Secrets of the Smithsonian museum might just blow your mind

alien: A non-native organism. (in astronomy) Life on or from a distant world.

Antarctica: A continent mostly covered in ice, which sits in the southernmost part of the world.

array: A broad and organized group of objects. Sometimes they are instruments placed in a systematic fashion to collect information in a coordinated way. Other times, an array can refer to things that are laid out or displayed in a way that can make a broad range of related things, such as colors, visible at once. The term can even apply to a range of options or choices.

Atlantic: One of the world’s five oceans, it is second in size only to the Pacific. It separates Europe and Africa to the east from North and South America to the west.

beetle: An order of insects known as Coleoptera, containing at least 350,000 different species. Adults tend to have hard and/or horn-like “forewings” which covers the wings used for flight.

birds: Warm-blooded dinosaurs with wings that first showed up at least 150 million years ago. Birds are jacketed in feathers and produce young from the eggs they deposit in some sort of nest. Most birds fly, but throughout history there have been the occasional species that don’t.

blood vessel: A tubular structure that carries blood through the tissues and organs.

blue whale: A species of baleen whale (Balaenoptera musculus) that is the largest animal ever known to have existed. They can grow to lengths of 30 meters (almost 100 feet) and weigh up to 170 metric tons.

bush: (in landscape descriptions) The name for wildlands in certain countries, especially parts of Africa and Australia.

carrion: The dead and rotting remains of an animal.

cetaceans: The order of marine mammals that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. The baleen whales ( Mysticetes ) filter their food from the water with big baleen plates. The remaining cetaceans ( Odontoceti ) include some 70 species of toothed animals that include beluga whales, narwhals, killer whales (a type of dolphin) and porpoises.

charismatic: (n. charisma) An adjective for someone or something that has the ability to charm, fascinate or inspire great devotion.

climate: The weather conditions that typically exist in one area, in general, or over a long period.

cloud: A plume of molecules or particles, such as water droplets, that move under the action of an outside force, such as wind, radiation or water currents. (in atmospheric science) A mass of airborne water droplets and ice crystals that travel as a plume, usually high in Earth’s atmosphere. Its movement is driven by winds.

coil: Concentric rings or spirals formed by winding wire or some other fiber around and around a core; or the shape that such a wire would make.

cold-blooded: Adjective for an animal whose body temperature varies with that of its environment.

connective tissue: Certain groups of cells that attach to form the boundaries for — and interfaces between — many structures throughout the body.

coral: Marine animals that often produce a hard and stony exoskeleton and tend to live on reefs (the exoskeletons of dead ancestor corals).

curator: Someone who manages a collection of items, for instance in a museum, library or art gallery. This person’s primary job is to design exhibits, organize and acquire collections and do research on the artifacts included in the collection.

DDT: (short for dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) This toxic chemical was for a time widely used as an insect-killing agent. It proved so effective that Swiss chemist Paul Müller received the 1948 Nobel Prize (for physiology or medicine) just eight years after establishing the chemical’s incredible effectiveness in killing bugs. But many developed countries, including the United States, eventually banned its use for its poisoning of non-targeted wildlife, such as birds.

DNA: (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, double-stranded and spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. It is built on a backbone of phosphorus, oxygen, and carbon atoms. In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.

endangered: An adjective used to describe species at risk of going extinct.

entanglement: (in quantum physics) A concept in quantum physics that holds that subatomic particles can be linked even if they are not physically near one another. Quantum entanglement can link the properties of things at great distances — perhaps at opposite ends of the universe.

entomology: The scientific study of insects. One who does this is an entomologist. A paleoentomologist studies ancient insects, mainly through their fossils.

ethanol: A type of alcohol, also known as ethyl alcohol, that serves as the basis of alcoholic drinks, such as beer, wine and distilled spirits. It also is used as a solvent and as a fuel (often mixed with gasoline, for instance).

evolution: (v. to evolve) A process by which species undergo changes over time, usually through genetic variation and natural selection. These changes usually result in a new type of organism better suited for its environment than the earlier type. The newer type is not necessarily more “advanced,” just better adapted to the particular conditions in which it developed. Or the term can refer to changes that occur as some natural progression within the non-living world (such as computer chips evolving to smaller devices which operate at an ever faster speed).

extinction: (adj. extinct) The permanent loss of a species, family or larger group of organisms.

fiction: (adj. fictional) An idea or a story that is made-up, not a depiction of real events.

field: An area of study, as in: Her field of research is biology. Also a term to describe a real-world environment in which some research is conducted, such as at sea, in a forest, on a mountaintop or on a city street. It is the opposite of an artificial setting, such as a research laboratory.

football field: The field on which athletes play American football. Owing to its size and familiarity, many people use this field as a measure of how big something is. A regulation field (including its end zones) runs 360 feet (almost 110 meters) long and 160 feet (almost 49 meters) wide.

