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National Museum of Natural History

Will the Blue Marble Stay Blue? This famous Earth photo, known as The Blue Marble, was taken on December 7, 1972 by astronauts on the Apollo 17 spacecraft – the last manned lunar mission that provided humans with such an opportunity. Beautiful and fragile, the Blue Marble became a symbol of the environmental movement and part of the official Earth Day flag (Photo credit: NASA).

This Earth Day, the Planet’s Health is Your Health

We are now living in a highly connected world. Human health threats anywhere can have impacts everywhere. However, we can only be as healthy as the global ecosystem in which we live and on which we depend. This is the main message of Planetary Health--an evolving discipline of enormous scope, where human health is inseparable from the state of Earth systems.

Each species of tinamou—a nearly-flightless bird from South and Central America—lays a different color of glossy egg. The males build the nest and incubate the eggs, while the females nest-hop, laying eggs in multiple nests. Visit our #ObjectsofWonder exhibit to see the eggs of tinamous and other bird species (Photo Credit: Paul Fetters for the Smithsonian).

This Easter, Forget Everything You Know About the Egg Hunt

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History has more than 109,000 individual bird egg specimens. It is a hidden gem that rivals the fanciest Easter basket imaginable. The eggs vary in size, shape, color, and pattern and reflect the diversity of life on this planet. So, how did the collection start? And why do we have so many bird eggs?

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