The Nature Exploration Center (NEC) opened in 2000 as the newest home to a natural science collection that dates all the way back to 1879.
Wander through exhibits displaying North Carolina’s natural habitats from the western mountains, the central Piedmont and the Coastal Plain.
The NRC provides hands-on activities and visitor-viewing of scientists working in the four research laboratories.
One of North Carolina’s most iconic landmarks. On the outside, it’s a scaled-down replica of our planet.
Learn about how scientists are counting up the diversity of life, where they’re finding new species, and why preserving species is important—to humanity, and to our planet.