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When you think of natural history museums,
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you probably picture exhibits
filled with ancient lifeless things,
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like dinosaurs
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meteroites,
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and gemstones.
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But behind that educational exterior,
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which only includes
about 1% of a museum's collections,
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there are hidden laboratories
where scientific breakthroughs are made.
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Beyond the unmarked doors,
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and on the floors
the elevators won't take you to,
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you'd find windows into amazing worlds.
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This maze of halls and laboratories
is a scientific sanctuary
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that houses a seemingly
endless variety of specimens.
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Here, researchers work to unravel
mysteries of evolution,
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cosmic origins,
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and the history of our planet.
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One museum alone
may have millions of specimens.
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The American Museum of Natural History
in New York City
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has over 32,000,000 in its collection.
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Let's take a look at just one of them.
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Scientists have logged exactly where
and when it was found,
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and used various dating techniques
to pinpoint when it originated.
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Repeat that a million times over,
and these plants,
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animals,
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minerals,
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fossils,
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and artifacts present windows into times
and places around the world,
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and across billions of years of history.
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When a research problem emerges,
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scientists peer through these windows
and test hypotheses about the past.
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For example, in the 1950s, populations
of predatory birds,
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like peregrine falcons,
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owls,
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and eagles started to mysteriously crash,
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to the point where a number of species,
including the bald eagle,
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were declared endangered.
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Fortunately, scientists in
The Field Museum in Chicago
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had been collecting the eggs
of these predatory birds for decades.
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They discovered that the egg shells
used to be thicker,
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and had started to thin around the time
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when an insecticide called DDT
started being sprayed on crops.
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DDT worked very well to kill insects,
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but when birds came
and ate those heaps of dead bugs,
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the DDT accumulated in their bodies.
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It worked its way up the food chain
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and was absorbed by apex predator birds
in such high concentrations
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that it thinned their eggs
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so that they couldn't support
the nesting bird's weight.
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There were omlets everywhere
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until scientists from
The Field Museum in Chicago,
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and other institutions,
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helped solve the mystery and save the day.
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America thanks you, Field Museum.
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Natural history museums
windows into the past
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have solved many other
scientific mysteries.
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Museum scientists have used
their collections
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to sequence the neanderthal genome,
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discover genes that gave mammoths red fur,
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and even pinpoint where
ancient giant sharks gave birth.
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There are about 900
natural history museums in the world,
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and every year they make
new discoveries and insights
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into the Earth's past, present and future.
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Museum collections even help us
understand how modern threats,
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such as global climate change,
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are impacting our world.
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For instance,
naturalists have been collecting samples
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for over 100 years from Walden Pond,
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famously immortalized
by Henry David Thoreau.
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Thanks to those naturalists,
who count Thoreau among their number,
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we know that the plants around Walden Pond
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are blooming over three weeks earlier
than they did 150 years ago.
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Because these changes
have taken place gradually,
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one person may not have noticed them
over the span of a few decades,
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but thanks to museum collections,
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we have an uninterrupted record
showing how our world is changing.
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So the next time you're exploring
a natural history museum,
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remember that what you're seeing
is just one gem
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of a colossal scientific treasure trove.
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Behind those walls and under your feet
are windows into forgotten worlds.
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And who knows,
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one day some future scientist may
peer through one and see you.