minerals in the seawater.

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Man with short grayish-black hair smiles, standing on a boat with yellow handrail and wearing blue puffy jacket. — William Crawford

NMNH Surface Temp - Brian Huber

Smithsonian paleobiologist Brian Huber in 2017 on a deep-sea drilling vessel in the south and southwest waters of Australia studying Earth’s Cretaceous climate.

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Interior room with multiple storage drawers of natural history specimens and rocks. — Chip Clark

NMNH Surface Temp - Paleobiology Collection

Fossils in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History research collection in its Department of Paleobiology.

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Woman in a white top, gray cardigan and purple scarf smiles outside a building with glass siding. — University of Arizona.

NMNH Surface Temp - Jess Tierney

Jessica Tierney, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Arizona and a co-author of the new paper.

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Man in a hat and jacket stands outdoors at top of snow covered mountains holding poster of alligator. — Courtesy of Ira Block.

NMNH Surface Temp - Scott Wing

Smithsonian paleobiologist Scott Wing stands in the snow-covered badlands of Wyoming, where alligators once lived 56 million years ago.

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Three pieces of gray stone with imprint of leaf in half-moon shape with discernible straight leaves. — Lucia RM Martino, James Di Loreto and Fred Cochard, Smithsonian.

NMNH Surface Temp - Fossil Palm Leaf

The new paper is part of an ongoing research effort that began in 2018, when Smithsonian researchers were helping develop the museum’s "David H Koch Hall of Fossils—Deep Time.

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Woman with long, light brown hair and sunglasses smiles, standing outdoors in front of mountain and river. — Lindsay Moon

NMNH Surface Temp - Emily Judd

Emily Judd, the lead author of the new paper and a former postdoctoral researcher at the National Museum of Natural History and the University of Arizona, at the Walcott Quarry in British Columbia, Canada, in 2019.

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A woman with shoulder-length brown hair and gray highlights framing faces wears black glasses and sits in wooden chair outdoors. — Megan A Smetzer, photo by Vance E. Williams.

Megan A. Smetzer Awarded the 36th Annual Eldredge Prize for “Painful Beauty: Tlingit Women, Beadwork and the Art of Resilience”

09.10.2024

American Art Museum Research News Education News

An image of a bright yellow sun with rays of light against a completely black background. — Solar wind flowing from the Sun measured by Parker Solar Probe near the edge of the corona and later with Solar Orbiter at a larger distance during a spacecraft alignment. The solar wind contains magnetic switchbacks, or large amplitude magnetic waves, near Parker Solar Probe that disappear farther from the Sun where Solar Orbiter is located.
**Credits**: Image background: NASA Goddard/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez, Spacecraft images: NASA/ESA

Smithsonian Scientists Help Uncover How Solar Wind Gets Its Energy

08.29.2024

Astrophysical Observatory Research News

Image of flat tapestry with horizontal stripes in varying shades of orange, yellow, pink and red.

NMAI DY Begay: “Intended Vermillion"

DY Begay (Diné, b. 1953), “Intended Vermillion,” 2015. Wool with plant, insect, and synthetic dyes, 49 x 37 ½ in. Denver Art Museum: Commissioned and funded by Kent and Elaine Olson for the Denver Art Museum, 2015.266

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Cover of book with black and white image of football player about to throw a football. — Cover of Game Changers: Sports Photographs from the National Museum of American History and Culture.

National Museum of African American History and Culture To Release Its First Book of Sports Photography

08.13.2024

African American Museum Research News

Smithsonian-Gallup Study Uncovers Gaps in How US Science Standards Are Preparing Students To Meet Sustainability Challenges of the Future

Stakeholder Insights Highlight Challenges and Opportunities for Integrating Sustainability Into US Classrooms

08.06.2024

Smithsonian Science Education Center Research News

Image of the side of brownish fish with small blue dots on scales. — Scientists cryopreserved skin samples from a starry goby, a common reef fish. The samples will undergo radiation exposure testing to prepare for biological material to be sent to the moon. Credit: Zerhan Jafar, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Smithsonian Scientists Devise Method To Secure Earth’s Biodiversity on the Moon

Proposed Lunar Biorepository Could Store Genetic Samples Without Electricity or Liquid Nitrogen

07.31.2024

Air and Space Museum National Zoo & SCBI Natural History Museum Research News

A woman in a grey sweater and blue jeans, with brown hair in a low bun, leans over table with rocks of various sizes. — Emily Van Ark

Researcher Jessica Warren Examines Samples

Jessica Warren of the University of Delaware on the R/V Knorr in 2004 describing the geologic samples after being brought on board.

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Image of four men in orange jumpsuits, two standing at the stern of a ship. — Emily Van Ark

Researchers on R/V Knorr

The stern of the research vessel, the R/V Knorr while at sea in 2004. The A-frame structure holds the giant metal and chain bucket which is lowered more than 10,000 feet below the ocean surface and dragged along the seafloor to collect geologic samples.

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Image of a rock with grayish color and textured surface with irregular mossy green circles. — Tom Kleindinst

Ancient Rock from Seafloor

The studied rocks were collected from the Gakkel Ridge near the North Pole and the Southwest Indian Ridge between Africa and Antarctica, two of the slowest-spreading tectonic plate boundaries in the world.

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Microscopic image of cross-section of rock with many colors--blues, yellows, pinks, oranges, greens, brown. — E. Cottrell, Smithsonian.

Gakkel Ridge, ~10mm

A thin slice of the ancient rocks collected from Gakkel Ridge near the North Pole, photographed under a microscope and seen under cross-polarized light. Field width ~ 10mm.

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Cross-section of microscopic slice of rock with vibrant colors--white, blue, pink, orange, brown, green. — E. Cottrell, Smithsonian.

Gakkel Ridge, ~14mm

A thin slice of the ancient rocks collected from Gakkel Ridge near the North Pole, photographed under a microscope and seen under cross-polarized light. Field width ~ 14mm.

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