Museum specimens could help fight the next pandemic – why preserving collections is crucial to future scientific discoveries

Specimen preservation means researchers don't need to reinvent the wheel each time they ask a new question, making it critical for the advancement of science. But many specimens are discarded or lost.

Bryan McLean, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of North Carolina – Greensboro • conversation
Dec. 16, 2020 • ~11 min
biology museum-collections specimens reproducibility zoonotic-diseases zoonotic-viruses natural-history-collections museums natural-history

Climate crisis: how museums could inspire radical action

How museums can reimagine themselves in the context of the climate crisis.

Rodney Harrison, Professor of Heritage Studies, UCL • conversation
Nov. 18, 2020 • ~25 min
climate-change interdisciplinarity in-depth insights-series natural-history-collections museums natural-history-museum black-lives-matter cultural-heritage

Giant 'toothed' birds flew over Antarctica 40 million to 50 million years ago

Paleontologists have discovered fossil remains belonging to an enormous 'toothed' bird that lived for a period of about 60 million years after dinosaurs.

Peter A. Kloess, Doctoral Candidate, Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley • conversation
Oct. 27, 2020 • ~7 min

 birds  asteroid  dinosaurs  extinction  fish  fossils  reptiles  jaws  specimens  ice-age  antarctica  ice  new-zealand  ducks  earth  snow  museums  penguins  squid  marsupials  skeleton  southern-ocean  continents  cretaceous-period  natural-history  1980s  pterosaurs  vultures  southern-hemisphere  albatross  university-of-california-berkeley

Museums preserve clues that can help scientists predict and analyze future pandemics

Genetic information that could help finger the next infectious threat is stored in museums around the world.

Richard Yanagihara, Professor of Pediatrics and Principal Investigator, Pacific Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, University of Hawaii • conversation
June 24, 2020 • ~9 min
dna biodiversity covid-19 pandemic zoonotic-diseases infectious-disease-research natural-history-collections museums genetic-research

Tomanowos, the meteorite that survived mega-floods and human folly

Tomanowos, aka the Willamette Meteorite, may be the world's most interesting rock. Its story includes catastrophic ice age floods, theft of Native American cultural heritage and plenty of human folly.

Daniel Garcia-Castellanos, Earth scientist, Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra Jaume Almera (ICTJA - CSIC) • conversation
April 24, 2020 • ~8 min
astrophysics space geology ice-age native-americans museums meteorites oregon native-american-culture washington outer-space

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