Beyond Bones

by John Pederson and Marce Stayer The Aztecs, one of the greatest Mesoamerican cultures, had all the hallmarks of an advanced civilization. One of their most famous structures, the Templo Mayor, graces the Aztec portion of the John P. McGovern Hall of the Americas. It is a fantastic temple complex, the main religious center of […]

by Kaylee Gund During a recent visit to the Museum’s offsite collections storage, one carving in particular caught my eye — the Nimba (D’mba). After living in Guinea for over a year, I immediately honed in on the familiar polished wood of the Nimba among the other West African pieces. The Nimba is a symbol […]

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!  Lecture – The Fastest Evolving Regions of the Human Genome by Katherine Pollard Wednesday, Nov. 11 6:30 p.m.  Although a child can tell the difference between a chimp and a […]

I like wine. And I make my own. Not huge batches, mind you. Just about 30 bottles per month in the winter months. I learned the hard way the chemistry of wine. If you let the wine get too hot while it’s fermenting, it can radically alter the taste.  I let one of my batches […]

When I say I am an entomologist at the Cockrell Butterfly Center, this is what people picture: Yes, I get to play with butterflies at my job and yes, my job is awesome! It’s also sometimes really smelly, sweaty and dirty. My morning generally starts out with releasing butterflies, which sounds like something magical. The butterflies are released twice a […]

Saturn sets in twilight for the first week of November and is lost in the sun’s glare the rest of the month.  Venus, Mars and Jupiter are still close together in the morning sky this month. Right now, Venus is close to Mars, with Jupiter above them. Venus and Mars are 0.68 degrees apart the morning […]

No one knows everything, you tell yourself, but after a conversation with Dr. Robert T. Bakker, Curator for the Morian Hall of Paleontology, you might believe there’s someone out there who does. The world-renowned dinosaur expert is famous for his energetic and entertaining style, and imagining not only the shape and size and habits of […]

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!  Film Screening – Making North Armerica with Dr. Robert T. BakkerTuesday, Nov. 36:00 p.m.Join Dr. Robert T. Bakker for the premiere event of NOVA’s Making North America television series […]

Through the month of October, Houston Museum of Natural Science Marketing put together an all-out campaign to prep for Halloween, and we had a blast doing it. On Instagram, we took our creepiest skeletons, screened them through a black and white filter and blew out the contrast for a spooky look under the hashtags #31DaysOfSkeletons […]

Tentacles, bodies and skeletons, oh my! No matter how beautiful or how vital to the history of natural science and life on Earth, some things are just a little freaky. Check out this short list of our top 13 strange, weird and scary artifacts housed in the permanent halls of the Houston Museum of Natural […]