Pause and examine something new.

Searle Family Lounge

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Exhibition Summary

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The Searle Family Lounge features temporary displays of large collections items you can examine up close (think: dinosaur skull or giant microscope).

Situated in the north balcony overlooking Stanley Field Hall, it’s also one of the Field’s best photo spots—with a flying pterosaur, Máximo the Titanosaur, and Carl Akeley's elephants in-frame. Plus, you can pause on the benches to enjoy an educational video about Field Museum research. 

Scanning Electron Microscope

How to study the tiniest things

Moon dust. Insect antennae. Cells of fossilized plants. Learn how Field Museum scientists use scanning electron microscopes to study the wondrous details of very small things. See and touch a decommissioned scanning electron microscope, and learn how such an instrument works. 

October 17, 2025– September 20, 2026

Image slideshow

Gallery

  • Head of a weevil larva, Oxycorynus melanocerus.

    Photographer(s): Bruno de Medieros (c) Field Museum

  • Tip of a millipede antenna, Anadenobolus arboreus.

    Photographer(s): Maddie Metz

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Head of a weevil larva, Oxycorynus melanocerus.

Photographer(s):Bruno de Medieros

(c) Field Museum

Acknowledgments

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