The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History safeguards 148 million objects, yet 99% of them remain hidden from public view in secure areas known as collections. Behind the scenes, these treasures solve real-world problems, like helping planes avoid birds and identifying invasive species threatening agriculture. Now, the museum is taking on one of its most ambitious projects ever: digitizing the entire collection and assembling a DNA library of every known complex life form. We went behind the scenes to see how breakthroughs in AI, high-resolution imaging, and robotics are making it possible.
