This composite image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) shows the distribution of dark matter, galaxies, and hot […]

The post Chandra image of the core of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520 appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, 1859 This week’s Smithsonian Snapshot marks the May 11, 1820, anniversary of the launch of HMS Beagle, the […]

The post On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, 1859 appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The only explanation for such symmetry across these vast distances, explains Smithsonian anthropologist Dennis Stanford, is that the method of creating the points was handed down from person to person.

The post 3-D imaging adds remarkable new understanding of North America’s mysterious Clovis people appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Forget the deep forest, “today the highest densities of deer in the state of Virginia are in suburbia,” says William McShea, ecologist and research scientist at the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va.

The post Browsing suburbia: Virginia’s parceled-up farms and forests are ideal refuge for white-tailed deer appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Cheeseburgers. Ice cream. French fries. These are a few of the culprits, doctors warn us, responsible for atherosclerosis, a disease commonly known as hardening of […]

The post Ancient mummies reveal atherosclerosis is very likely just a part of aging appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Magnetic field measurement techniques have long enabled scientists to probe the internal structure of biological and material samples. For example, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides […]

The post Magnetic Imaging of Living Cells appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The rusty-patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis), which has not been seen in the eastern United States in five years, has been found by a Smithsonian […]

The post Rare rusty-patched bumble bee discovered in Virginia survey appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Millions of people across the United States will sit down Nov. 27 to a traditional Thanksgiving meal, including turkey, potatoes, squash, corn and cranberries. These […]

The post Where did your favorite Thanksgiving Day food originate? Anthropology has the answer appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Inka Empire is one of the greatest civilizations in the Western Hemisphere, spanning from the 13th century until the Spanish invasion in 1532. To […]

The post 5 Reasons the Inka Road is one of the Greatest Achievements in Engineering appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Many animals change sex at some point in their lives, often after reaching a certain size. Snails called slipper limpets begin life as males, and […]

The post The Power of Touch: Sex-changing snails switch sooner when together appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

How did the universe begin? And what came before the Big Bang? Cosmologists have asked these questions ever since discovering that our universe is expanding. […]

The post Theorists Propose a New Method to Probe the Beginning of the Universe appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Whales from both poles migrate long distances to breed in tropical waters. Smithsonian scientist Hector M. Guzman and Fernando Félix at the Salinas Whale Museum […]

The post Whale tagging in Southeast Pacific provides data for species protection appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Supplying archaeological and oceanographic evidence, this book persuasively links Clovis technology with the culture of the Solutrean people who occupied France and Spain more than 20,000 years ago.

The post New Book: “Across Atlantic Ice : The Origin of America’s Clovis Culture” appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

On June 7 the Sun unleashed an spectacular solar flare with a substantial coronal mass ejection. A large cloud of plasma mushroomed up, and while some parts fell back into the Sun, most rushed off into space. The first two segments of this video are seen through the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The AIA was developed by Smithsonian scientists.

The post Spectacular June 7 solar flare seen through the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly aboard Solar Dynamics Observatory appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Digging up early human and animal remains from the field in Africa, performing examination and publishing research about her findings, then enticing and educating the public about the implications are all in a week's work for Briana Pobiner.

The post Meet Our Scientist–Briana Pobiner, human origins researcher at the National Museum of Natural History appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Members of the Human Origins Program team at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History describe why they love their job.

The post Human Origins Program team members at the National Museum of Natural History on why they love their job appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian has launched an ambitious project to scan millions of items and make them available to the world on a searchable database. CBS reporter […]

The post 3-D imaging takes Smithsonian from Washington to the world appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Peter Sefton, D.C. Preservation League trustee, reflects on how Washington, D.C. has changed in recent years. (Anacostia Community Museum video series)  

The post Reflections on a changing Washington, D.C. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

What’s an Asian small-clawed otter’s favorite enrichment toy? Anything it can get its paws on! This species’ dexterous, partially-webbed digits are adept at feeling for […]

The post Otterly engaging: Zoo enrichment appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Tuvan ensemble Alash demonstrates various traditional throat singing styles that they use in their music. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings video.

The post Alash demonstrates throat singing styles appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The scientists staked out dozens of the gingers night and day while the plants flowered, but no long-proboscid pollinator ever appeared. Climate change, they surmised, was responsible for the loss of this highly specialized and now, perhaps forever unknown insect.

The post With specialist pollinator absent, Himalayan gingers must adapt appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Exquisitely preserved in fossil sediments dating from the Middle Jurassic, the insect, newly named Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia, was discovered in 165 million-year-old deposits, as was the ginko-like tree, Yimaia capituliformis, the mimicked plant.

The post Insect mimic of ginko-like leaf discovered 165 million years after its extinction appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Despite many laws to protect it, a new survey reveals wild ginseng in Maryland is on the decline.

The post Wild ginseng in steep decline in Maryland, survey reveals: Q&A with Smithsonian botanist Christopher Puttock appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A joint Harvard-Smithsonian study released today in the journal PLOS ONE reveals how much — and how little — Northeastern forests have changed after centuries of intensive […]

The post 400-year study finds Northeast forests resilient, changing  appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The National Ecological Observatory (NEON) is a large-facility project managed by NEON, Inc., and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). NEON is a continental-scale […]

The post NEON begins to monitor changing ecology of U.S. appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Engineers shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel—or wings, or sonar systems—when mother nature has already done much of the heavy design work. In fact, finding […]

The post Next Engineering Revolution Is Hiding in Museum Collections appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

For the first time, a new public database will link genetic data with records of where and when the samples it was taken from were […]

The post A first: New website reveals origin of genetic samples and date collected appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Corn, known also as maize, is a vital crop in the U.S. and throughout the Americas. First domesticated in Mexico some 9,000 years ago, scientists […]

The post Study dates corn as staple crop in Central America beginning 4,300 years ago appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

File photo: LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines faces a suit brought by a school district employee, who has sued him twice before.; Credit: David McNew/Getty Images

A Los Angeles Unified School District employee filed suit Wednesday accusing Superintendent Ramon Cortines of sexual harassment and retaliation, and alleging officials failed to intervene when told of the situation.

The lawsuit is the third one filed by Scot Graham, LAUSD's real estate director, who has made similar charges in previous complaints. The suit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

LAUSD General Counsel David Holmquist issued a statement Tuesday saying the courts have previously ruled on the case and the district is not aware of any new charges. "This is simply a frivolous refiling of the same allegations," he stated.

The latest suit alleges Cortines made sexual advances to Graham in 2000 soon after Cortines helped Graham get a job with the school district’s real estate leasing operations. Cortines left the school district that same year and Graham didn’t report what allegedly happened, according to the suit.

Graham claims that Cortines made additional sexual advances in 2010, the year the school board hired Cortines a second time to run the school district. The sexual advances were made at Cortines’ second home in Kern County, the suit alleges.

“Cortines’ advance shocked and disturbed Graham, who feared that declining Cortines’ request for sex would lead to unwarranted retaliatory consequences,” according to the lawsuit.

Graham said he notified his boss John Creer, and his boss’ boss James Sohn, but the school district conducted no investigation. Then in an October 2010 meeting, the suit claims General Counsel Holmquist “discouraged Graham from pursuing his claims, and suggested, in an intimidating and patronizing manner, that the incidents at the Ranch and Cortines’ unsolicited phone call were better left unreported.”

In May 2012, the district announced that it would pay $200,000 to Graham to settle his sexual harassment claims against Cortines, who by then had left the post. In the announcement, the district said Cortines denied sexually harassing Graham, but acknowledged they had a consensual relationship.

Graham later declined to sign off on the settlement. He filed one lawsuit in 2013 that was dismissed on a legal technicality and then a second one that was withdrawn in May 2014.

Five months later, the LAUSD school board rehired Cortines as an interim superintendent after the resignation of his predecessor, John Deasy. Cortines is expected to serve until a permanent replacement is chosen by the board later this year.

“What makes this different and new is the school board has rehired Ramon Cortines despite documented history of sexual harassment and sexual assault against Scot Graham,” said Rob Hennig, Graham’s lawyer.

By failing to investigate whether there was any merit to Graham’s allegations, the lawsuit argues, the school district failed in its duty to protect an employee from potential sexual harassment.

“Cortines shouldn’t have been rehired by the school board,” Hennig said.

In his statement, Holmquist said the district intends to "seek reimbursement for the taxpayers' dollars that are having to be expended in attorney's fees and costs" in dealing with Graham's allegations. The district said it spent about $240,000 defending itself against Graham's first two lawsuits.

Graham said in an interview Tuesday that he has been on leave since late last year because he’s developed a type of seizure disorder that prevents him from driving long distances.

He said he filed the latest lawsuit after the school board rehired Cortines and he was running into him in the workplace. Graham also said he felt his allegations were swept under the rug.

“No one came to talk to me…it was like being in a fraternity house,” he said.

The suit does not say how much in damages Graham is seeking, but it asks among other items for back pay, future pay, benefits, and compensation for medical treatment. It also seeks an investigation into Graham's accusations against the superintendent.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Yaya Wang
Apr 7, 2020; 133:jcs228072-jcs228072
REVIEW

Changing lifestyles are causing city workers to ignore the positive experiences of urban green spaces during their working week. A recent study suggests city planners could do more to promote the benefits of going outdoors to city dwellers.

As society changes, it places new demands on its surroundings. New research has found that some EU countries are better able to manage the undesirable expansion of cities, the concept known as ‘urban sprawl’, because they have a flexible spatial planning policy that can easily adapt to changes. Urban sprawl is a term used to describe the expansion of residential suburbs around city centres, driven by peoples’ desire to live in larger houses and the ease of transport made possible by cars.

Congestion charging in Stockholm has become more successful over time, according to a study by Swedish researchers. Although the total cost of a journey that enters the congestion charge zone has fallen in real terms since the charges were first introduced in 2006, there has consistently been around 29% less traffic within the zone, compared with levels in 2005.

MP3 -> Wave or Wave -> MP3

High schools that successfully engage students in learning have many things in common.

The U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) today announced the grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century. A diverse committee of experts from around the world, convened at the request of the U.S. National Science Foundation, revealed 14 challenges that, if met, would improve how we live.

Many U.S. farmers who grow genetically engineered (GE) crops are realizing substantial economic and environmental benefits -- such as lower production costs, fewer pest problems, reduced use of pesticides, and better yields -- compared with conventional crops, says a new report from the National Research Council.