Since its doors first opened in 1910, the National Museum of Natural History has inspired curiosity and learning about the natural world and our place in it. Building upon the strong foundation of our extensive collections, the staff of the museum have been at the forefront of essential scientific exploration and research, and groundbreaking public [...] [...more]
More than 25 years ago, researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's Fish and Invertebrate Ecology Lab began taking weekley surveys of the species that make their way in and out of Muddy Creek. [...more]
Leafcutter Ants—an amazing species that has been employing agriculture and antibiotics for some 50 million years. [...more]
White, who was a student at Columbian College from Accomack County, Va., died of pneumonia and complications from a mitral heart defect. When his coffin was unearthed, his identity was a deep mystery. [...more]
Julia Child cooks up a batch of primordial soup and explains how these simple ingredients produce amino acids - the building blocks of life. This video played in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Life in The Universe gallery from 1976 until the gallery closed. [...more]
While studying bats recently at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Smithsonian mammalogist Kristofer Helgen discovered a new species of flying fox bat from Samoa in the Academy’s collections that had been preserved in alcohol since 1856. That discovery inspired him to study early Samoan collections in other museums more closely, leading Helgen to discover [...] [...more]
For those who think that global warming is a 21st-century phenomenon, Scott Wing, a scientist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, has news about the past. [...more]
Yellow lady’s slippers, watercolor by Kathleen Garness, from the National Museum of Natural History exhibit “Losing Paradise? Endangered Plants Here and Around the World,” opening Aug. 14. The exhibition, a collaborative effort between the American Society of Botanical Artists and the Natural History Museum, showcases botanical illustrations and features work from several renowned artists, including Alice Tangerini, one of the Smithsonian’s acclaimed scientific illustrators.
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