National Museum of Natural History

The National Museum of Natural History’s entomology collection has many Asian giant hornets. Recently, the collection grew with new specimens from an eradicated nest in Washington State. (Matthew Buffington, USDA-ARS)

Family Members Follow Original Asian Giant Hornet to Smithsonian

Scientists plan to analyze the hornets’ DNA to learn more about the invasive species' mysterious arrival.

The Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems working group combines expertise from paleontologists and ecologists to improve our understanding of ancient and modern ecosystems. (Mary Parrish, Smithsonian)

Interdisciplinary Study Shows How Species Interactions Affect Evolution

The study shows that it’s possible to model how competition for resources, symbiosis or predation shapes the evolution and survival of species.

The Hope Diamond came to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in 1958. Since then, museum scientists have uncovered a lot about the diamond’s intriguing past. (Dane A. Penland, Smithsonian)

Get to Know the Hope Diamond’s Keeper

We caught up with Dr. Jeffrey Post to hear the story of this infamous blue diamond, see what makes the National Gem and Mineral Collection so special and learn about the countless things minerology can reveal about the past and future.

The Smithsonian’s Division of Birds provided about 40% of the tissue samples for the new bird genomes in a landmark study. (James Di Loreto, Smithsonian)

Landmark Study Shares Smithsonian Bird DNA Collected Over Three Decades

A new study in Nature published the genomes — the complete DNA sequences — of 363 species of birds, opening the door for hundreds of new studies.

This mummified steppe bison was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in the 1970s. Right now, museum audiences can see it online during a virtual tour. (Michelle Pinsdorf, Smithsonian)

Bison Mummies Help Scientists Ruminate on Ancient Climate

Bison mummies hold valuable information for researchers who want to understand how biodiversity evolved and responded to climate change.

From leaf-engineering to complex social circles, there’s more to bats than flying and echolocation. (Charles J Sharp)

Five Reasons to Love Bats

For Bat Week this year, we rounded up five reasons to love and conserve these misunderstood mammals.

Cole had been using fossils in the National Museum of Natural History’s Springer collections for her research long before joining the museum as a curator. (Selina Cole, Smithsonian)

Meet the Scientist Using Fossils to Predict Future Extinctions

Selina Cole has dedicated her career to understanding the emergence and disappearance of species throughout Earth’s history.

Bennu is shaped like a three-dimensional diamond and seemingly smooth from far away. OSIRIS-REx is in the foreground of this artist’s replication. The spacecraft will gather a sample from Bennu next week. (NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)

What an Asteroid Could Tell Us About Ancient Earth

As OSIRIS-REx approaches Asteroid Bennu, a new study suggests that massive boulders on its surface have moved a lot over the past few hundred thousand years.

The Pacific bigfin squid (Magnapinna pacifica) in the Smithsonian collections that Mike Vecchione and Richard E. Young used to describe the deepest-known species of squid. (Richard E. Young)

Get to Know the Scientist Discovering Deep-Sea Squids

For this month's "Meet a SI-entist," we chatted with the Smithsonian's curator of cephalopods to learn more about these wonderfully weird animals on World Octopus Day.

Giant squids can grow to over 40 feet long. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History has a giant squid specimen on display in the Sant Ocean Hall and several others in its collections. (John Steiner, Smithsonian)

How Scientists Learn What Lives in the Deep Ocean

By collecting, storing and analyzing specimens and DNA from the deep sea, researchers are improving their knowledge about marine biodiversity in the deep ocean.

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