02.06.12
Curator James Carpenter uses a technique called photomontage to bring selected areas of insects, such as this German wasp, into focus. © AMNH/J. Carpenter. Click to enlarge.
Each of the 41 intriguing images in Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies tells a fascinating story about research or conservation projects. Here’s the last in a series of four snapshots.
New imaging technologies have revolutionized the age-old scientific tasks of observation and classification. And for James Carpenter, a curator in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology, they’ve opened up a new way of seeing.
Dr. Carpenter is tracing the ancestry of various wasps, which he does by examining the insects’ physical features to identify them and place them in their evolutionary context. His lab’s current project, funded by the National Science Foundation, is to reconstruct the phylogeny, or evolutionary history, of Vespinae, a subfamily of wasps consisting of hornets and yellowjackets. Read more »
02.03.12
The question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” has been asked for millennia by people curious about the universe’s origins. Today, exciting scientific advances provide new insight into this cosmological mystery. In this recent podcast, join Dr. Lawrence Krauss, professor of physics at Arizona State University, in a mind-bending trip back to the beginning of the beginning and the end of the end.
Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson introduces Dr. Krauss’s talk, which was recorded at the Museum on January 23, 2012.
Podcast: Download | RSS | iTunes (1 hour 30 mins, 107 MB)
02.01.12
These staghorn corals contain fluorescent molecules, which absorb light and then emit it at a different wavelength. © AMNH/D. Gruber
Stony corals are living animals that are only two cell layers thick, but over time, their calcium carbonate skeletons can form massive limestone islands. Some contain fluorescent molecules, proteins in their tissue that absorb light from an external source and emit light back at different wavelengths. Marine biologist David Gruber uses a painstaking method of underwater photography to get striking images of fluorescent corals, including images of moon coral and staghorn coral currently on display in the exhibition Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies.
“You shine a specific wavelength of light to stimulate the protein—usually blue or green—and the corals emit back in otherworldly greens and reds,” explains Gruber, a research associate in the Museum’s Division of Invertebrate Zoology, “You have to photograph underwater in the dark at night with specially-filtered strobes because you’re only interested in the light emitted by the corals and other reef-dwelling organisms.”
Gruber photographed these corals in the northern Red Sea in Eilat, Israel, in May 2010, as part of his research into the patterns and functions of fluorescent proteins. Fluorescent proteins have been found to be useful tools in studying AIDS, Altzheimer’s, cancer, and other diseases, as well as in basic biological research.
Tagging subject proteins with fluorescent proteins allows researchers to track cell processes as never before. In 2007, for example, a team at Harvard injected red, green, and blue fluorescent proteins into a mouse brain to differentiate neurons, resulting in an explosion of color they dubbed a “Brainbow.” The significance of this technique was underscored by the 2008 award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to three scientists for their work on the green fluorescent protein, known as GFP, which is found in the Aequeoria victoria jellyfish—one of the fascinating organisms featured in the Museum’s upcoming exhibition Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescence, which opens on Saturday, March 31. Read more »
02.01.12
Join food historian Francine Segan for a tour of aphrodisiacs through the ages. Photo courtesy of Francine Segan.
In honor of the approaching Valentine’s Day, the Museum will host food historian Francine Segan on Wednesday, February 8, for Aphrodisiacs: Myth or Reality?, featuring stories and tastings of foods considered to have seductive properties throughout time. Below, Segan unravels the histories behind a few food items thought to have a strong connection to passion.
Why were oysters, scallops, mussels, and other types of seafood hailed as aphrodisiacs?
Francine Segan: Aphrodisiacs were named for Aphrodite, the goddess of love. According to ancient Greek legend, Aphrodite was born from the sea and arrived onshore transported on either an oyster or scallop shell. So oysters and all sorts of shellfish were thought to be aphrodisiacs.
Why did wine come to be viewed as an aphrodisiac?
Segan: The ancient Greeks and Romans worshipped and held yearly festivals for the wine god Bacchus, also called Dionysus, who was born from an affair between the god Zeus and a mortal woman. Wine, for the ancients, was not just a nice drink to have with dinner, but thought to be absolutely essential to good health. At that time, water was often filled with dangerous germs, whereas wine was safe. More than just essential to good health, wine was believed to be essential to life, making it one of the first and most popular aphrodisiacs. Read more »
01.31.12
Astronomer Dimitar Sasselov will share his work on exoplanets at the Museum on Monday, February 6. Photo courtesy of John Brockman.
In the past year, scientists have discovered an astounding number of planets beyond our solar system. On Monday, February 6, Harvard astronomer Dimitar Sasselov will discuss these “exoplanets” and the possibility of discovering life beyond Earth at February’s Frontiers in Astrophysics lecture. Sasselov recently answered a few questions about the search for other worlds.
Have discoveries of exoplanets within the last few months changed any of our views on the potential for life beyond our solar system?
Dimitar Sasselov: They haven’t overturned any of our views, but they’ve strengthened our understanding that there are plenty of places out there where life could emerge and sustain itself. The question has shifted now from being astronomical—are there habitable planets?—to being biological—what does it take for life to emerge? The new discoveries have also brought about the good news that we should be able to discover and study many nearby planets in the coming few years. Read more »
