Pyenson Lab

Media: Evotourism in Smithsonian Magazine

Check out January 2012's issue of Smithsonian Magazine! The cover story features a series of vignettes focusing on unique and significant places, throughout the world, which each provide different pieces of evidence for how evolution works. Really, evolution is all around us, but the idea of "evotourism" is a neat one because it also highlights places that have played important roles in the history of evolutionary thought.

NDP is quoted in Abagail Tucker's piece about Wadi Al-Hitan, Egypt's Valley of the Whales, which is now partially a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

Just in time for the holidays...

Fossil baleen whale skeletons, from Cerro Ballena, printed at ~1/16th scale. These print versions of the 3D digital data, with the 2D photo information mapped on top. Many thanks to the laser cowboys over at OCIO's 3D Digitization Program Office. (Thanks for running them over from Landover, Adam).

I wish I could say "collect all 6," but they're not on sale at the NMNH gift store (yet). Stay tuned, we hope to print a few more Cerro Ballena skeletons in miniature, in the future. It is immensely satisfying to see the arc of our work from planning and logistics, to execution in the field with data collection, to a proof-of-concept with post-processing. 

Specimen field number B31, from Cerro Ballena, Adam Metallo's hand for scale. Note the 30 cm scale bars and color swatch. (Photo: A. Metallo).

Specimen field number B34, from Cerro Ballena, Adam Metallo's hand for scale. Note the 30 cm scale bars. (Photo: A. Metallo).

Media: Cerro Ballena gallery on National Geographic News

Just out today is a wonderful gallery of images posted on NG News, with short bits of descriptive text written by Angela Botzer. 

Check out the images (some of which appeared first on this blog) at National Geographic's Daily News.

Wanted: winter and spring interns for projects in the Pyenson Lab

If you're in DC over the upcoming winter break and through into next year, and you're interested in jumping on board to do some hands-on work, check out the following internship opportunities at NMNH in the lab. They involve desktop work at the museum and at SI facilities in Maryland. Contact NDP directly if you're interested.

Returning hardware, passing the torch

This morning I returned the Geological Society of Washington's annual award for best talk, also know as "the bowl," to Dan Doctor (USGS), so that it could be engraved with this year's recipient. (I won it for 2010 with a talk that I gave in September of that year). It was fun to have this simulacra of the ca. 1890s Stanley Cup on my desk for the past year -- my only regret is not celebrating by drinking a beverage from it. Good luck to the 2011 winner!