Don your clean room clothing and take a glimpse into the Smithsonian's new Antarctic meteorite storage facility in Suitland, Md., where all of the Antarctic meteorites in the national collection are kept under tight security and tight airlocks.

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The post Samuel P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian, and his development of the ill-fated Aerodrome A appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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The post Kepler 11: A Six-Planet Sonata by Alex Parker, postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Smithsonian Libraries offer a vast amount of resources to the general public. This video gives you a peek into the amazing world of discovery […]

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Giant panda Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) gave birth to a cub at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. at 5:32 p.m., Friday, Aug. 23. The […]

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Maintaining natural movement of animals that live in the tropical rainforest canopy in South America is important for the health of the ecosystem. As development […]

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Learn how to use the Smithsonian Wild website to find amazing camera trap photos of mammals from around the world

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  In honor of its 125th anniversary, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo is once again home to American bison, the animal that began the Zoo’s living […]

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Ever wonder what it’s like to be an endocrinologist at the National Zoo? Meet Sarah Putman, endocrinologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

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How 3D technology is used at the Smithsonian to create world class exhibits!

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Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, the only museum in the U.S. devoted exclusively to design, reopens after a 3-year makeover with 60 percent more exhibition […]

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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 […]

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Scientists from the Migratory Bird Center of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute are using transmitters to track the movements of shorebirds–the long-billed curlew, red knot, […]

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NASA’s Kepler mission is responsible for history’s first detection of Earth-sized planets orbiting other suns in their temperate “habitable zones.” The team in charge of […]

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Identifying and understanding the migratory connectivity of birds throughout an entire annual cycle (not just the times of year they are in your back yard), […]

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Here are some of the many resources the Smithsonian Libraries have to offer for Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History

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How do you bring a nearly complete T. rex back to life? You send the fossils to Canada where craftsmen create a creature of steel. […]

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Seeing a massive skeleton on display in a museum gallery is the last step in a long journey from living animal to educational specimen. Where […]

The post Where Dead Whales Go To Live: Smithsonian Whale Warehouse appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The National Air and Space Museum will reopen the “Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall” July 1 in conjunction with the museum’s 40th anniversary. The two-year […]

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A giant killer hornet war is waged between two colonies, and the resources, territories, and survival of a new generation are at stake. Watch the […]

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Oct. 4, 2016—The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute welcomed an Eld’s deer fawn Oct. 2 around 4:30 p.m. Both the fawn and her mom Sienna appear […]

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We are the world’s largest museum, research and education complex. We are an active institution that opens new doors, analyzes big questions and searches to […]

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Meet Nick Pyenson, one of our paleontologists at the National Museum of Natural History. His job as a time traveler is to make discoveries about […]

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Meet Amy Homma, the Director of Digital Learning at Art Lab+. Learn how Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has created a dynamic program to […]

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Aukeran is a professional dance troupe from Basque country founded in 1997 by Edu Muruamendiaraz. The beautiful and graceful professional dancers have backgrounds in both […]

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Click here to read more about the work of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. The Smithsonian has been celebrating innovation in American culture for more than […]

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A team from the Smithsonian is starting a pilot program to aid people in restoring their damaged family heirlooms. Click photo to learn more….

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Known around the world for personal and culturally inspired choreography, Dana Tai Soon Burgess has been named the Smithsonian’s first choreographer-in-residence at the National Portrait […]

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Ollie the bobcat, who escaped from her enclosure at the Smithsonian National Zoo, was found two days after her disappearance roaming near the zoo’s bird […]

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Join Dr. Elizabeth Cottrell as she explores the volcanoes of Alaska’s Western Aleutian Islands.

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Get a quick tutorial on how to upload a story about your local culture and experiences to the Smithsonian’s storytelling website, located www.museumonmainstreet.org Museum on […]

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Extinct in the wild for more than 35 years, scimitar-horned oryx are back in their native habitat thanks to international collaboration and the power of […]

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Asian elephants are critically endangered and their habitat in the wild is rapidly disappearing, but Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists are working to make sure […]

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US Airways Flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. Learn how the events of that day unfolded and what happened to […]

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Explore a “day in the life” of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the nation’s first collection of American art and home to one of the […]

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Smithsonian staff gathered on Thursday, June 1 outside the National Museum of African American History and Culture to show their support and listen to Director […]

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Did you know the Smithsonian’s museum support center is home to the largest collection of whale bones EVER? Madeline Sofia from Joe’s Big Idea takes […]

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Scientists in the US are helping to preserve this near-threatened species native to South America.

