ABSTRACT
The natural world nature is infinite. It is the physical universe and all that it contains, past, present, and future. The collections of museums, often stored within dark rooms along rows of endless shelving, are humanity's records of nature. Embedding the process and characteristics of science the nature of science (NOS) within natural history displays can lead to heightened understanding, increased scientific literacy, and the empowerment of visitors. Determining a starting point for the human story is a purely subjective and enticing exercise. It is incredible to realize that knowledge of our earliest kin and deep ancestors is based on the delicate, fossilized fragments of few individuals. But these fragments tell our story, and it is a story firmly rooted in the disciplines of chemistry, physics, biology, geology, and most recently anthropology. For thousands of years, humanity has created explanations for the natural world. But science, humanity's evidence-based explanation for natural phenomena, creates a singular vision that unites and directs our knowledge.
