In the News: Preserving Collections and their Museums

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! Studies have shown that the turkey you just ate may not be the reason why you are tired.

This week in science saw ongoing troubles in an important research station in the Galapagos, as well as in other collection-holding institutions. Despite this, several museums are taking steps to preserve important collections and improve upon field techniques.

In the News: Return of the Piltdown Man

Fig.1. The Piltdown man, originally thought to be the fossilized remains of an early human, proved to be a forgery (Credit: http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Palaeofiles/Frauds/famousfrauds.htm)

Often called the "greatest hoax in the history of science," the Piltdown man was purportedly the missing link between apes and humans. In 1953, 41 years after its original "discovery," the Piltdown man was revealed as nothing more than a forgery, with pieced together orangutan, chimpanzee, and human bones. In this week's headlines, fake fossils return, along with advances in disease research, movement of carbon dioxide, ice core studies, and more.

• Taking a fossil out of context can have devastating effects on its scientific utility, not to mention what happens if you start mixing and matching: "How Fake Fossils Pervert Paleontology," Scientific American (Nov. 15, 2014)

• Ebola is just one of many diseases that force us to rethink how we understand health in a globalized era: "More Than Ebola, Other Tropical Diseases Pose Growing Threat to U.S.," National Geographic (Nov. 19, 2014)

• Understanding the movement of atmospheric carbon dioxide helps researchers to understand the effects of climate change: "NASA Computer Model Provides a New Portrait of Carbon Dioxide," NASA online (Nov. 17, 2014) 

• Can volcanic ash from Alaska reach Iceland? This paper looks into ice cores to find out: "Transatlantic Distribution of the Alaskan White River Ash," Geology (Nov. 2014

• Feeding nine billion people by 2050 will be no easy task. These scientists play a vital role for the future of food security: "Mineral Uptake and Genetic Diversity in Rice," Crop Science Society of America (Nov. 18, 2014) 

• The One Health Initiative is crucial for addressing infectious diseases at the research, medical, economic, and anthropological level: "The Global One Health Paradigm: Challenges and Opportunities for Tackling Infectious Diseases at the Human, Animal, and Environment Interface in Low-Resource Settings," PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (Nov. 13, 2014) 

"Evil Twin" of Climate Change

Fig.1. A pteropod (sea butterfly) shell placed in seawater with pH and carbonate levels projected for year 2100. The shell dissolved over 45 days. (Credit: David Liittschwager/National Geographic Stock)

A routine survey off the U.S. West Coast conducted by the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program in 2011 found frightening results. More than half of their collected pteropods (sea butterflies) had severely dissolved shells. The ocean’s absorption of human-caused carbon dioxide emission created an acidic environment that has only recently caught the public eye. Now dubbed as “climate change’s evil twin,” ocean acidification represents a serious problem brought about by global warming. As more carbon dioxide dissolves into the ocean, marine organisms and the humans that depend upon them are put at risk.

In the News

Follow Friday is a new weekly post where we list what we’re reading this week. Our focus spans current scientific research related to SciColl’s research initiatives.

• Recent anthropological finds shift our understanding of ancient human migration: “Children’s Grave Offers Insight Into Earliest Americans,” National Geographic (Nov. 10, 2014)

• Environmental change is the problem of the century (and probably the one after that!): “Effects of Climate Change ‘Irreversible,’ U.N. Panel Warns in Report,” Washington Post (Nov. 2, 2014)

• New technologies applied to ancient samples spark new hypotheses:“European Genetic Identity May Stretch Back 36,000 Years,” Science (Nov. 6, 2014)

• Samples from archaeological and biodiversity collections shed light on animal extinction: “New Zealand’s Moa Were Exterminated by an Extremely Low-Density Human Population,” Science Daily (Nov. 7, 2014)

• Bitten by a snake? Contact the genome database managers: “Snake DNA Left in Bite ID’s Serpent Assailant,” Scientific American (Nov. 12, 2014)

• Philae has landed! The robot will be sending data on its surroundings back to Earth, but no physical samples will make it into a collection: "Rosetta: Battery Will Limit Life of Philae Comet Lander," BBC News (Nov. 13, 2014)

Collecting for the future

In 1993, an unexplained pulmonary illness occurred in the Four Corners area of the southwestern United States, killing otherwise young and physically fit people. Virologists from the Centers of Disease Control established the disease as a novel hantavirus which had a natural reservoir in the deer mouse. In an effort to locate the origin of the virus, researchers studied frozen tissue samples from people who had died of unexplained lung problems. Several samples from 1978 contained the hantavirus, proving that this virus had been around earlier but had been unrecognized. Over the next two decades, 40 more types of hantavirus have appeared in the Americas, most of which affect humans and have rodents or other mammals as natural reservoirs.