The extinction of the Neanderthals nearly 30,000 years ago during the last ice age is one of the great puzzles of human evolution—and one that middle school students can tackle with the help of 3-D digital animation in a Museum program this summer.

Creatures of Light: Nature's Bioluminescence, a special exhibition open through January 6, inspired producers at OLogy, the Museum's science website for kids, to record a new version of a song, called "Glowing in the Ocean," for an animated video about bioluminescence. Watch a behind-the-scenes video.

Are crab cakes really made of crab? Do endangered species creep into street markets? How many types of bedbugs live in Brooklyn? These were just three of the dozens of research questions asked by participants in the inaugural New York City Urban Barcode Project, whose first symposium and awards ceremony took place at the Museum last week. 

In addition to peer-reviewed research papers, Steve Brusatte, a graduate student at Columbia University who is advised by Museum Curator Mark Norell, has already written children’s dinosaur guides and a coffee-table book of dinosaurs and their relatives. Now, he’s added another book to the list.

Museum scientist Eleanor Sterling has been chosen as a recipient of this year’s Faculty Mentoring Award at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Sterling, who is the director of the Museum’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, serves as the director of graduate studies and as an adjunct professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology at Columbia.