Pyenson Lab

Lab blog's 1 year anniversary!

The calendar rolled past June 15th, which means that the Pyenson Lab blog is now 1 year old. It's been a jam-packed year, with expeditions across the Americas, advancements in field snacks, laser cowboys, and several exciting new projects. 

The blog's clocked over 20,000 hits in one year, which is a modest tally -- thanks to everyone who has stopped by! And there will be plenty more fun in the coming year. Stay tuned.

Smithsonian's laser cowboys continue their good work

Just a quick mention for readers of this blog to check out the Smithsonian's 3D Digitization Program's Facebook page for updates about their latest gigs. Last week, the laser cowboys went to the collections of the National Portrait Gallery to surface scan life masks of President Abraham Lincoln.

 

A great video explaining some of their work can be seen below. Keep up the fine work, Vince and Adam! 

Cerro Ballena in this month's Smithsonian magazine

Shifting gears from anatomical fieldwork in Iceland to paleontological fieldwork in Chile: this month's Smithsonian magazine features a terrific article by Abigail Tucker in the "Around the Mall" section about our work with the laser cowboys at Cerro Ballena. To the cetologically inclined, Abby's title in the print and eMag version (below) has multiple meanings: from "save the whales," a 1970's era bumper sticker-ready slogan; and whalebone is the 19th century term for the keratinous baleen plates that hang from the roof of the mouth in mysticetes. It also refers, plainly, to the bones belonging to fossil whales that Adam Metallo and Vince Rossi (the laser cowboys from Smithsonian's 3D Digitization Program) scanned in the Atacama desert. Read the article to find out more, and then dig deeper in this blog's archives on our work at Cerro Ballena.

 

Atacama whales on the iPad. (Photo: J. A. Goldbogen)