The museum of natural history is surely one of the world's largest and most important museums of natural history. Three spectacular dinosaur halls on the fourth floor - the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs, the Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs, and the Hall of Vertebrate Origins - use real fossils and interactive computer station to present the most recent interpretations of how dinosaurs and pterodactyls might have behaved. The Hall of Fossil Mammals has interactive video monitors featuring museum curators explaining what caused the wooly mammoth to vanish from the earth and why mammals don't have to lay eggs to have babies. The Hall of Biodiversity focuses on the Earth's wealth of plants and animals; its main attraction is the walk-through "Dzanga-Sangha Rainforest", a life-size diorama complete with sounds of the African tropics - from bird calls to chain saws.

The spectacular Hayden Planetarium is contained in a 90-ft aluminum lade sphere that appears to float inside an enormous glass cube, which turn is home to the Rose Center for Earth and Space. This spectacular new center brings to the public the most up-to-date information in astrophysics and earth science. In the Rose Center, visitors experience a seamless journey from the outer reaches of the universe to the inner workings of the Earth. Starting at either the Space Theater or the Scales of the Universe walkway, visitors learn about the tremendous size and scope of the cosmos and our place in it, experience the creation of the Universe with the Big Bang, chronicle the history of the universe along the Cosmic Pathway, and have opportunities for hands-on learning in the Hall of the Universe and the Hall of the Planet Earth.