Not to get too many books going at one time, but I have delved into the pages of the Book Club's November selection, Dry Storeroom No.1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum. This book is so enjoyable that I can't stop talking in the hallways about it!
The book is a memory of THE Natural History Museum (as in London, home of Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle collections, once part of the venerable British Museum) written by senior paleontologist Richard Fortey. Evidently, Fortey, who is a "trilobite man", has written other "page turner" natural history books that we will have to check into for future reading lists. He started at "THE" museum in the 70's and the book is his "own storeroom, a personal archive, designed to explain what goes on behind the polished doors in the Natural History Museum." Let us in!!
What I am initially enjoying is the deep appreciation he expresses for collections and the people who work with them. The value of collections to culture and scientific understanding is something that I have come to know only as an employee of the museum. As Fortney expresses:
"I believe profoundly in the importance of museums: I would go as far as to say that you can judge a society by the quality of its museums. But they do not exist as collections alone. In the long term, the lustre of a museum does not depend only on the artefacts or objects it contains -- the people who work out of sight are what keeps a museum alive by contributing research to make the collections active, or by applying learning and scholarship to reveal more than was know before about the stored object. I want to bring those invisible people into the sunlight....Although I describe my particular institution, I dare say it could be a proxy for any other great museum. Perhaps my investigations will even cast a little light on to the museum that makes up our own biography, our character, ourselves." [The British spelling Fortney's]
As the Utah Museum of Natural History is building a new home for the collection, the curatorial staff, and the community, we hope to draw the community into the many stories behind the objects and the many people who have contributed over 40+ years to make our museum a great museum for our region. I hope you'll join me in reading Fortney's memories and stories, and that both make you curious for your own natural history museum!
This book was referred to us by Peter Kraus of the University of Utah's Marriott Library. I currently have the libraries only copy (!) but understand that it will be released in paperback this summer. I'll let you know when it is available at the Museum Store or your local bookseller!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Hot, Flat and Crowded #1
Over 2,500 community members joined the Museum at Abravanel Hall last week to hear Tom Friedman speak about his call for the urgent need for a "green revolution" and how it can renew innovation and the economic climate of America.
The UMNH Book Club will be discussing Friedman's latest book, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" at our next meeting, Monday, April 6, 2009. Details at www.umnh.utah.edu/bookclub
Have you read some or all of this book?? What thoughts and reactions are you having? I'm not quite halfway through myself, but here are some topics of discussion:
Friedman's basic premise in his talk is that there are "too many Americans" in the world today, meaning too many people in a "flattened playing field" living the American Dream, for the planet to sustain the lifestyle. A new definition of what it means to "live like an American" needs to be defined. Friedman believes that it is up to us, the Americans, to redefine and lead the innovation of that dream. There is nothing wrong with the world having the expectations of safety, health, nutrition, education and economic opportunity that has defined the American Dream. It just needs to be reworked in a way that can be sustainable within our planets resources. So what do YOU think about that??
In the opening chapter of the book, Friedman discusses what he means by crowded: he quotes the United Nations Population Division which issued a report (March 13, 2007) stating that "the world population will likely increase by 2.5 billion over the 43 years, passing the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 bilion in 2050. Forty-three years. I could still be alive by then. My children will be nearing their 50's by then. That seems close to me.
Friedman goes on to quote the United Nations Population Fund's executive director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, stating that "in 2008, more than half of humanity [will be] living in cities, and 'we are not ready for them.'" The Associated Press reported from London that by 2030 the number of city dwellers is expected to climb to five billion. Obaid said smaller cities will absorb the bulk of urban growth: "We're foucsing on the megacities when the data tell us most of the movement will be coming to smaller cities of 500,000 or more," which often lack the water and energy resources and governing institutios to deal with rising migrant populations. [HFC, pp 28-29]
As a resident of a "smaller city" or of a city that is in the midst of "smaller" and rapidly growing metropolitan area, I have taken notice of that. He's talking about Salt Lake Valley. Growth in population, and shifting of population to secondary cities, is us. Are we ready for that? What does that mean for my children when it comes to education, jobs and a place to live?
