14-Jun-2012 Amazon was not all manufactured landscape, Smithsonian scientist says Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Peer-Reviewed Publication Population estimates for the Amazon basin just before Europeans arrived range from 2 to 10 million people. A new reconstruction of Amazonian prehistory by Smithsonian scientist Dolores R. Piperno and colleagues suggests that large areas of western Amazonia were sparsely inhabited. This clashes with the belief that most of Amazonia, including forests far removed from major rivers, was heavily occupied and modified. See this publication in the June 15 issue of Science. Journal Science
16-May-2012 Heliconius butterfly genome explains wing pattern diversity Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Peer-Reviewed Publication Pooling funds and putting their heads together, more than 70 scientists from 9 institutions including the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, sequenced the entire genome of the butterfly genus Heliconius, a brightly colored favorite of collectors and scientists since the Victorian era. Their results are published in the prestigious journal, Nature. Journal Nature
24-Mar-2012 To get the full story you need to know the motifs Publicase International Peer-Reviewed Publication With hundreds of genomes already sequenced, scientists seek new tools to help in identifying the key players controlling the molecular machinery. Journal Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology Funder São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Brazil). Geochronologic research at the MIT Isotope Lab, National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
14-Mar-2012 The Brazilian Navy faces its worst enemy in WWI: The Spanish flu Publicase International Peer-Reviewed Publication In Dakar, the cemetery still has the graves of the more than a hundred Brazilians who succumbed to the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak while epidemiologists investigate the extraordinary conditions that may explain this high mortality in the Brazilian expedition. Funder NIH/Fogarty International Center Meeting XIV International Symposium on Respiratory Viral Infections
8-Mar-2012 Smithsonian joins Mission Blue Submarine expedition in Panama Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Business Announcement From Mar. 4-10, Eldredge Bermingham, Director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and staff scientist Hector Guzman joined Mission Blue, founded by Sylvia Earle, oceanographer and environmental advocate, to survey the fauna of Panama's Hannibal Bank and environs.
1-Mar-2012 Why spiders do not stick to their own sticky web sites Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Peer-Reviewed Publication Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and University of Costa Rica asked why spiders do not stick to their own sticky webs. Repeating old, widely quoted but poorly documented studies with modern equipment and techniques, they discovered that spiders' legs are protected by a covering of branching hairs and by a non-stick chemical coating and that they modify their behavior to avoid getting stuck. Journal Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften
14-Feb-2012 First fish app from the Smithsonian is free on iTunes Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Business Announcement The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has released the first completely portable bilingual species identification guide for the shore fishes of the tropical Eastern Pacific as a free iPhone application. Unique fish-finding, list-making tools and range maps make the app a powerful tool for scientists, divers and tour guides and a model for future phone-based field guides.
2-Feb-2012 ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research begins activities in Brazil Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo Business Announcement The ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research located in Sao Paulo,Brazil, will start activities on Feb. 6. The new center will be the first unit in South America of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, headquartered in the Sao Paulo State University. Funder International Centre for Theoretical Physics, FAPESP, Sao Paulo State University
18-Jan-2012 Ancient popcorn discovered in Peru Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Peer-Reviewed Publication People living along the coast of Peru were eating popcorn 1,000 years earlier than previously reported and before ceramic pottery was used there, according to a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences co-authored by Dolores Piperno, curator of New World archaeology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and emeritus staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
27-Dec-2011 Members of small monkey groups more likely to fight Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Peer-Reviewed Publication Small monkey groups may win territorial disputes against larger groups because some members of larger, invading groups avoid aggressive encounters. In a new report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Margaret Crofoot and Ian Gilby of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology show that individual monkeys that don't participate in conflicts prevent large groups from achieving their competitive potential. Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences