The National Zoo’s great cat program recently expanded with the arrival of two-and-a-half-year-old female Sumatran tiger, Damai, who is now out of quarantine and spending time outside in her exhibit where visitors can see her.

The post Damai, a two-and-a-half-year-old female Sumatran tiger, makes her debut at the National Zoo appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

In a new paper appearing this week in Science, a group of biologists have shown that females themselves can also limit the evolution of increased elaboration.

The post Females can place limits on evolution of attractive features in males, research shows appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A new study by a team of scientists from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the National University of Singapore and the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts have unlocked the secret to mate binding in orb web spiders, and revealed just how it calms the cannibalistic female spider.

The post Suitor’s gentle massage soothes aggressive, cannibalistic female spiders, researchers find appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

In fact, researchers have learned, the detached male pedipalps transfer more sperm faster after copulation is ended by the female rather than the male.

The post Male spider’s sexual organs work fastest only when a female breaks them off appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

They observed that no plugs were ever formed during mating trials, but instead, females exposed to many males produced the amorphous plugs during the egg-laying process.

The post Female spiders produce mating plugs to prevent unwanted sex from males appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

One such parasite lurks in Chesapeake Bay: an invasive barnacle that hijacks a mud crab’s reproductive system and impregnates it with parasite larvae—even if the crab is male.

The post Undersea parasite turns male mud crabs female appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The new Sant Director of the National Museum of Natural History, Kirk Johnson, had only been on the job for 26 days when he got […]

The post Female “spidernaut” settles into new home at Smithsonian’s Insect Zoo appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

March is Women’s History Month and to honor it Smithsonianscience.com presents six images of women scientists selected from the Smithsonian Institution Archvies’s Flicker photoset Women […]

The post Six pioneering female scientists you’ve probably never heard of… appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A robotic male frog attracts a female tungara frog in a sound chamber at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Gamboa, Panama, in the summer 2013. […]

The post Robofrog fools female tungara frog appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

What they observed was unique among all bird species: successful male caribs maintained and defended territories with nectar supplies that were two to five times greater than their daily needs and also isolated part of their crop for the exclusive feeding rights of visiting females.

The post A well-defended territory is what some female hummingbirds find most attractive in a mate appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Emily Quinn speaks from the TED stage at TEDWomen 2018; Credit: /TED

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode The Biology Of Sex

Artist Emily Quinn is intersex. She's one of over 150 million people in the world who don't fit neatly into the categories of male or female. She explains how biological sex exists on a spectrum.

About Emily Quinn

Emily Quinn is an artist and activist. She worked at Cartoon Network on the Emmy Award winning show, Adventure Time. While there she partnered with interACT and MTV to develop the first intersex main character in television history. She came out publicly as intersex in a PSA alongside the character's debut. She later worked as the Youth Coordinator for interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth.

As an activist, she speaks about intersex issues before audiences and through her YouTube channel: intersexperiences. As an artist, her most recent projects include a genderless puberty guidebook and a portrait series of intersex people that will be exhibited at medical schools across the U.S. in 2020.

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

Emily Quinn speaks from the TED stage at TEDWomen 2018; Credit: /TED

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode The Biology Of Sex

Artist Emily Quinn is intersex. She's one of over 150 million people in the world who don't fit neatly into the categories of male or female. She explains how biological sex exists on a spectrum.

About Emily Quinn

Emily Quinn is an artist and activist. She worked at Cartoon Network on the Emmy Award winning show, Adventure Time. While there she partnered with interACT and MTV to develop the first intersex main character in television history. She came out publicly as intersex in a PSA alongside the character's debut. She later worked as the Youth Coordinator for interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth.

As an activist, she speaks about intersex issues before audiences and through her YouTube channel: intersexperiences. As an artist, her most recent projects include a genderless puberty guidebook and a portrait series of intersex people that will be exhibited at medical schools across the U.S. in 2020.

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

Archaeologists translating a very rare inscription on an ancient Etruscan temple stone have discovered the name Uni -- an important female goddess.

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Rippon, Gina, author

Hypoxia – low levels of dissolved oxygen – can cause genetically female fish to develop into males, new research has found. Hypoxia in aquatic environments is often the result of eutrophication, which is caused by pollution from human activities. The findings suggest that hypoxia could cause fish populations to collapse, with consequences for entire ecosystems.

Low oxygen levels (‘hypoxia’) are a pressing concern for marine and freshwater ecosystems worldwide, and this may deteriorate as ocean temperatures rise. Hypoxia causes stress in organisms, which can cause reproductive impairments that persist across generations — even the offspring that have never been exposed to hypoxia. Previous studies discovered that hypoxia can disrupt sex hormones, resulting in birth defects and affecting reproduction of male fish over several generations. This study shows how hypoxia can also affect female marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) over multiple generations — and thus may pose a significant threat to the sustainability of natural fish populations worldwide.

Atrazine, a herbicide used globally but banned in the EU, can cause chemical castration and complete feminisation in adult male frogs, according to a recent study. The researchers suggest atrazine could contribute to the global decline of amphibians.

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Tim Hunt talked about his 'trouble with girls' this week, and women in the scientific community responded perfectly.

Exposing and discussing harassment is a way to send the message that it's not OK.

The rare dual-sex butterfly astounded curators at the Natural History Museum in London.

Certain female spiders are infamous for eating their partners after sex, but some actually pounce on suitors, fangs first, before mating.

A brightly-colored fungus found only on Hawaiian lava flows might be the most powerful aphrodisiac ever discovered.

Moorland hawker dragonfly demonstrates the lengths women must go to avoid the opposite sex.

Christina Broom is widely heralded as the most important women in early press photography.

NASA astronauts make history with an all-female spacewalk — now that the spacesuit problem is resolved.

Lisa Hendy is the first woman to become chief ranger at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Lego's new set features a paleontologist, an astronomer and a chemist — all of them female.

There is no such thing as a "male brain" or a "female brain," new research finds.

The movie "Hidden Figures" is the story of the African-American trailblazers who helped win the space race. Now NASA is naming a building after one of them.

Research by these women has changed the way we think about space — from dark matter to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

#ILookLikeASurgeon aims to inspire inclusion and diversity in the surgical field.

Women captains, co-pilots, navigators, air-traffic controllers and crew are slowly becoming a more common sight.

Nine pioneering female aviators and astronauts, both contemporary and historic, who have shattered flight records and stereotypes

Delta all-female team flies female students to NASA in hopes of inspiring them to pursue STEM careers.

When you talk about genetic hair loss most people think about the most common form of hair loss: male-pattern baldness. This is the type of hair loss that is passed on genetically to offspring from their mothers. Most often the recipients of this type of hair loss are men, but sometimes the gene can result in female hair loss.

For a long time most people had the belief that female hair loss was related to the hereditary factor only. However, due to an increase in hair loss amongst women this condition is getting a lot more exposure and acknowledgement in the medical community.

The essential oil formulas felt so healing and energizing on my scalp. It was as if I could "feel" them working! Within three months I began seeing and feeling soft new growth.

Photography is a means of making pictures by the action of light. Light reflected from an object forms a picture on a light-sensitive device or material.

This outstanding group of young women took to the stage to compete in one of the largest powerlifting meets in the state of Ohio.

Being fit and staying in shape isn't exactly the easiest thing to do, especially once you consider how hectic one's life can get. Still, even gym-freaks need to date sometimes, which is exactly why Female Bodybuilder Dating exists.

Men who are into female bodybuilders are flocking to the Internet in the hopes of meeting macho dolls of their dreams.

An ambitious female entrepreneur is looking to make her mark in the online gaming world. She has already managed to seal deals with top UK based bookmakers and is hungry for more.

Philly native Mz Genesiz shines a new light on the male dominated hip hop industry by using her savvy business skills to create a new blueprint in Hip Hop.

Michigans leading female hair transplant specialists share tips on preventing hair loss and alopecia for women approaching or going through menopause.

This study is a Phase 2, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled, Randomized Study to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy of a New Drug in Subjects with Asthma Inadequately Controlled by Corticosteroids

Evans Data's newly released Developer Marketing 2019 survey report found significant differences in the reasons for entering the software development industry as well as most important career driver between women and men.

Network, empower, inspire, advance.

Milamari A. Cunningham, M.D, of Columbia, Mo, is honored by the International Association of Who's Who as a Top Female Professional for her contributions within the field of Anesthesiology.

The September/October 2019 edition of the Pan-African Entrepreneurial magazine, PLEASURES MAGAZINE displays the simple concept that we are so much powerful when we work together in spite of religion and cultural differences.

Four Graduates to Enter Union Carpenters Apprenticeship Program