freeze-dried: (adj.) A term that describes a process widely used to preserve foods, drugs and other heat-sensitive products. That process relies on dissolving or suspending a substance in a liquid. Then the solvent or liquid is crystallized and then converted directly from a solid into a gas (without melting).

fungus: (plural: fungi) One of a group of single- or multiple-celled organisms that reproduce via spores and feed on living or decaying organic matter. Examples include mold, yeasts and mushrooms.

genetic: Having to do with chromosomes, DNA and the genes contained within DNA. The field of science dealing with these biological instructions is known as genetics. People who work in this field are geneticists.

geological: Adjective to describe things related to Earth’s physical structure and substance, its history and the processes that act on it. People who work in this field are known as geologists.

gills: The respiratory organ of most aquatic animals that filters oxygen out of water. Fish and other water-dwelling animals use gills to breathe.

Grand Canyon: A natural canyon in northwest Arizona that formed as the Colorado River cut through the rock here over the past 5 million to 6 million years. This is one of many canyons on the river, which drains water from seven states. The Grand Canyon is 446 kilometers (277 miles) long. Its depth varies. At its deepest point, the river is 1,829 vertical meters (6,000 feet) below the upper rim.

hue: A color or shade of some color.

insect: A type of arthropod that as an adult will have six segmented legs and three body parts: a head, thorax and abdomen. There are hundreds of thousands of insects, which include bees, beetles, flies and moths.

larvae: Immature insects that have a distinctly different form (body shape) than when they are adults. For instance, caterpillars are larval butterflies and maggots are larval flies. (Sometimes this term also is used to describe such a stage in the development of fish, frogs and other animals.)

mammal: An animal distinguished by possessing hair or fur, the secretion of milk by females for the feeding of their young, and (typically) the bearing of live young. They also are warm-blooded (or endothermic).

mandibles: (in mammals) The jaw or jawbone.

marine mammal: Any of many types of mammals that spend most of its life in the ocean environment. These include whales and dolphins, walruses and sea lions, seals and sea otters, manatees and dugongs — even polar bears.

meteorite: A lump of rock or metal from space that passes through Earth’s atmosphere and collides with the ground.

octopus: (pl. octopi or octopuses) Sea mollusks with a soft, sac-shaped body and eight arms. Two rows of suckers along each arm give the animal an ability to grasp and hold onto things. Cousins of the squids, these animals have a sharp beak-like mouth and good vision.

Pacific: The largest of the world’s five oceans. It separates Asia and Australia to the west from North and South America to the east. The term can also refer to island nations that sit within the Pacific Ocean.

pollinator: Something that carries pollen, a plant’s male reproductive cells, to the female parts of a flower, allowing fertilization. Many pollinators are insects such as bees.

population: (in biology) A group of individuals (belonging to the same species) that lives in a given area.

regulate: (n. regulation) To control with actions. Governments write rules and regulations — laws — that are enforced by police and the courts.

right whale: One of three baleen whale species in the genus Eubalaena. Each tends to live in a different ocean basin. The animals got their name from the opinion of whale hunters that these were the “right” whale to catch. Why? They swim slowly and near to shore, making them easy to find. And once dead, they’ll float so that hunters won’t lose them at sea. These whales contain lots of the oil and baleen that was sold in 18^th and 19^th century ports. Able to live more than 50 years (perhaps a century), these whales can grow to about 15.25 meters (50 feet) and some 63 metric tons (140,000 pounds). Those in the Northern Hemisphere were nearly wiped out by whaling. Their numbers remain low.

risk: The chance or mathematical likelihood that some bad thing might happen. For instance, exposure to radiation poses a risk of cancer. Or the hazard — or peril — itself. (For instance: Among cancer risks that the people faced were radiation and drinking water tainted with arsenic.)

sea: An ocean (or region that is part of an ocean). Unlike lakes and streams, seawater — or ocean water — is salty.

species: A group of similar organisms capable of producing offspring that can survive and reproduce.

stereotype: A widely held view or explanation for something, which often may be wrong because it has been overly simplified.

taxidermy: The reconstruction of an animal, for permanent display. Skilled people model its structure on the carcass of a real animal, sometimes incorporating parts of the original animal’s carcass, such as the bones, pelt, skin, toothed jaws or fins.

tissue: Made of cells, it is any of the distinct types of materials that make up animals, plants or fungi. Cells within a tissue work as a unit to perform a particular function in living organisms. Different organs of the human body, for instance, often are made from many different types of tissues.

vertebrae: (sing. vertebra) The bones that make up the neck, spine and tail of vertebrates. Bones in the neck are called cervical vertebrae. Bones in the tail, for animals that have them, are called caudal vertebrae.

whale: A common, but fairly imprecise, term for a class of large mammals that lives in the ocean. This group includes dolphins and porpoises.