With the help of the robotic submarine Alvin probing the bottom of the ocean floor off the coast of Santa Monica, California, scientists make new discoveries into a virus that causes single-celled sea creatures called archaea to mutate.
Category Archives: Nature at Work
Brilliant Time-Lapse of Alaska’s Northern Lights
Watch this amazing video showing time-lapse photography of the Aurora Borealis in Alaska
California’s worst drought in 1,200 years in pictures
This series of images shows the devastating effect of the drought in California which has led to sweeping state-wide water restrictions for the first time in history .
Announcing the Finalists of the 12th Annual Smithsonian.com Photo Contest
See some amazing photographs showing nature at work in this year’s photo contest finalists for Smithsonian.com.
Ocean Life
Discover a treasure trove of information about life in the ocean.
The Amazon Basin
The Amazon River is teeming with amazing sights. Explore pictures of its strange and beautiful wildlife in this article.
Why are there so many arches at Arches?
Arches National Park has the densest concentration of natural stone arches in the world. With over 2,000 documented arches in the park, we find out how did so many arches form?
Underdogs: The Bloodhound’s Amazing Sense of Smell
Read about the amazing bloodhound, whose nose consists of approximately 230 million olfactory cells, or “scent receptors”—which makes them perfect tracker dogs.
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda wrote poems about nature, but he his also famous for his poems about love, as well as many other subjects. Read this biography about the renowned poet’s career.
National Parks
Did you know there are more than 2,000 natural arches in Arches National Park? Or that there are more geysers and hot springs at Yellowstone National Park than anywhere else on Earth? Explore this National Geographic site to find out what makes these places so special.