The left panel shows a false-color image of PGC 1000714. The right panel shows a B-I color index map that reveals both the outer ring (blue) and diffuse inner ring (light green). Credit: Ryan Beauchemin.

Researchers get first look at new, extremely rare galaxy

January 4, 2017

Approximately 359 million light-years away from Earth, there is a galaxy with an innocuous name (PGC 1000714) that doesn’t look quite like anything astronomers have observed before. New research provides a first description of a well-defined elliptical-like core surrounded by two circular rings — a galaxy that appears to belong to a class of rarely… Read More >


"Freedom" by Robert Thurston.

“The Great Outdoors” on display at the Museum’s Nature Art Gallery now through January 29, 2017

December 28, 2016

RALEIGH—The Nature Art Gallery at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences presents “The Great Outdoors,” artwork by Robert Thurston, now through Sunday, January 29, 2017. Thurston is an oil painter living and working in Durham, NC.  He was born in Rochester, NH, where he spent most of his adult life. He says developing his… Read More >


Rob Dunn

Museum presentation delves into wild life of bodies, homes, foods with Rob Dunn, Jan. 25

December 8, 2016

RALEIGH, N.C. — Throughout time, the health and wellbeing of humans has been fundamentally altered by dramatic changes in the species we interact with. Much of this change has been brought on by our own destructiveness. Now, it appears, we are beginning a new, better informed phase of our relationship with other species. Learn about… Read More >


Acro dressed up for the holidays!

Top 12 science-y things to do over the holidays

During this holiday season, celebrate science with the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. Here are just a few ideas of what you could do … 1 • Dec 18 Naturalist Center, 1–4pm Learn about the natural world using our “magic” tables or peruse an extensive collection of hands-on specimens, including birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes,… Read More >


Lepisiota dispatching Pheidole ant. Photo: D. Magdalena Sorger.

New dominant ant species discovered in Ethiopia shows potential for global invasion

November 22, 2016

RALEIGH, N.C. — A team of scientists conducting a recent biodiversity survey in the ancient church forests of Ethiopia made an unexpected discovery — a rather infamous ant species (Lepisiota canescens) displaying signs of supercolony formation. According to D. Magdalena Sorger, a post-doctoral researcher with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and a key… Read More >