Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

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Top Discoveries at the National Museum of Natural History in 2024

Fungus-farming ants, fossilized footprints and a prehistoric critter named after a Muppet are just a few of the year’s most notable findings

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Fearsome Flies: Meet the Scientist Studying the Top Predators in the Insect World

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When the Moon Obscures the Sun, How Does Life on Earth Respond?

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NMNH in Review: Top Discoveries by Museum Scientists in 2023

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Celebrate the Holiday Season with the Museum’s Stunning Collection of Blue Specimens

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Meet the Scientist Studying the Scary Speed of Spider Jaws

A shelf of brown boxes with white bones peeking out of the top has small black beetles crawling all over them.

Meet the Smithsonian’s Spookiest Staffers: Flesh-Eating Beetles

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A Bounty of Butterflies Arrives at the Smithsonian

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How Leafcutter Ants and Other Culinary Creatures Prepare a Feast

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Meet the Scientist Who Knows the Buzz About the Northern Giant Hornet

Pages and jars of preserved plant specimens cover a counter in the foreground while cabinets full of pages of preserved plants line the background.

Iconic Photos Give Rare Glimpse of Smithsonian's Storage Rooms

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What Mummified Shrews and Giant Hornets Reveal About Biodiversity

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Meet Seven Species Named After Musicians

A humpback whale breaches the surface of the ocean on a sunny day as three birds fly overhead.

10 Popular Scientific Discoveries From 2021

Mosquitoes are more than blood-sucking menaces. They also pollinate flowers, have intricate sex lives and eat other disease-carrying mosquitoes. (Lawrence Reeves)

The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes, the World’s Most Hated Insects

The world’s smallest moth, the pygmy sorrel moth, has a wingspan as short as 2.65 millimeters. It belongs to a group called the leaf miner moths, which could become problematic pests for more farmers as global temperatures rise. (Patrick Clement, CC BY 2.0)

Who's the Smallest of Them All? Mini Moth Gets a Big Title

There are about 160,000 species of moths and butterflies worldwide, each with unique characteristics. (Smithsonian)

Seven Bizarre Moths to Celebrate National Moth Week

Leafcutter ants can be found across Central and South America. They build gigantic, subterranean nests with complex societies. (Chip Clark, Smithsonian)

Thinking of Eating Cicadas? Here are Six Other Tasty Insects to Try Too

Through research on living and preserved fungus-farming ants, entomologists are learning more about the insects’ deep connection to their environment and how that relationship might evolve in response to a changing climate. (Smithsonian)

How Fungus-Farming Ants Fertilize Climate Research

The periodical cicada species, Magicicada septendecim, will erupt from the ground this spring in the mid-Atlantic region. The last time the species from Brood X appeared for their cyclical mating cycle was in 2004. (ARS Information Staff, USDA)

What to Expect When the Cicadas Emerge This Spring

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This February, Meet the Women Transforming Science at the National Museum of Natural History

Top Discoveries at the National Museum of Natural History in 2024

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