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The storage and flux of terrestrial carbon (C) is one of the most uncertain components of the global C budget and detailed quantification of forest […]

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Here’s how the Smithsonian Institution is prepping the 9,000-pound capsule used during Apollo 11 for a two-year road trip.

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An overview of the Smithsonian Affiliations program and its reach in communities across the United States. Is the Smithsonian in your neighborhood?

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Tweaks in muscle and wing form give different hummingbird species varying levels of agility. The deft turns of hummingbirds in flight, as shown in a […]

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New on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings: This official music video is for “Ripest of Apples” by Anna & Elizabeth, from the new album ‘The Invisible Comes […]

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On May 4, 2018, members of the DC R2D2 Builders Club visited the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History with their droids. Along with thousands […]

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In Armenia, the completion of a carpet and cutting it from its loom is a significant rite of passion for young female weavers.

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Yesterday, we heard about the hyper-loop, a system that could get you from L.A. to San Francisco in about 30 minutes without losing your eyeballs.

Steve Julian: Business analyst Mark Lacter, that might come in handy given how crowded California's air corridor has become...

Mark Lacter: We'll talk about the hyper-loop in a moment, Steve, but yes, the L.A.-to-San Francisco air route is the busiest in the U.S., and it's already the most competitive.  We're talking about more than 50 flights a day, which - if you spread them out between six in the morning and 10:30 at night - there'd be one flight every 20 minutes.  But, Delta obviously thinks there's room for more because it's announced an hourly shuttle between the two cities.  That's another 14 daily flights beginning September 3.  The airline will be using a somewhat smaller jet, and it sounds as if the focus will be on the business traveler, with free newspapers, wine, and beer.

Julian: How much will it cost, do we know?

Lacter: As usual, it's a lot cheaper if you make an advance purchase, but if you're buying your tickets at the last minute - which is what a lot of business travelers do - roundtrip runs a hefty $430.  Actually, this Bay Area shuttle is just the latest effort by Delta to expand out of LAX, which is different from other major airports in that it doesn't have any one airline that dominates (United has a slight edge in market share over American, with Delta about three percentage points behind).  American also has been adding flights out of LAX.

Julian: Sounds like the airline business is improving...

Lacter: That's what happens when you pack planes to the absolute max, which is bad news for travelers being crammed into coach seats.  But it's good news for LAX, which continues to be the airport of choice among airlines looking to add service - matter of fact, domestic passenger traffic was up almost 8 percent in June compared with a year earlier.  Some of those gains might be at the expense of service elsewhere - most especially Ontario Airport, which has seen a big exodus among airlines and passengers.  Ontario city officials have been trying to regain control of the airport, which has been operated by the city of Los Angeles.

Julian: Back to the hyper-loop - is this kind of transport possible?

Lacter: Well, it's the brainchild of billionaire Elon Musk, and you never say never with this guy.  He started the electric car company Tesla and the private space company Space X.  The hyper-loop is a high-speed system of passenger pods that would travel on a cushion of air (think of air hockey table).  The pods would travel at more than 700 miles per hour, but they wouldn't result in sonic booms that severely restricted the Concorde aircraft.  Of course, anything that promises super-speed travel is bound to get people talking - and, from what the physics professors are saying, the Musk idea seems feasible.

Julian: How would its cost compare to the bullet train?

Lacter: He says a lot cheaper.  The price tag on the train is $70 billion at last check; Musk says he can do his for $6 billion.  But, the issue isn't so much the cost or even the technology, but the politics.  As a rule, governments do not think outside the box, and that's what a project like this is all about.  Already, you have bullet train supporters saying that the hyper-loop is impossible, but what they're really saying is we have a lot riding on the train, and we don't want this guy to mess it up.

Julian: But, how much demand is there for high-speed transport?

Lacter: You'd think there would be a lot, but when Boeing came up with a nifty idea for a souped-up plane that would shave almost an hour from L.A. to New York, the airlines said no because it would require more fuel - and that would mean raising fares.  Musk says his system would be a lot cheaper than traveling by plane, which could be a game changer in the attitudes about going places.  But, those attitudes won't change until the thing is actually built, and that can't realistically happen until attitudes change.  That's the ultimate problem.

Julian: Hence, why we're content to squeeze into coach.

Lacter: Yep.

Mark Lacter is a contributing writer for Los Angeles Magazine and writes the business blog at LA Observed.com.

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