National Museum of Natural History

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Celebrate Valentine’s Day With the Ocean’s Oddest Couples and More Natural History Programs This February

Join the National Museum of Natural History for programs on asteroid samples, fossils and chimpanzees

The National Museum of Natural History rotunda is lit up with green garlands hanging from the balconies, with the elephant standing the the middle of the image.

Deck the Halls With Nature Crafts and More Natural History Programs This December

Join us for programs about colorful corals, ancient art and more at the National Museum of Natural History

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Viking Women and Black-Footed Ferrets Are Coming to the Museum This Holiday Season

Have a holly jolly holiday and tune into exciting programming about the natural world at the museum this December

A group of several bison with dark fur traverses a light green colored landscape of grasslands as rays of late afternoon light stream through several gold-tinged clouds. In the distance are more bison and the horizon is framed by distant mountains.

For the Love of the Buffalo

The celebration of America's National Mammal brings up both a dark past and a brighter future thanks to the Smithsonian’s conservation work

A tan woolly mammoth skeleton facing left bends its front legs and tilts its tusks towards the bottom of the frame.

Celebrate Fabulous Fossils and More Natural History Programs This October

Tune into programs about pioneering archaeologists, festive bat celebrations and more with the National Museum of Natural History

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Four Reasons Why There Is More to the Hummingbird Than Meets the Eye

This National Hummingbird Day, learn the buzz about these bizarre and beautiful birds

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A Final Meal for the Ages

For World Mosquito Day, meet the “one in a million” fossil that proved fossilized blood is more than just science fiction

A pink and yellow worm is covered in several tangled strands of string-like gills.

Meet the Scientist Who Studies How Polychaete Worms Wriggle Through the Ocean

The lessons invertebrate zoologist Karen Osborn learns from the tiny worms may have robotic implications

Several grey, white and orange king penguins perch on top of their eggs, which are snuggly sheltered under a flap of their flabby skin between their feet.

Get To Know the Natural World’s Most Devoted Dads

Celebrate Father’s Day with pudgy penguins, karate-kicking frogs and other dependable animal dads

A humpback whale breaches the surface of the ocean on a sunny day as three birds fly overhead.

10 Popular Scientific Discoveries From 2021

Read about the year's most attention-grabbing findings by scientists at the National Museum of Natural History

Five specimens of mistletoe fluid-preserved in clear jargs with black caps.

Five Things You Didn't Know About Mistletoe

Over 1,700 species of the parasitic plant grow around the globe

Scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History sequenced the genomes of 363 bird species in 2020. (Brian Schmidt, Smithsonian)

10 Popular Scientific Discoveries from 2020

Here are some of 2020’s most popular discoveries involving scientists from the National Museum of Natural History.

Although pumpkins and other gourds have become staples at Thanksgiving, they were not the only original crops in the Americas. Other crops domesticated around the same time, like sumpweed, little barley and goosefoot, are now gone from today’s palates. (Smithsonian)

Our Thanksgiving Menu Has Lost a Few Crops

Studying the domestication of any crop that people once ate helps scientists reveal how modern crops have evolved.

Scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History discovered all sorts of cool things in 2019 including the first North American medicinal leech (Macrobdella mimicus) in more than 40 years. (Anna Phillips, Smithsonian)

10 Popular Scientific Discoveries from 2019

Celebrate the new year with some of our most popular scientific discoveries from 2019.

Many artists work hard to bring dinosaurs to life with accurate details, but often products can be out dated or be careless with details like how Diplodocus held their necks. (© N. Tamura CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

A Shopper’s Guide to Dinosaur Gifts

Tips to help you buy scientifically accurate dinosaur gifts for your loved one.

A chocolate model of the African Bush Elephant in the rotunda of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History on top of a festive holiday cake celebrating the museum. (Smithsonian Institution)

How Elaborate Cakes Make Science Sweet

Smithsonian archaeologist Eric Hollinger makes science sweet with elaborate, science-themed cakes.

Free post cards were given to service members when they visited the US National Museum (now the National Museum of Natural History) in the 1940s. (Smithsonian Institution Archives, Image # SIA2013-07711)

How WWII Service Members Helped Shape the Smithsonian’s New Fossil Hall

World War II service members played an important role in the shift toward audience-centric storytelling in the new "David H. Koch Hall of Fossils - Deep Time."

Collections at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History are filled with all sorts of eerie specimens. (Clockwise from top left: Gilles San Martin via Wikimedia, Smithsonian Institution, NoahElhardt via Wikimedia, Karie Darrow)

Six Bewitching Smithsonian Specimens to Get You Ready for Halloween

Check out some of the spookiest (read: coolest) items in the National Museum of Natural History's collections.

Last summer, I brought my son, Toby, with me on a field work trip to Kenya for the first time. It wasn’t easy but I’m glad I did it and would definitely do it again. (Briana Pobiner, Smithsonian Institution)

How to Balance Motherhood and a STEM Career

Smithsonian paleoanthropologist Briana Pobiner shares tips for balancing motherhood and a STEM career.

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