By: George Xie
On October 4, 2026, I visited the National Museum of Natural History. I looked at various exhibits, primarily to get a sense of how topics, particularly with regard to the environment, are presented to the public.
I noticed that the Smithsonian was willing to experiment with newer ways of displaying information for this exhibit. For instance, there were different styles of interactive displays; one I found particularly interesting was a rectangular screen, presumably meant to imitate a phone screen, on various topics. When a topic is opened, the display imitates a group chat between characters discussing the topic, encouraging user interaction by giving surveys where the user responds with A, B, C, or D. In doing so, I think this is effective in engaging the viewer. Information is also presented through comics. Along the wall on the end of the exhibit close to the gift shop, as well as scattered throughout the exhibit there were comics and comic panels, discussing a variety of information. I consider this presentation effective in the sense that it is able to draw and hold the attention needed to convey these ideas. I imagine that this exhibit is meant to engage a younger audience, by presenting information to them in ways more interesting than conventional exhibits typical of museums. (I will discuss the content in more depth later.) Finally, there was a light-up display in the middle of the exhibit that cycled through colors, color-coding what elements are involved in making different phone components. While not as creative as the comics, it is nonetheless effective by being an organized way to present information.
Throughout this hall, Smithsonian explains some of the environmental challenges that come with the production and use of cell phones. Much of what is mentioned about the materials themselves, and the impact of creating cellphones, come from two of the more standard displays, titled “Everything in your cellphone is a finite resource” and “Everything in your cellphone is extracted from the Earth”. As examples, they explain how “a half-pound of copper generates more than 735 pounds of waste and contaminated by-products”, “conflicted minerals [such as Tantalum]… may finance conflict and contribute to serious human rights and environmental abuses”, and Lithium brine extraction and mining can “drain drinking water”, “leach chemicals “, and “hurt biodiversity in the ocean”. Not much is said about environmental impacts during cell phone use; however, e-waste is discussed at length. A section running along one of the walls explains how e-waste harms the environment, what to do with old phones, and some of the challenges that come with recycling, repairing, or reselling phones. In the middle of this section was a tower of phones encased in a display, with a screen on its side showing an animated video on phone repair. In addition to environmental impacts, phones also cause technological and social impacts. For instance, it expanded the prevalence of cell towers; another section of the exhibit included a labeled model of a cell tower, information panels on how they are used, and an information panel on the benefits and drawbacks of 5G networks. However, the greater focus in this particular hall were the social changes. The aforementioned wall of comics covered two of these impacts: the prevalence of cell phones allowed for the spread of information – such as photos and videos – that catalyzed social justice movements, and it allowed people to curate the information they see and how they present themselves.
By the entrance to this exhibit, there was an interactive display of a map. Selecting a location on the map showed a line chart with four lines, representing the maximum daily temperature if humans continue with low, medium, high, or very high greenhouse gas emissions. (I am not sure what time range the maximum is taken over, but it seems to be years.) It projects a turbulent trajectory (see attached image), but in general, lower emissions corresponded with a lower maximum daily temperature. In the innermost part of this exhibit behind the large wall, there was a big screen showing an image of the earth, with data visualizations on historical data of various measurements. Pictured were three examples on Air Quality, Wildland Fires, and Disasters, each of which showed for a minute or so. As a whole, I believe this is an effective exhibit. Although this exhibit has an emphasis on visual information, it still explains how the data is used on the side in fairly simple language. As an example, during the Air Quality display, NASA’s models were framed as “super detectives, spotting tiny pollution particles that are too small for our eyes to see!” It then explains that the map, showing pollutant density, is used to “predict air quality in your neighborhood” and learn “how these pollutants might affect our health and environment.” While this might not be satisfactory for a more curious individual who wants to know how exactly the data in front of them is analyzed, I feel it serves its purpose well for educating a general audience.
