Bryophyte diversity in El Copé
August 16, 2013
A Smithsonian research heads into the remote mountains of a Panamanian national park to catalogue the tiniest of plant species.
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Sea of fossils
August 09, 2013
A Smithsonian emeritus scientist takes a field trip to some of Panama’s most important known marine fossil deposits for a quick lesson the age of the Ithsmus of Panama.
Calibrating evolution
May 24, 2013
Veteran Smithsonian evolutionary biologist Haris Lessios has made major contributions to the understanding of how new marine species arose following separation by the Isthmus of Panama.
Mary Jane West-Eberhard retires
March 15, 2013
After a half century of pioneering research on evolutionary developmental biology and induction into the National Academy of Sciences, a long-time Smithsonian scientist retires.
Does beauty beget weakness?
March 08, 2013
Male fiddler crabs’ large claws may look unwieldly, but a new study demonstrates that these large weapons are not only for show.
Why no poop in garden?
February 15, 2013
A visit to a shaman’s garden prompts an unexpected warning about the tobacco plant spirit’s ability to do away with disrespectful visitors.
Do objects have an occult life?
February 08, 2013
In the Peruvian Amazon, a Smithsonian anthropologist learns that Yanesha people believe that certain personal objects become part of a person’s being.
Fire fuels invasive grass
October 19, 2012
Panama’s infamous canal grass rises from the ashes of fire much faster than trees, complicating reforestation efforts.
STRI’s intellectual history
October 05, 2012
With almost 50 years at the Smithsonian in Panama, evolutionary biologist Egbert Leigh has had a privileged front-row view of the institution’s scientific advances in the tropics.
What is merdigery?
September 28, 2012
Some beetles have a rather inventive, if unsavory, way of fending off predators.
