Elizabeth Gamillo

Elizabeth Gamillo

 

Elizabeth Gamillo is a correspondent for Smithsonian and a science journalist based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has written for Science magazine as their 2018 AAAS Diverse Voices in Science Journalism Intern.

Recent genetic research could be used to produce plants without prickles, making it easier for gardeners to pluck roses without getting jabbed.

Scientists Identify the Gene Behind Thorny Roses and Other Prickly Plants

A recent study could pave the way to cultivating various thornless plants, making them easier to grow and potentially more widely available

The South American lungfish (Lepidosiren paradoxa) has the largest known genome of the animal kingdom at 91 billion base pairs of DNA.

The World's Largest Animal Genome Belongs to an Odd, Air-Breathing Fish

Scientists sequenced the 91 billion base pairs in the South American lungfish’s genome, setting a record and revealing insights into vertebrate evolution

An ocelot rests on a rock in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona, in 2007. Only seven ocelots, including the one just spotted, have been seen in the state in the last two decades.

Rare Ocelot Caught on Camera in Arizona, the First Sighting in Its Area for 50 Years

Ocelots were federally listed as endangered in 1972, and their current U.S. population is thought to be fewer than 100 individuals

Mars might host an ocean of water within porous rocks miles beneath its surface, according to a new study.

Mars Hosts a Giant Reservoir of Water Underground, We Just Can't Easily Reach It, Study Finds

The water is enough to cover the Martian surface in a mile-deep ocean, but it's beyond the reach of drills for now, according to researchers

This specimen is the first complete tusk of its kind found in Mississippi.

Rare Seven-Foot Mammoth Tusk Unearthed in Mississippi Creek

The enormous fossil belonged to a Columbian mammoth, a larger relative of the woolly mammoth

An artist's illustration of the WISE spacecraft in orbit around Earth. The mission was renamed NEOWISE in 2013 to reflect a new focus on finding near-Earth objects.

NASA Retires Orbiting Telescope That Charted Asteroids for Over a Decade

NEOWISE, which looked for potentially hazardous objects in the solar system, received its last command on Thursday and will burn up when it re-enters Earth's atmosphere

Footage of the beluga whales is captured by the beluga research vessel, Delphi, which uses two cameras, one underwater and one above deck to observe 55,000 beluga whales migrate to the Hudson Bay's shallow waters.

Watch Thousands of Beluga Whales Migrate From the Arctic

Two webcams give a front-row seat to the whales' daily activities

The space rock, recovered from the Western Sahara of Africa in 2011, formed 4.5 billion years ago and slammed into Earth after an asteroid impact sent it flying across space five to ten million years ago.

Oldest Martian Meteorite on Earth Traced to Its Origin on the Red Planet

Researchers used machine learning algorithms to determine which crater on Mars the space rock came from

Well digging behaviors have been observed previously in areas with dry habitats, and researchers only know of three chimpanzee groups in the savannah that do so.

Rainforest Chimpanzees Seen Digging Wells for the First Time

The primates may be burrowing for cleaner water

Park visitors walk along a section of the Great Salt Lake that used to be underwater at the Great Salt Lake State Park near Magna, Utah. 

Utah's Great Salt Lake Is Drying Out

Water levels, the lowest ever measured, are placing migrating birds, local communities and economic development at high risk

The gophers spend most of their time underground and only venture to the outside world to forage for food or mate.

Pocket Gophers May Be the First Non-Human Mammal to 'Farm'

The rodents don't plant, of course, but they do tend to roots in their tunnels that they then eat

Brooding requires a significant sacrifice for a mother Bathyteuthis berryi. Though she can't feed or quickly escape from predators while carrying her eggs, she can ensure her young stay in water that has the right temperature, salinity and oxygen levels.

Watch a Deep-Sea Squid Carry Hundreds of Pearl-Like Eggs

Footage taken 56 miles off California's coast documents rarely-observed brooding behavior

V. boliviana is now the world’s largest known giant waterlily species, with leaves that can grow almost ten feet wide in the wild.

New Species of Giant Waterlily Is the Largest in the World

The discovery of the enormous plant type surprised researchers

The shortlisted images range from showing Earth as blue marble against thousands of twinkling stars, distant nebulae, swirling galaxies, and stunning photos of the solar system.

View Amazing Shots of Space From the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Contest

Each shortlisted photo is in the running to win the grand prize and will be on display at the National Maritime Museum in London

Both Pfizer and Moderna already developed updated shots to target Omicron variant BA.1, and their data showcasing superior antibody responses against the Omicron variant were evaluated by the panel of experts deciding which strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus should be included in updated booster shots.

FDA Panel Endorses Updated Covid Boosters Targeting Omicron Subvariants

Updated vaccines will target both virus strains that dominated in the past and current Omicron subvariants

The vaccine, known as BPL-1357, was developed by experts at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and contains four strains of non-infectious, chemically inactivated avian influenza, thought to be not highly pathogenic.

Universal Flu Vaccine Enters Clinical Trials in Humans

The test will inoculate 100 volunteers with a vaccine that protected mice from lethal doses of six different flu strains

CAPSTONE is currently in low-Earth orbit and will take about four months to reach lunar orbit. (Pictured: An illustration of CAPSTONE)

NASA Launches CubeSat to Orbit the Moon

The CAPSTONE mission will help the agency plan upcoming lunar missions

The bacterium, roughly the shape and size of an eyelash, was first discovered in 2009 in the mangrove swamps of Guadeloupe, an island in the Lesser Antilles. The bacteria appeared as long translucent centimeter-long strings on decaying leaf matter in the water.

World’s Largest Bacterium Discovered in Caribbean Mangrove Swamps

The bacterium is the size of an eyelash and visible to the naked eye

The carbon-rich asteroid is of interest to researchers because the chunk of rock has remained unchanged since the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.

Building Blocks of Life Found on Samples Collected From an Asteroid

The find suggests that amino acids could land on Earth on meteorites

The image captured in South Texas shows cactus bees (Diadasia rinconis) in a rare and intimate moment as they swarm into a mating ball for a chance to mate with one female bee.  

Winners of the 2022 Big Picture Natural World Photography Competition Announced

From mating bees to starfish devouring a sea lion, the photos captured the beauty and diversity of life on Earth

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