National Museum of Natural History Unearthed

Museum Madness 2012 @NMNH - Results of the Division Finals!

From the thirty-two contenders that began on March 21st, you've narrowed the field down to four division champions. Thank you for your enthusiastic responses and support of the objects about which you want to learn more!

Highlights:

While it breezed past the Hope Diamond in Round 1 and the Monarch Butterfly in Round 2, the Bull Mummy just couldn't move past Titanoboa in Round 3. The Deep-Sea Vent Worms, meanwhile, continued their winning streak as your votes helped them to a victory over the Wood Collection.

 

Your Division Champs are ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who are you pulling for in Round 3? Voting will open later this afternoon, and we'll need your help to narrow the field from 4 to 2!

Sarah Banks, Audience Engagement Specialist, Office of Education and Outreach

Museum Madness 2012 @NMNH - Round 2 Results and Division Finals Coming Up!

After a fast and furious Museum Madness: Round 2, the results are here! Did your favorites make it to Round 3? Were you surprised by any of the new information you learned?

Highlights:

The Giant Squid and the Fenykovi Elephant exited the tournament in Round 2 with losses to Titanoboa and Phoenix. It was neck and neck with the Handaxe Made by Early Humans and the Wood Collection, until the Wood Collection pulled ahead by a single vote!

So who's still in the running after Round 2?

In the Backbones Division we have ...

1. Phoenix, the North Atlantic Right Whale
2. Coelacanth

In the Classics Division we have ...

1. Basilosaurus
2. Tasmanian Tiger

In the Exhibit All-Stars Division we have ...

1. Bull Mummy
2. Titanoboa

In the Wild Cards Division we have ...

1. Deep-Sea Vent Worms
2. Wood Collection

Who are you pulling for in Round 3? Voting will open soon, and we'll need your help to narrow the field from 8 to 4!

Sarah Banks, Audience Engagement Specialist, Office of Education and Outreach

Museum Madness 2012 @NMNH - Round 1 Results!

You, the fans of NMNH, have spoken and the results of Museum Madness: Round 1 are in! Read on for highlights and find out if your favorites made it to Round 2.

Highlights:

Round 1 got off to a great start with a landslide win by the Megalodon Jaws over the T-Rex. The perennial favorite Fenykovi Elephant then triumphed over the Roosevelt Rhinos, and Martha the Passenger Pigeon handily beat Snarge. The surprise of this round came at the end when the Hope Diamond suffered a narrow loss to the Bull Mummy.

So who's left standing after Round 1?

In the Backbones Division we have ...

1. Fenykovi Elephant
2. Martha the Passenger Pigeon
3. Phoenix, the North Atlantic Right Whale
4. Coelacanth

In the Classics Division we have ...

1. Basilosaurus
2. Tasmanian Tiger
3. Megalodon Jaws
4. Neanderthal from Shanidar

In the Exhibit All-Stars Division we have ...

1. Monarch Butterfly
2. Bull Mummy
3. Titanoboa
4. Giant Squid

In the Wild Cards Division we have ...

1. Allende Meteorite
2. Deep-Sea Vent Worms
3. Handaxe Made by Early Humans
4. Wood Collection

Did your favorites make it through? If not, who will you root for in Round 2? Let us know and get ready for more voting tomorrow, March 28th!

Sarah Banks, Audience Engagement Specialist, Office of Education and Outreach

 

Museum Madness 2012 @NMNH

Not a basketball fan? Feeling left out of the March Madness fun? Wishing there was a bracket that incorporated your interests in birds, mammals, insects, fishes, and more?

We have the solution for you! It’s called ...

Museum Madness is our version of the basketball tournament - with a twist. Instead of teams competing, we have objects vying for your interest. Would you like to learn more about our iconic elephant or a species of fish thought to have died out with the dinosaurs? Over the next two weeks, you decide what will advance through the rounds and reign victorious.

So who are the contenders?

In the Backbones Division we have ...

