Places and Structures
Where is the Dinosaur Capital of the World?
Earlier this week the Burpee Museum of Natural History and the Discovery Center Museum, both in Rockford, Illinois, held a ground-breaking ceremony on a $10 million expansion for the museums. The construction will give both institutions more exhibition space, and if the comments of Burpee Museum o...
June 16, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Brachiosaurus Moves to Indianapolis
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, home of the Dinosphere, is welcoming some new additions this week. As reported by local TV station WISH, the museum just added a mother and baby Brachiosaurus sculpture to the outside of the building.
June 10, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Decapitation in Durham
Sometime over this past weekend the "Brontosaurus" at Durham, North Carolina's Museum of Life and Science lost its head. The statue stood for more than three decades in what had been called the Pre-History Trail, and everyone was shocked to see that had been vandalized. The crime was made even more...
June 04, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Bringing the Wright Flyer to Life
In a movie first, curators and filmmakers collaborated to animate artifacts for Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
June 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
The Triumph of Frank Lloyd Wright
The Guggenheim Museum, turning 50 this year, showcases the trailblazer's mission to elevate American society through architecture
June 2009 |
By Arthur Lubow
Brain Cells for Socializing
Does an obscure nerve cell help explain what gorillas, elephants, whales—and people—have in common?
June 2009 |
By Ingfei Chen
Dinosaurs Stalk the Night at the Smithsonian
There appear to be three themes that pop up in many of the major summer blockbusters being released this year: time travel, robots, and dinosaurs. I have already covered two of this summer's bigger dino-flicks, Ice Age 3 and Land of the Lost, but the newly-released Night at the Museum: Battle of th...
May 28, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
"Chinasaurs" come to Maryland
If you are a dinophile in the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland, you may want to clear your plans for this weekend. Tomorrow, the Maryland Science Center in the city's Inner Harbor will raise the curtain on the traveling exhibit "Chinasaurs-Dinosaur Dynasty." The webpage promoting the exhibit promise...
May 22, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
A Green Addition to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Meeting House
Architects of the First Unitarian Society’s new eco-friendly addition find inspiration in the ideas of original architect Frank Lloyd Wright
May 21, 2009 |
By Laura Kearney
A Tour of France’s Cave Homes
In France’s Loire Valley, domesticated cave dwellings, known as troglodyte homes, offer a history as rich as the region’s chateaus
May 19, 2009 |
By Kristin Ohlson
Dinosaur Tracks Go on Display at Oxfordshire Museum
It can be a long road from the quarry to the exhibition site for some fossils. Most of what is collected is put in storage rather than placed on display, but even exceptional specimens can take a long time to prepare for their public debut. Such was the case with a series of dinosaur tracks found i...
May 14, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Going Buggy at the New Audubon Museum
Crickets, spiders, ants and many other insects thrive in historic New Orleans, where kids and adults learn about creepy crawlers
May 13, 2009 |
By David Zax
Having a Blast at Dinosaur National Monument
Financial times may be tough, but the push to reinvigorate the economy has provided an unexpected boon for Dinosaur National Monument. The national park, which straddles the Colorado/Utah border, will receive more than $13,000,000 in stimulus money for the construction of a new visitors center. The...
May 12, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Triceratops on Tour to Celebrate Louisiana Purchase
In 1904 the city of St. Louis, Missouri hosted the grand Louisiana Purchase Exhibition. It was a chance to celebrate the centennial of the grand acquisition of the midwestern states, and many states contributed exhibits to the festival. The Smithsonian Institution was represented there, too, and as...
May 04, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Five Movies That Memorably Feature Museums
The ‘Night at the Museum’ films aren’t the only films that take place largely in the confines of a museum
May 04, 2009 |
By Joseph Caputo
Hollywood on Exhibit
Movie memories come to life inside the filmmaking collections of these seven museums
April 24, 2009 |
By Joseph Caputo
A Paleontologist's Long-Lost Lunchbox
Digging up fossils can be hard work, and it is important for any fossil hunter to pack a hearty lunch to keep their strength up. Apparently that is what the 19th century amateur paleontologist William Parker Foulke did. As reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Foulke's lunchbox has recently been f...
April 22, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaurs Get a Day at the Beach
If you live in the vicinity of Frankston, Victoria in Australia, you still have a few days to see gigantic dinosaurs made from sand. This year the theme for the Sand Sculpting Austrlia exhibition was "DinoStory," and an international team of sand sculptors has etched dinosaurs into the sand. They a...
April 21, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaurs and Cavemen (sigh) to Invade Binghamton in 2010
Right about this time in 2007, the creationist cartoonist Johnny Hart, creator of the "The Wizard of ID" and "B.C.," passed away. While many people have placed cavemen and dinosaurs together out of ignorance or artistic laziness, Hart truly believed that his cartoon B.C. contained at least a minor...
April 17, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Did Sauropods Hold their Heads High?
In museums all over the world, skeletons of sauropod dinosaurs are reconstructed with their heads held high. It seems like the most natural position for these animals, but a short letter recently published in Science has questioned whether it is correct. According to biologist Roger Seymour, saurop...
April 14, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
