Beyond Bones

Violins are amazingly versatile instruments; they are equally at home whining their melodies in symphony orchestras in New York as they are on front porches in Appalachia. Apparently, they are even appreciated in Hell. For those of us who have heard the song The Devil Went Down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels Band (and I imagine that’s most us) the […]

Today on Beyond Bones, HMNS’ resident astronomer James Wooten shows us what to look for in the night sky this month. Mars is low in the west northwest at dusk.  This is the last month to see it easily, as it now sets in twilight. Mercury enters the evening sky, approaching within ½ degree of […]

By Jilliane Johnson, HMNS Concierge Summer is near and in a city such as Houston there are endless fun activities to enjoy, so we understand that our guests may only have so much time to share with us. Working at the Box Office, I hear the same phrase virtually every day. “We only have a […]

Our replica Moon has been on display for about a month now. As I helped create the information panels labeling craters and maria on the Moon, I found myself wondering, “Why does this particular crater have that name?” “Who picked the names anyway?” As it turns out, the names of features on the Moon are […]

By Jayme Schlimper, Overnight Programs Manager and Curator of Education Collections Hello all, with another great season of Summer Camps @ HMNS coming up, let’s take a moment to get a little sappy….but only a little…..with a little comedy thrown in to even it out because I don’t do feelings. If I did though, I […]

Megalosaurus doesn’t get as much love as it deserves. It’s one of those B-list dinosaurs that hardly ever gets talked about. In fact, if Megalosaurus gets talked about at all, it’s usually in reference to the character Earl Sinclair on the amazing tv show Dinosaurs (1991-1994), who was a Megalosaurus and also awesome. But there’s much […]

By Jayme Schlimper, Overnight Program Manager and Curator of Education Collections Hello! Today I want to let you in on a secret. Hidden in the museum is a magical room full of everything you could ever imagine. A Room of Requirement, if you will (and if you are a Harry Potter fan). It’s called Education […]

HMNS’ collections are more than just curiosities, they’re mementos of past lives, each with a story to tell and a lesson to teach. Take, for example, the chunk of pink granite from our Hall of Ancient Egypt pictured below. This two and a half foot tall rock may look pretty big, but it’s only a […]

Exciting things are happening in the Cockrell Butterfly Center! Anita Schiller, Director of the Biocontrol Mosquito Initiative in Harris County Precinct 4 is working with our staff to test an innovative, eco-friendly way to control the population of mosquitoes in Harris Country using a natural predator of everybody’s least favorite insect called the mosquito assassin […]

In times gone by, our ancestors gazed up at the night sky and told stories of the wondrous figures they saw gliding above the horizon. That was before television. These days most of us have forgotten the stories, but the stars are still up there. All you have to do is look. Your imagination will […]