Joining the UMNH Community Discussion will be Jonny Spendlove, a Senior at the University of Utah and is an assistant at the Hinckley Institute of Politics. He became interested in Tom Friedman by reading his books "Longitudes and Attitudes" and "The World is Flat", and by reading 23 of Mr. Friedman's columns in one night on nytimes.com. (Who says 20 year olds don't read newspapers anymore!) I welcome Jonny into this coversation. He'll be just over 60 in 43 years and, while HE doesn't think that's young, it certainly looks younger and younger to me! Will Jonny be looking at retirement at 65, another pillar of the American Dream?
Okay, Jonny, I need a little of your enthusiasm here! How are you responding to the ideas put forth in Friedman's book and in his visit to Utah last week?
The UMNH Book Club will be discussing Friedman's latest book, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" at our next meeting, Monday, April 6, 2009. Details at www.umnh.utah.edu/bookclub
Have you read some or all of this book?? What thoughts and reactions are you having? I'm not quite halfway through myself, but here are some topics of discussion:
Friedman's basic premise in his talk is that there are "too many Americans" in the world today, meaning too many people in a "flattened playing field" living the American Dream, for the planet to sustain the lifestyle. A new definition of what it means to "live like an American" needs to be defined. Friedman believes that it is up to us, the Americans, to redefine and lead the innovation of that dream. There is nothing wrong with the world having the expectations of safety, health, nutrition, education and economic opportunity that has defined the American Dream. It just needs to be reworked in a way that can be sustainable within our planets resources. So what do YOU think about that??
In the opening chapter of the book, Friedman discusses what he means by crowded: he quotes the United Nations Population Division which issued a report (March 13, 2007) stating that "the world population will likely increase by 2.5 billion over the 43 years, passing the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 bilion in 2050. Forty-three years. I could still be alive by then. My children will be nearing their 50's by then. That seems close to me.
Friedman goes on to quote the United Nations Population Fund's executive director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, stating that "in 2008, more than half of humanity [will be] living in cities, and 'we are not ready for them.'" The Associated Press reported from London that by 2030 the number of city dwellers is expected to climb to five billion. Obaid said smaller cities will absorb the bulk of urban growth: "We're foucsing on the megacities when the data tell us most of the movement will be coming to smaller cities of 500,000 or more," which often lack the water and energy resources and governing institutios to deal with rising migrant populations. [HFC, pp 28-29]
As a resident of a "smaller city" or of a city that is in the midst of "smaller" and rapidly growing metropolitan area, I have taken notice of that. He's talking about Salt Lake Valley. Growth in population, and shifting of population to secondary cities, is us. Are we ready for that? What does that mean for my children when it comes to education, jobs and a place to live?
Joining the UMNH Community Discussion will be Jonny Spendlove, a Senior at the University of Utah and is an assistant at the Hinckley Institute of Politics. He became interested in Tom Friedman by reading his books "Longitudes and Attitudes" and "The World is Flat", and by reading 23 of Mr. Friedman's columns in one night on nytimes.com. (Who says 20 year olds don't read newspapers anymore!) I welcome Jonny into this coversation. He'll be just over 60 in 43 years and, while HE doesn't think that's young, it certainly looks younger and younger to me! Will Jonny be looking at retirement at 65, another pillar of the American Dream?
Okay, Jonny, I need a little of your enthusiasm here! How are you responding to the ideas put forth in Friedman's book and in his visit to Utah last week?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Voyage of the Beagle #1
This year marks the bi-centennial of Charles Darwin's birth! The Museum has created a series of Darwin programs to reflect on his scientific and cultural contributions.
My name is Janet Frasier. I am marketing director of the Museum and lead the community book discussion. Over this year, I hope to interview a handful of Museum curators and Utah researchers this year to get their professional and personal perspective on Darwin's work within their own development as a scientist.
I started the conversation with Dr. Sarah B. George, executive director of the Utah Museum of Natural History. Sarah is a biologist, one with a strong interest in museum collections. Prior to coming to Utah, Sarah was a curator of vertebrates at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. In her current role since 1992, Sarah is leading the Museum toward its new home, the Rio Tinto Center, scheduled to open in early 2011.
JF: When did Charles Darwin first enter your consciousness?
