Museum Blog

Jungle Butterfly - Zoology Object of the Week (May 1, 2011)

Posted 04/30/2011 by Frank Krell | Comments
In 1966, medical entomologist Dean Fanara, PhD, conducted research on malaria and Chagas disease in northeast Colombia for the Pan American Health Organization. It is the land of the Bari people who had defeated several Spanish expeditions in the 16th century. Dr. Fanara enjoyed his stay and m…
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Songbirds: Up Close & Personal: May 12 & May 14

Posted 04/28/2011 by John Demboski | Comments
Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science have teamed up for a two-part experience designed to delight you and enhance your birding skills. Space is limited - to register contact Andrew Doll, DMNS Ornithology Fellow, 303-370-8387 or Andrew.Doll@…
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Astro: Hubble 21st anniversary image release

Posted 04/27/2011 by Ka Chun Yu | Comments
To celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, a spectacular image of the pair of colliding galaxies Arp 273 was released. Click on the image to get a super-enormous 4000-pixel wide version of the image (or this link for the full-size TIFF at roughly 8000 pixels across, and 1…
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Astro: Kepler Orrery Movies

Posted 04/27/2011 by Ka Chun Yu | Comments
The Kepler mission discovered more than 1200 solar system candidates around other stars. Here is a video showing the orbital motions of all of the systems that show evidence of multiple planets as of February 2011: The size of each planet is not shown relative to scale to the size of their orb…
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Lakota Pipe Bowl and Stem: Anthropology Object of the Month for May 2011

Posted 04/26/2011 by Isabel Tovar | Comments
This pipe was made by Charlie Walking Cloud, a member of the Lakota Sioux tribe of North Dakota. In the 1930's Walking Cloud gave the pipe to US Army Corporal John Spare in a gesture of gratitude for Spare's longtime friendship and service to the Lakota that served in his unit during World War…
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Turtle-Rabbits! - Zoology Object of the Week (April 25, 2011)

Posted 04/25/2011 by John Demboski | Comments
You may be familiar with this odd, tank-like creature if you've ever spent some time in Texas. They can be hard to miss on the side of a road, dead or alive. This is the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), a member of the mammalian order Cingulata and distantly related t…
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Largest Bird Ever!: Zoology Object of the Week (April 18, 2011)

Posted 04/17/2011 by John Demboski | Comments
Shown next to a ruby-throated hummingbird nest with eggs, is an intact elephant bird egg. The flightless elephant bird (Aepyornis sp.), endemic to Madagascar, was the largest bird ever known clocking in at 500-1000 pounds and reaching about 10 feet high. The egg above is about 12 …
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Why Are Humans So Different

Posted 04/15/2011 by Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh | Comments
Diversity is a fundamental question for anthropology--that goes to the heart of our common past and also our common future. In this way, anthropology has much to contribute to natural history museums, which study and celebrate the concept of diversity. How Can We Explain Human Diversity? …
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AChemS 2011 Day 3 Chemesthesis

Posted 04/15/2011 by Nicole Garneau | Comments
New Frontiers in Chemesthesis: pronounced keem-E-thesis, think perception of pain, temperature, and touch (can be used in all sensory organs)- in the mouth it includes pain from capsaicin in hot peppers, menthol cooling sensation, and the signals are sent to the brain through cranial nerve V- …
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Bed Bug Bite

Posted 04/14/2011 by Frank Krell | Comments
Bed Bugs are surging in the United States. Denver is one of the cities most affected by recent outbreaks of these blood-sucking insects. DMNS has produced a short video about the problem, the first Science Bite this year. Some more information about the problem can be found in the June/July nu…
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