The Hall of Human Origins has a section titled “Humans Change The World”, discussing the impacts that humans have had on the life around them. For example, this section discussed the impacts of temperature on animal body sizes and locations. Much of the first part of this exhibit explains the natural selection mechanism by which this happens: near the entrance to the exhibit, a display titled “Move, Adapt, or Perish” explains that in order to survive the climate changes of the ice ages, species must either adapt to their new conditions (such as dire wolves tending to be bigger during cold periods and the opposite for warmer ones) or move to where conditions are more favorable (such as the pika moving to higher elevations). The thing that I find most interesting is that this section of the exhibit discussed climate change in general, not necessarily anthropogenic. In addition, they discuss how humans, to survive and expand, have created a world that benefitted some species over others. The big wall on the side cited our hunting and development of large-scale infrastructure as causes of extinction risk for many species. A display towards the end of the exhibit (next to “How are we changing the Planet?”) shows the skeletons of four example species at various conservation statuses, with an information panel explaining why those species are where they are. Critics of this hall might point out that this exhibit does not address anthropogenic impacts as much as it should. I’m inclined to agree; I personally found it strange to see the museum discuss climate’s impact on life without mentioning much about how humans have contributed to it. The only mention I could find of anthropogenic climate change was at the bottom of a bullet-pointed list in the aforementioned display comparing conservation statuses (see the second to last image below); while I presume the connection to current climate change is one that the museum wants the viewer to make, I feel it could be stated more explicitly, and made a bigger focal point of the exhibit.
I watched two of the videos provided in this section: “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, and “Cause a Sea Change: Save the Sharks”. “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” began with an explanation on what a garbage patch is, describing it as mostly a whirlpool of microplastics, floating like pepper flakes in soup. It then described the challenges associated with cleaning it up, including its size and depth and its disruption to marine life. It ended with a section on what the viewers can do, including what I’ve previously learned as “the three Rs” (reduce, reuse, recycle), as well as aiding in ocean cleanup efforts. “Cause a Sea Change: Save the Sharks” began with shark attack statistics. They noted that shark attacks happen significantly less often than accidents involving vending machines and fireworks. They then justified why the viewer should care about sharks, saying they keep prey populations in check and maintain ocean biodiversity. Then, they explained the NOAA regulations on shark fishing, covered shark finning bans, and encouraged the viewers to help by sharing the video, choosing US-produced seafood, and reporting shark sightings to help NOAA keep track of them. Both videos catered to a general audience; no complex language was used, and Smithsonian did not assume much prior background.
This hall contained many “windows through time”, with small models of environments alongside explanations of what was going on during each time period. For instance, one was from 320 million - 299 million years ago, from the Carbondale Formation in Illinois and Indiana and the Hartford Limestone in Kansas. Carbon dioxide levels were about where they are today, but the Earth was on average 2.4 degrees C cooler, and sea levels were higher. Another one, from 76 to 66 million years ago, showed the Hell Creek formation in Montana. At the time, carbon dioxide levels were about quadruple the current levels, and this was accompanied by about 9 degrees C of higher global temperature and about 200 meters of higher sea levels. I personally found these informative; it is easier to learn about the past with the visual reconstruction than it is through text alone. Climate change was discussed throughout this hall. In a display close to the entrance of the hall, Smithsonian talked about the past and present “global heatwaves”, comparing the atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature of today to those of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). In the middle of this display, there was a video playing about how we know of the PETM by looking at its effects. For example, plant fossils from that time had more insect bites, suggesting that insects had to eat more to meet their nutrition needs; since leaves hold less protein when grown under more carbon dioxide, this acted as a proxy for the amount of carbon dioxide. In addition, many microscopic organisms also became extinct at the time, and – extending on a theme that the Hall of Human Origins presented – mammal jaw sizes were smaller during this period, suggesting smaller bodies were more prevalent. I consider this a fairly effective exhibit; it explains some of the effects of historic climate change, and compares it to the current state of the world. They do mention that something similar is happening today at a much faster pace, which carries with it the implication that what we saw happen in the past will repeat on a larger scale; while it could be interesting to see Smithsonian say more about it, this exhibit is a nice introduction to how the past can inform our understanding of the present and future.