SG: I knew his name from early science classes, but he really didn’t register more than Pasteur and van Leeuwenhoek and Linnaeus did. I knew them all as scientists who had made great discoveries.
JF: What were your early attitudes toward "Origin of the Species" and the theory of evolution?
SG: As a military dependent, I went to a variety of Catholic and public schools, and evolution was the basis of the life sciences I was taught in these many schools. I had a lot of curiosity about how nature worked and why organisms look and function they way they do. It was clear to me from an early age that the evolution was the process behind the incredible variability in life.
I cannot tell you when I first heard about “On the Origin of Species,” but I can tell you when I read it! I had just started my doctoral program and was headed out for a 10-week field expedition in Sonora, Baja Sur, Baja Norte, and southern California. I knew that I had to be prepared for comprehensive exams not long after I returned in the fall, so I took “Origin” with me. Coincidentally, I also took Barbara Tuchman’s “A Distant Mirror” along and I remember being struck at some point in the summer that she was simply documenting a catastrophic selective event in human evolution from an historian’s perspective.
JF: What attracted you to biology as a field of study?
SG: My dad was a doctor who did his orthopedic residency in the 1960s in a military hospital. He sometimes sneaked me into rounds, where most of the patients were recovering from battle wounds in Vietnam. It was fascinating to me how they reconstructed these young people.
Science was definitely an interest, but wasn’t a conscious career choice until some years later. For that inspiration, I have to credit my high school biology teacher, Mr. Martin, who said that he thought I should major in biology and go to medical school. I thought, why not? Early in college, however, I took a class in mammalogy, got a job working in the university museum’s collection and never looked back!
JF: In your study and research as a biologist, how did you encounter Darwin’s influence?
SG: My field of study, systematics and biogeography, was all about reconstructing evolutionary trees of groups of species and connecting the divergent points in those trees to past geologic events and current-day geography. My work was all about evolution. I am in awe of Darwin’s keen observations and ability to detect pattern, given what was NOT know about plate tectonics, genetics, and other phenomena that we know about today.
JF: What sense of legacy do you feel with Darwin’s life as a naturalist in building collections?
SG: The nineteenth century was an extraordinary time for biological exploration and discovery—Darwin, Alfred Wallace, Joseph Banks, John Audubon and sons. They observed and documented the diversity around them and left collections as legacies of the biota of that time. When I started school, collecting was still focused on discovery, but on a finer scale than the 19th century—developing an understanding of patterns of diversity on a local scale rather than on continental scales. By the way: A great film that plays up the adventure of 19th century collecting is “Master and Commander”—the character of Dr. Stephen Maturin is based on Joseph Banks.
JF: As a biologist turned museum director, what contribution do you feel museum collections make to science and culture?
SG: With the benefit of collections that span more than 200 years, we have an extraordinary database that documents change in populations, species, geographic distributions, genetics, etc etc etc. Museum collections yielded the hard data that documented the devastation that DDT was having on avian egg shell density and hence viability. Museum collections are documenting changes in altitudinal distributions of plants and animals that almost certainly are the result of climate change. I could go on, but won’t! Suffice to say that museum collections, properly identified and databased, are more important than ever as tools to measure change over time and distance.
JF: What is the role of modern naturalists?
SG: Observing, documenting, and studying change in the world around us and providing a platform of data that we can use to make decisions about our future.
JF: If you were an adolescent today, how would you approach Darwin? What would you read to learn more about him?
SG: I’d beg to carry his bags! One of the great side benefits to being a naturalist is the opportunity to spend a lot of time in the field and to travel the world.
Oh, you mean how would I approach learning about Darwin! I would read “Origin”—it is surprisingly easy to read—or Darwin’s “Journal and Remarks” that we know as “Voyage of the Beagle.” Try “The Illustrated Origin” by Richard Leakey or if you can find it, “Darwin for Beginners.” And if you are more into adventure, dive into Patrick O’Brian’s series of novels about Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.
JF: One last question: Both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on February 12, 1809. Which one do YOU think has had more influence in western culture?
SG: Without question, Charles Darwin! Abraham Lincoln had a profound effect on the course of American history, but Darwin changed our way of understanding the world around us.
JF: When did Charles Darwin first enter your consciousness?
