Beyond Bones

The city of Houston had already firmly grasped its place in history as “Space City” by the time Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy on July 16, 1969. The Houston Astros played inside the Astrodome, Judge Roy Hofheinz’s man-made UFO just south of the Texas Medical Center. Sweaty kids acted out otherworldly adventures in plastic […]

Today on Beyond Bones we’re sharing the results of a rather unusual test that was recently performed by the curators of our blockbuster special exhibition Death by Natural Causes. The test in question involved a Victorian-era dress, a book printed during the early 20th century and a can of insecticide. According to our research, all of these items […]

Jupiter remains in the evening sky, well placed for observing.  Look low in the southwest at dusk for the brightest thing there.   Saturn is at opposition on July 9.  This means that Earth is aligned between Saturn and the Sun on that date, putting Saturn opposite the Sun in our sky.  For much of July, Saturn is […]

Hi, everyone. Karl here! I’m the resident raptor at the Museum. You’ve probably seen me hanging out by the elevators outside the Education Office. I mostly spend my time there unless someone takes me on an adventure around the Museum. Sometimes I get to go to conferences to tell people about all the amazing things […]

It’s National Camera Day, which is a particularly relevant holiday to our institution since we just opened our new special exhibition In Focus, which is basically an immersive art space where you can go and take really cool pictures of yourself and your friends. Seeing all the visitors who have come to the exhibit to […]

Today on Beyond Bones I’m going to offer up a few potential travel destinations for those of you who like to visit little-known and seldom explored places that have awesome histories. The destinations in question are a string of ruined forts that date back to the era when West Texas was a still a lawless […]

When you come see our giant scale model Moon and walk around it, you’ll notice how different the near side (which always faces us) is from the far side (which we never see). Large, dark lava flows called ‘maria’ cover almost a third (31.2%) of the near side but only 1% of the far side. […]

Most of us are familiar with the crazy moon landing conspiracy theories that were sparked soon after Apollo 11 returned to Earth, but hardly anybody knows about the real moon hoax that occurred more than a hundred years before America’s Space Program was even conceived. On August 25, 1835 The Sun, a penny-press newspaper based […]

Today on Beyond Bones I’m going to tell you a story of two Victorian Academics who spent the majority of their careers going to absolutely ridiculous lengths to out-science each other in a decades long clash of brains and ego. The feud has come to be called the “Bone Wars” by Paleontologists and its effects […]

By Jayme Schlimper, Overnight Program Manager and Curator of Education Collections If you’re looking for a laugh today, you’re in the right spot. Everyone knows that kids say the darndest things and now that Summer Camps@HMNS is in full swing there have been quite a few interesting conversations I’ve overheard in the hallways. Here are […]