Story Topics | Natural History Museum

best_slug_photo snailblitz 2020 banana slug on the ground

Congratulations, Banana Slugs!

California finally has a state slug, just in time for Snail Search 2025

Wildfire Smoke in Bird Feathers

NHM researchers look at dirty feathers to understand the effects of wildfire smoke on birds

Solving a Juniper Seed Mystery at La Brea Tar Pits

How identifying a mysterious fossil seed reveals Ice Age climate change

Aerial view of buildings with hand-written names over the streets

Street Names of Los Angeles

You may ride, drive, bike, run and walk your L.A. streets, but do you know the history behind L.A. street names?

The panel 'White washing history' from L.A. History A Mexican Perspective

History, Uncensored

Uncovering a history of censorship that threatened two of L.A.'s most iconic murals

The Douglas World Cruiser New Orleans in the foreground with the other planes in the distance air over Connecticut

Remembering the Douglas World Crusier's First Flight Around the World

Marking 100 Years since the Douglas World Cruisers circled the globe

Community Conservation at Elephant Hill

How co-created community science helps in the fight to save East L.A.'s largest open space

Walking With Giant Sloths

Take a (virtual) summer road trip to White Sands National Park to explore the fossilized tracks of giant ground sloths

An adult petroleum fly Helaeomyia petrolei taken with a keyence microscope

Get Stuck on Petroleum Flies

KQED’s Deep Look gets up close and personal with the Tar Pits most successful (and smallest) predator

Naturalist

Baccalaureates in Biodiversity

Meet the first graduating class of NHMLAC’s extraordinary mentorship and apprenticeship program—UNLAB (Understanding Nature and L.A. Biodiversity). Discover what eight college grads learned about fish, snails, and other creatures of the natural world from ancient times to the present—and how to protect them in the future.