1. Fenykovi Elephant
2. Martha the Passenger Pigeon
3. Snarge
4. Roosevelt Rhinos
5. Phoenix, the North Atlantic Right Whale
6. X-ray of a Seahorse
7. Coelacanth
8. Great White Shark

In the Classics Division we have ...

1. Basilosaurus
2. Burgess Shale Fossils
3. Tasmanian Tiger
4. T-Rex
5. Megalodon Jaws
6. Neanderthal from Shanidar
7. Lucy, Our Early Human Ancestor (reconstruction)
8. Turtle Skeleton

In the Exhibit All-Stars Division we have ...

1. Hope Diamond
2. Easter Island Stone Figure
3. Monarch Butterfly
4. Bull Mummy
5. Tarantula
6. Titanoboa
7. Korean Bridal Gown
8. Giant Squid

In the Wild Cards Division we have ...

1. Allende Meteorite
2. Smithsonite
3. Deep-Sea Vent Worms
4. Handaxe Made by Early Humans
5. Wood Collection
6. Scarab Beetle
7. Invertebrates from the Gulf of Mexico
8. Modern Human Art and Music

How do you vote and follow the action?

Starting Tuesday, March 20th, keep an eye open where you follow us - Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest - for links to the voting pages.

Sarah Banks, Audience Engagement Specialist, Office of Education and Outreach

 

Dr. David Pawson

Dr. David Pawson is an expert on echinoderms—sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and sea stars. He grew up in Napier, a city on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand, where early on he developed an interest in marine life. He attended Victoria University in Wellington, which had a strong program in marine biology at that time, and stayed to pursue doctoral research under H. Barraclough Fell, an authority on sea urchins and starfish. Pawson came to the United States at the same time as his mentor. When Professor Fell was invited by Harvard University to join their faculty, he recommended Pawson to the Smithsonian Institution, which was then seeking a scientist specializing in invertebrate zoology. Dr. Pawson joined the staff of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) as Associate Curator and Supervisor of Echinoderms in 1964—an exciting time of growth at the Smithsonian.

Watch his interview below and then read the rest of his story.

Text, photo, and video courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Image caption and credit: Dr. David Pawson at the microscope in 1980, when he was curator of echinoderms. Credit: Photo by Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution.

Mary Rice and the Creation of the Smithsonian Marine Station

Dr. Mary E. Rice came to the Smithsonian in 1966, soon after the completion of her PhD in zoology at the University of Washington, to work in the Division of Worms, part of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology at the National Museum of Natural History. She was in charge of curating the sipunculan and echiuran collections. Sipunculans and echiurans are primitive, unsegmented worm-like marine animals that typically live in burrows of sand or mud, or in rock or coral crevices. They are found in all the world’s oceans from shallow waters to abyssal depths. Rice has devoted her career to the study of sipunculans, an important but little-known marine group, focusing her research on their evolution and development. Her research interests have extended further to include the larger field of life histories of marine organisms.

Rice grew up on a farm outside of Washington, D.C., in southern Maryland, where she was surrounded by nature—including cows, chickens, horses, cats, dogs, and other animals. She received her first microscope at a very young age, and even before high school she had decided she would be a biologist. She matriculated at Drew University in New Jersey in 1943, where she was part of the first class of women. During summers she received scholarships to study marine biology at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. After obtaining an M.A. degree in zoology at Oberlin College, she returned to Drew to teach for a year, followed by two years as a research associate at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. The death of her father in 1952 brought her back home to the D.C. area, where she worked at the National Institutes of Health in cancer and toxicology research. She eventually left the NIH to pursue a Ph.D. in marine biology at the University of Washington, gaining more field and research experience at the Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island.

Click here to read the rest of Dr. Rice's story and to find out how she established the Smithsonian's Marine Station!

Text and imagery courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Image caption: Dr. Mary Rice holds a sand-burrowing species of a worm-like marine animal called a sipunculan. In the background are pictures of oceanic larvae of sipunculans. Credit: Photo by Tom Smoyer; image courtesy of Smithsonian Marine Station