SG: I knew his name from early science classes, but he really didn’t register more than Pasteur and van Leeuwenhoek and Linnaeus did. I knew them all as scientists who had made great discoveries.
JF: What were your early attitudes toward "Origin of the Species" and the theory of evolution?
SG: As a military dependent, I went to a variety of Catholic and public schools, and evolution was the basis of the life sciences I was taught in these many schools. I had a lot of curiosity about how nature worked and why organisms look and function they way they do. It was clear to me from an early age that the evolution was the process behind the incredible variability in life.
I cannot tell you when I first heard about “On the Origin of Species,” but I can tell you when I read it! I had just started my doctoral program and was headed out for a 10-week field expedition in Sonora, Baja Sur, Baja Norte, and southern California. I knew that I had to be prepared for comprehensive exams not long after I returned in the fall, so I took “Origin” with me. Coincidentally, I also took Barbara Tuchman’s “A Distant Mirror” along and I remember being struck at some point in the summer that she was simply documenting a catastrophic selective event in human evolution from an historian’s perspective.
JF: What attracted you to biology as a field of study?
SG: My dad was a doctor who did his orthopedic residency in the 1960s in a military hospital. He sometimes sneaked me into rounds, where most of the patients were recovering from battle wounds in Vietnam. It was fascinating to me how they reconstructed these young people.
Science was definitely an interest, but wasn’t a conscious career choice until some years later. For that inspiration, I have to credit my high school biology teacher, Mr. Martin, who said that he thought I should major in biology and go to medical school. I thought, why not? Early in college, however, I took a class in mammalogy, got a job working in the university museum’s collection and never looked back!
JF: In your study and research as a biologist, how did you encounter Darwin’s influence?
SG: My field of study, systematics and biogeography, was all about reconstructing evolutionary trees of groups of species and connecting the divergent points in those trees to past geologic events and current-day geography. My work was all about evolution. I am in awe of Darwin’s keen observations and ability to detect pattern, given what was NOT know about plate tectonics, genetics, and other phenomena that we know about today.
JF: What sense of legacy do you feel with Darwin’s life as a naturalist in building collections?
SG: The nineteenth century was an extraordinary time for biological exploration and discovery—Darwin, Alfred Wallace, Joseph Banks, John Audubon and sons. They observed and documented the diversity around them and left collections as legacies of the biota of that time. When I started school, collecting was still focused on discovery, but on a finer scale than the 19th century—developing an understanding of patterns of diversity on a local scale rather than on continental scales. By the way: A great film that plays up the adventure of 19th century collecting is “Master and Commander”—the character of Dr. Stephen Maturin is based on Joseph Banks.
JF: As a biologist turned museum director, what contribution do you feel museum collections make to science and culture?
SG: With the benefit of collections that span more than 200 years, we have an extraordinary database that documents change in populations, species, geographic distributions, genetics, etc etc etc. Museum collections yielded the hard data that documented the devastation that DDT was having on avian egg shell density and hence viability. Museum collections are documenting changes in altitudinal distributions of plants and animals that almost certainly are the result of climate change. I could go on, but won’t! Suffice to say that museum collections, properly identified and databased, are more important than ever as tools to measure change over time and distance.
JF: What is the role of modern naturalists?
SG: Observing, documenting, and studying change in the world around us and providing a platform of data that we can use to make decisions about our future.
JF: If you were an adolescent today, how would you approach Darwin? What would you read to learn more about him?
SG: I’d beg to carry his bags! One of the great side benefits to being a naturalist is the opportunity to spend a lot of time in the field and to travel the world.
Oh, you mean how would I approach learning about Darwin! I would read “Origin”—it is surprisingly easy to read—or Darwin’s “Journal and Remarks” that we know as “Voyage of the Beagle.” Try “The Illustrated Origin” by Richard Leakey or if you can find it, “Darwin for Beginners.” And if you are more into adventure, dive into Patrick O’Brian’s series of novels about Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.
JF: One last question: Both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on February 12, 1809. Which one do YOU think has had more influence in western culture?
SG: Without question, Charles Darwin! Abraham Lincoln had a profound effect on the course of American history, but Darwin changed our way of understanding the world around us.
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