Beyond Bones

Have you heard or seen the term “murder hornet” recently? Of course you have. You cannot get online or turn on a television without the phrase practically screamed at your face. Poorly-worded media reports have generated a large amount of viral and nonsensical hooplah online, and I am here to help set the record straight […]

When we survey the field of pre-Contact indigenous cultures in the Americas, the ancient Maya are by far the one we know the most about. Like other cultures, the Maya have left us a very rich archaeological record. We can excavate and investigate their cities; we can be awed by the extensive time depth of […]

Sick of watching the entire run of “The Office” for the twentieth time? Already knocked out that crucial rewatch of HBO’s “Game of Thrones”? Have you grown tired of your kids playing the same YouTube videos of toys you can’t afford right now being unboxed? Kind of grossed out by the Netflix show about the […]

Museums collect objects from around the world that allow us to contribute to education and scientific research. Here at the Houston Museum of Natural Science these objects take a variety of forms and you can easily see the range of our collections as you walk through our halls. While many of the objects on display […]

Down a residential street in Montrose, canopied by trees that would be right at home in Middle Earth and surrounded by million-dollar houses, you will find Patti Thompson’s thriving front yard butterfly garden. It’s grown to be a neighborhood landmark, teaching everyone who happens to walk by a little bit more about the intricate, sometimes […]

Written in 1794, William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” remarks on the ferocity of this large Felid. When my museum colleagues asked me to hammer out this piece, the first thing that ran through my mind was rejoicing at the opportunity to misspell the name of the tiger (Panthera tigris), as Blake did in what is […]

People who dedicate their life to a museum of course have a love for artifacts, specimens, etc.  We also LOVE information in the many forms found in a museum: paper files, old hand-written inventory and accession books, the small paper tags attached to each item, little notes left behind on a shelf next to an […]

Have you suddenly found yourself stuck at home with an abundance of time on your hands? Go outside and see what the neighbors are doing! Don’t have a backyard? Luckily, you can even watch your neighbors through a window! Our wildlife neighbors are busy going about business as usual, doing their standard daily commutes, picking […]

Here at HMNS, the health and wellbeing of our guests and our staff have always been our top priority. Now more than ever, we want to help keep you and your family safe and healthy while also continuing our mission to bring you the best scientific education. We brought in some special behind-the-scenes objects to […]

These days the Houston Museum of Natural Science is a quiet place. The field trippers are all at home, the teachers, too. The grand hall has an eerie stillness. Luke Jerram’s Moon hangs lonely in the Glassell Hall. The paleo lab is closed. The pendulum is still swinging, by the way, but no one is […]