Chilling for First Multi-Collection Conservation Freezing Cycle with New Walk-In Freezer
Things were downright frigid in the museum as collections staff prepared for the first multi-collection conservation freezing cycle in the new walk-in freezer. By bringing carefully packaged specimens through a deep freeze-thaw cycle lasting several days, any possible insect pests are neutralized, protecting the collection from damage without harmful chemicals. Able to maintain a consistently […]
A Trip to Madrid for Global Plants Initiative Meeting
The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is part of the Global Plants Initiative, an international effort to digitize and share type specimens from Herbarium collections. Type specimens are the ones used to officially describe a species in scientific literature, and they retain a special status in natural history collections. This year, the meeting of the Global Plants […]
UBC Researcher Lindsay Aylesworth Takes Part in #SciFund Challenge
UBC researchers have signed on in the #SciFund challenge to crowdfund—raise funds through the internet—and to build public interaction and outreach for their research. One of the participants is Lindsay Aylesworth, a PhD student with Project Seahorse at UBC. Her research interests lie in community and population ecology, specifically to address seahorse conservation, threats and […]
Spiders in Borneo – Jumping Spiders in the Forest
We know that the familiar big animals like lions or polar bears specialize on large terrains of habitat like African savannahs or Arctic ice, but perhaps most people don’t realize that smaller creatures specialize at a much smaller scale. To a small spider, a tree trunk is a vast expanse of habitat. There are species […]
Anomaly 2012
It was a quiet Saturday morning, when suddenly, hundreds of eager computer graphic artists burst in and transformed the Beaty Biodiversity Museum into a portal of learning, sharing, inspiration, networking, community, and socializing. On Saturday, April 28, Anomaly 2012, organized by CG Movement, filled the Museum to the brim with creative energy, excited guests, established […]
Spiders in Borneo – Thank You Sarawak
In our last few days in Borneo, Edy and I gave a public lecture at the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre, a research institute that specializes on bioprospecting potential pharmaceuticals from forest plants and other organisms, using both traditional knowledge and high-tech testing methods. It’s an impressive facility from a scientific perspective. I was so pleased to […]
Spiders in Borneo – Replaying the Tape of Life
Our lives at Lambir were more or less as at Mulu — breakfast by 8 and in the field by 9. Hike anywhere from a few minutes to an hour. Record latitude/longitude and other data. Sample intensely for 40 minutes, focusing on either tree trunks, foliage, or the ground. Record more data, and repeat for […]
Spiders in Borneo – More Hispo at Lambir
One big piece of news from Lambir is that we found more Hispo. I previously posted, with great excitement, the news that Edy had found a Hispo female in Mulu. I’m pretty certain it represents a species new to science, but even more exciting, it is the first adult hisponine anyone has found east of […]
Spiders in Borneo – Entangled and Pierced
You’re walking through a Borneo rainforest, keeping your eyes focused on shrubs and tree trunks that might be good opportunities for spider hunting, and suddenly your forward progress is halted. Three possible explanations: (1) You’re in one of those nightmares where you keep trying to get somewhere but mysteriously can’t move. (2) You’ve become entangled […]
Plastic-Eating Fungi Found in the Amazon May Solve World’s Waste Problem
A group of students and professors from Yale University have found a fungi in the Amazon rainforest that can degrade and utilize the common plastic polyurethane (PUR). As part of the university’s Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory educational program, designed to engage undergraduate students in discovery-based research, the group searched for plants and cultured the micro-organisms […]