Monday, May 14 11:28 am
Science Bulletins is a production of the National Center for Science Literacy, Education, and Technology (NCSLET), part of the Department of Education at the Museum. Click here to learn more.
Friday, May 11 9:33 am
Jim Hellemn's photography was used to create an interactive coralscape in Creatures of Light. The brilliant patches of red, green, and orange above come from corals, fishes, and sea anemones that are fluorescent. The vivid colors only appear when the animals are illuminated by specific wavelengths of light. © Jim Hellemn, portraitofacoralreef.com
Museum Research Associate David Gruber, assistant professor at The City University of New York (CUNY), describes a diving trip in 2011.
We wanted to include a panoramic image of a magnificent coralscape in Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescence, and Bloody Bay Wall [off Little Cayman Island] was the perfect place.
But capturing Ansel Adams-like vistas are impossible under water, where sections of the light spectrum—especially reds—are absorbed within a meter. We need to get in very close to our subject and use flash photography to capture the reef ’s true color. We have to repeat this process hundreds of times over the wall face. Then, the small consecutive images are painstakingly stitched together to create a life-sized, true-color view.
Underwater photographer Jim Hellemn developed this process to create a 20-foot by 70-foot true-color image of the Bloody Bay Wall in 1999. Returning to the wall 12 years later (with the support of a National Science Foundation Connecting Research to Public Audiences grant) allowed us to overlay the images and really see the way a coral wall ages. Some of the corals are disappearing, some of the sponges have gotten huge, and some new things have taken up residence on the wall. It’s amazing.
We also wanted to apply Jim’s methods to photograph the coralscape at night to capture a phenomenon few people encounter in person or in photographs: marine biofluorescence. Read more »
Thursday, May 10 9:04 am
CBC Director Eleanor Sterling received this year’s Faculty Mentoring Award from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. © AMNH/D. Finnin
Museum scientist Eleanor Sterling has been chosen as a recipient of this year’s Faculty Mentoring Award at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Sterling, who is the director of the Museum’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, serves as the director of graduate studies and as an adjunct professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology at Columbia.
The award honors excellence in mentoring Ph.D. students, and recipients are chosen by representatives from the graduate student body. In the words of one graduate student who nominated Sterling, “Eleanor is consistently available to students, whether that means answering questions about an assignment or reading last-minute drafts of a proposal. Truly not a student in the department has remained untouched by her tremendous generosity of time, advice, and career and thesis support.”
“It is a tremendous honor to receive this award,” says Sterling, “particularly given that it comes from the students. Teachers and mentors were instrumental to many important turning points in my life, and I am thrilled to serve in that role myself.” Read more »
Friday, May 04 9:19 am
Japanese photographer Tsuneaki Hiramatsu combined slow-shutter speed photos for stunning images of flashing fireflies. © T. Hiramatsu of digitalphoto.cocolog-nifty.com
Firefly larvae are voracious predators, feeding on snails, slugs, and earthworms and keeping ecosystems in delicate balance. Many are stocking up on food for their whole adulthood, throughout which they will never eat. Some climb trees in pursuit of arboreal snails. Others have gills like fish that allow them to dive for aquatic snails, whose shells they then use for protection like hermit crabs. In parts of Asia, a large mollusk called an apple snail has ravaged important crops such as rice, and firefly larvae are being explored as a potential form of biocontrol to protect those nations’ food supply.
“Just think how poetic it could be if we had fireflies control snails in these agricultural systems as larvae and produce entertainment as a byproduct as adults,” says Marc Branham, an entomologist at the University of Florida.
Researchers are still investigating whether firefly numbers are dwindling. “If you ask anybody out there, they will tell you that it seems like there aren’t as many fireflies out now as there were 10 or 20 or 40 years ago,” explains Branham. The lack of data on older population numbers makes verifying their decline difficult. “But it’s pretty clear that there are some locations where people used to see many fireflies, and now you don’t see any.” Read more »
Wednesday, May 02 10:09 am
Call it the ultimate space camp: for one week this summer, a group of middle school students will learn how to use the Museum’s Digital Universe Atlas, a three-dimensional, scientifically accurate map of the cosmos, and discover how the atlas is built from data gathered by scientists around the world. Then, using gaming laptops, the students will create their very own digital tour to a favorite spot of the universe, which will be shown in a special evening program in the Hayden Planetarium Space Theater on Friday, July 13.
Digital Universe Flight School is open to students entering grades 6, 7, 8, or 9 this fall. For more information about the course, which runs from Monday, July 9, through Friday, July 13, click here.
