Beyond Bones

by Karen Whitley Every year we see hundreds of birthday cakes, and we are blown away (candle pun intended) by some of the creations parents bring in! From the cakes that defy gravity to the ones we have to use careful geometry to cut, we are always excited to see what a party brings in. Here’s […]

by Matti Hammett If you’ve ever visited HMNS with a school group or on your own, you may have found yourself in the depths of the museum beneath the Morian Hall of Paleontology and thought to yourself one of these three things: Am I allowed to be down here? (Yes, of course you are!) Is […]

Sourcing product for special exhibits is one of the favorite things about my job, but as a lover of Mexican art and culture, La Virgen de Guadalupe: Empress of the Americas has been especially fun. This summer, we traveled to Mexico City and met with officials at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The […]

Bust out your planners, calendars, and PDAs (if you are throwback like that), it’s time to mark your calendars for the HMNS events of this week!  Last week’s featured #HMNSBlockParty creation is by Tarum (age 8).  Want to get your engineering handwork featured? Drop by our brand-new Block Party interactive play area and try your own […]

The annual Geminid Meteor Shower peaks this weekend, and we’ve got some tips for stargazers hoping to catch it. The Geminids are unique among meteor showers because they are associated not with a comet but with an asteroid, 3200 Phaethon. Comet orbits are so oblong that that they cross Earth’s orbit almost at right angles. […]

Quilts. Statues. Blankets. Street art. Devotional candles. Tattoos. In the Americas, you can find the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe almost anywhere, in any form. Her image represents not only a great miracle but the identity of a nation of believers. And this weekend you can trace the story back to its origins—only at […]

Bust out your planners, calendars, and PDAs (if you are throwback like that), it’s time to mark your calendars for the HMNS events of this week!  Last week’s featured #HMNSBlockParty creation is by Cameron (age 5).  Want to get your engineering handwork featured? Drop by our brand-new Block Party interactive play area and try your own hand […]

The zebra longwing (Heliconius charithonia) is a common resident of the Cockrell Butterfly Center (CBC). This butterfly is easily recognizable with boldly striped yellow and black wings. When visiting the CBC, you’ll often spot them sipping nectar from the flowers and nectar feeders or sunning themselves with their wings spread open. These butterflies have some unique […]

Saturn is lost in the Sun’s glare this month. Mercury briefly appears in the evening sky in the last two weeks of December and in early January. Look low in the west-southwest during twilight, just over the point of sunset, to find it. Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are spreading apart in the morning sky this […]

by Katie Conlan With our world-class collections, the Houston Museum of Natural Science is a popular place to take selfies. Just search #HMNS on Facebook or Instagram and you’ll find a trove of smiling faces in front of dinosaurs or having close encounters with the resident butterflies! Who wouldn’t want a selfie with a Tyrannosaurus […]