Perihelion | January 2023 Sky Happenings

Editor’s Note: It is a new year and we continue looking up as HMNS Astronomer James Wooten explains the sky happenings for the month of January, including the science behind perihelion. Jupiter is still in the evening sky; look for it in the south southwest at nightfall.  Jupiter is brighter than any star we ever […]

An Insider’s Guide to Mixers & Elixirs

Group of people dancing in front of dinosaur fossils

Hey, Houston! Mixers & Elixirs is back for its 2022 Summer Series. The tradition brings back many of the familiar attractions back to the halls of the Houston Museum of Natural Science but there are a few new tidbits guests may want to keep in mind when planning to attend and actively enjoying the event. […]

Missed Connections: Maya Seashell Currency

The world is a vast place, but all life living on its surface sprung from the same origins. Everyone and everything on this planet is connected. Sometimes the connections may not be readily apparent, but they are there.. Our “Missed Connections” series is all about exploring the unexpected connections between objects in our different exhibits. […]

The Butterfly Effect: Visiting The Amazing Monarch Preserves of Mexico

By Jeff Cummins, Butterfly Rearing Coordinator at HMNS It’s the beginning of April, spring is in full swing, and I’ve seen the first of the migrant monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) females searching my garden for milkweed on which to lay their eggs. I know these are migrants, meaning they are the same individuals that spent […]

The Full Story of Our Newly Acquired Giant Sapphire, The Siren of the Serendip

Sweet Serendipity Brings One of the World’s Top Sapphires to HMNS Hailing from an island of gemstones, the Siren of Serendip is one of the world’s largest blue sapphires. Considered one of the top five sapphires in the world, the Siren of Serendip weighs a phenomenal 422.66 carats and was discovered almost a century ago […]

New Leaf Cutter Ant Exhibit at HMNS!

There is a new addition to the Cockrell Butterfly Center Insect Zoo, a colony of leaf-cutter ants housed in a brand new exhibit! This leaf-cutter ant (Atta cephalotes) colony was acquired by the Cockrell Butterfly Center about 2.5 years ago from Guatemala. It began as a small, “softball-sized” colony that now has grown many times […]

Oh The Hermannity! The Story of Houston’s Most Beautiful Green Space

It’s February and we’re finally past the most miserable phase of Houston’s trademark cold and soggy winter. Every once in a while we’re getting those perfect golden days of sun and warm (but not too warm) weather and many of us are already looking forward to enjoying the outdoors. With that in mind I thought […]

Revisiting a Piece of Houston TV history in the HMNS archives

Tucked away inside the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s extensive off-site archives, among taxidermy and specimens galore from over a century of collecting, stands a piece of Houston television history on three rickety wheels. It was in 1971 that the team at KPRC-TV donated one of its studio cameras to HMNS. For years it stood […]

Stay Warm And Merry At HMNS Events This Week!

  Feeling chilled to the bone after all this cold, wet weather we’ve been having? Come to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and bask in the soft warm glow of scientific enlightenment! We’ve decked our halls with Christmas Trees decorated by local charity organizations, converted our Cockrell Butterfly Center into a winter wonderland (but […]


Editor's Picks The Real Moon Hoax That You Haven’t Heard Of Is Darwin relevant today? Oh The Hermannity! The Story of Houston’s Most Beautiful Green Space A Few Member Benefits Most HMNS Members Don’t Know About What The Loss Of The Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro’s Collections Means To The World What Is The Deal With Brontosaurus?!
 

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