Search
Zooplankton are small—but do you know just how small? This drop of water smaller than the eye of a needle is magnified 20x and contains multitudes.
Photo

Zooplankton in the Eye of a Needle

View Image
A live coral polyp with turquoise tissue and brown tentacles closes its mouth (the slit at the center of the radiating ribs) tight.
Photo

Closed-Mouth Coral

View Image
Corallimorpharian
Photo

Soft Coral Close-Up

View Image
Dr. Maya Yamato and colleague John Ososky dissect the head of a deceased stranded fin whale in the Chesapeake Bay to examine soft tissue associated with the ears. In 2015, Yamato’s team of researchers from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural H
Photo

Learning From A Stranded Fin Whale

View Image
These cells are from a pygmy sperm whale in a laboratory culture dish. The red dyed cell are forming into fat cells after exposure to endocrine disruptors.
Photo

Cells Get Fat

View Image
Methane-eating bacteria (also called methanotrophs) helped clean up the Gulf oil spill, such as Methylococcus capsulatus shown here.
Photo

Oil Spill Methanotroph

View Image
Crocheted corals from the Smithsonian Community Reef group on Flickr.
Photo

Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Forms

View Image
"Barely a room onboard escaped being turned into a part of the sequencing laboratory," wrote Rob Edwards in a blog post about doing genomic sequencing at sea.
Photo

The Trials of Ship-Bound Research

View Image
Fish spears and traps placed in rivers are traditional ways of catching salmon.
Photo

Catching Salmon

View Image
Crafted from the skins of salmon, these mittens are naturally waterproof.
Photo

Salmon Skin Mittens

View Image
Dr. Karen L. McKee collects a peat core in a mangrove forest in Belize.
Photo

Dr. Karen L. McKee Studies Mangroves

View Image
Hundreds of illustrated red crabs gathering on sand with Santa hats.
Photo

Santa Claws is Coming to Town

View Image