The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Bocas del Toro Research Station and Galeta Point Marine Laboratory are reporting an anomalous sea temperature rise and a major coral bleaching event in the Western Caribbean.

The rocks of Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta -- the highest coastal mountain on Earth -- tell a fascinating tale: Tthe mountain collides and then separates from former super-continents. Volcanoes are born and die. The mountain travels from Peru to northern Colombia and finally rotates in a clockwise direction to open up an entirely new geological basin. Smithsonian scientists were part of a four-year project to study Santa Marta's geological evolution.

The first before-and-after view of an amphibian die-off has just been published by scientists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Genetic barcoding of the entire amphibian community revealed a 33 percent loss of amphibian evolutionary history at the site.

Rare plant species are much more negatively affected by the presence of their own species as neighbors than are common species. This may explain how biodiversity arises and is maintained.

The answer to one of life's great unsolved mysteries lies underground, according to a study published in the journal, Nature based on work at the Smithsonian's Barro Colorado Island in Panama.

Researchers at the University of Puerto Rico, School of Medicine have found a way to pharmacologically induce a memory of safety in the brain of rats. Administering brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) into the prefrontal cortex prevented rats from expressing fear to a tone that had been previously paired with a shock. Rats given BDNF acted as if they had received repeated presentations of the tone without the shock, a procedure called extinction.

While trying to understand a disease that is wiping out frogs worldwide, researchers discovered a new frog species.

For the first time, researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute track unique signals from tiny transmitters glued to individual orchid bees, yielding new insight into the role of bees in tropical forest ecosystems.