Chris

Adventure is my middle name. Well… actually it’s French. Literally, it’s Christopher French Wells. But the spirit of adventure lives in me, and has always inspired me to go out and seek new experiences. I’ve traveled to Europe, Mexico and South America, as well as few places in the U.S. I’ve seen different places with different cultures, learned some things about humanity and about myself in particular. My goal is to lend my unique perspective, carved out of my own triumphs and tragedies, fears and fancies encountered during my years of college and international travel, to the other great voices of this blog. Hopefully to the enjoyment of our readers…

Giant Spiders, Death And Great Floods: The Origins Of Coal

  Imagine a primeval world, a swamp, but not like any swamp you see today. A canopy of fern-like leaves towers fifty to a hundred feet above you, blotting out the sun like a blackish-green, moth eaten blanket. Remarkably thin, spindly trunks support the structure precariously. These trunks have a scaley texture, like the skin […]

HMNS Weekly Happenings

Registration For HMNS X plorations Summer Camp Is Now!   Questions? Contact xplorations@hmns.org or call 713-639-4652. Don’t forget you can Refer a Friend when registering for Summer Camp, and you’ll both receive a discount! More information on that can be found here. Parent’s Guide to Xplorations Summer Camp is the basics of what you need to know! […]

How The Core Controls Us All. The Earth’s Core, That is.

  Every aspect of our world is ultimately controlled by geologic forces far beneath our feet. Under the influence of mantle convection, mountain ranges rise, great rifts open in the earth, oceans form and then disappear. This is no exaggeration. We all learned about plate tectonics in high school; how the crust of the earth […]

HMNS Weekly Happenings

Lecture – Hearth, Heart, Home: Skara Brae’s Early Stone Age Dwellings by Martin Carruthers   What was it about an ancient windswept place in the remote Orkney Islands that caused people to invest so much effort in creating one of the earliest examples of permanent homes? Skara Brae, a Stone Age village and UNESCO World […]

HMNS Weekly Happenings

Cultural Feast – A Renaissance Condottieri Banquet…A Knight to Remember Art, warfare, intrigue, and cuisine often melded during the Italian Renaissance. Places such as Milan and northern Italy were important centers for the manufacture of the exquisite armor worn by kings and nobles throughout Europe during battles. Artists including Leonardo da Vinci often designed fortifications […]

Diatryma: The Last Gasp of Dinosaur Rule In North America

Was it inevitable that mammals would rule the world after the dinosaurs went extinct? The rise of mammals is often depicted as a pretty smooth transition, but in reality things were a little more complicated. In the wake of the end Cretaceous extinction birds, reptiles and mammals all began to split and diversify to exploit ecological […]

HMNS Weekly Happenings

Senior Social GET TICKETS | Wednesday, May 30 | 9 a.m.   Spend the morning socializing with other seniors at HMNS! HMNS Senior Social is a new quarterly event exclusively for HMNS senior members, ages 62 and up. Enjoy a light breakfast and an exclusive tour of a select permanent exhibition during this new special […]

HMNS Weekly Happenings

HMNS Catalysts Event: Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals Note: You must sign in to purchase HMNS Catalysts members tickets.       From a huge blue topaz crystal weighing more than 2,000 carats to a crystallized gold cluster that is one of the most highly coveted objects in the mineral kingdom, the spectacular specimens […]

Corundum: The Strangely Prolific Mineral

  Did you know that corundum is exactly half of everything you could ever want in a gemstone? The “big four” gemstones in the jewelry industry are diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald. Both ruby and sapphire are varieties of corundum, so although you may have never heard of it, the mineral we are discussing today […]

HMNS Weekly Happenings

Family Knights Festival   Saturday, January, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Explore the world of knights in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Experience their daily lives and meet knights and their horses. Presented by the Society of Creative Anachronism. There will also be an ancient games tournament from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Try your hand at […]