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Science at the Museum Members’ Magazine Winter 2011 Vol. 36 No. 1 Spotting New Species science at the museum Field Work Worldwide: a Snapshot Building the Tree of Life Research in High-Res 2 News at the Museum 3 From the As we usher in 2011, the Museum is preparing a fresh, exhilarating point of view on the largest a number of new ways for you to “enter” the freestanding dinosaur mount in the world. The Art of Medicine President Museum and more easily access everything it has In the age of the virtual, enhancing access to are the subject of a new special exhibition, Body and Spirit: to offer, whether your visit begins on Central Park the Museum is not merely a matter of improving Tibetan Medical Paintings, which opens January 25 in the Ellen V. Futter West or at amnh.org. the physical entryway. The Museum is also Audubon Gallery on the Museum’s fourth floor. Curated by While the restoration of the Central Park West increasingly using new media in pioneering ways Laila Williamson, senior scientific assistant in the Division side of the Museum is under way, we are pleased to to bring its science, exhibitions, and education of of Anthropology, with host curator Laurel Kendall, chair have already created a new path into the Museum— to visitors—wherever, whenever. In addition to of the division, the exhibition will run through July 17. literally! The iconic Barosaurus mount in the the recently launched AMNH Explorer, Dinosaurs, In the 17th century, a series of paintings was commissioned Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda has long dominated and Cosmic Discoveries iPhone apps, the Museum for use as teaching aids in a medical school founded in Lhasa, this grand space, but with foot traffic diverted is preparing to unveil a spectacular new website Tibet, by Sangye Gyatso, regent to the Fifth Dalai Lama around it. Late last year, without disturbing or about dinosaurs, which will bring the Museum’s and author of the Blue Beryl, an important commentary on moving the beloved Barosaurus, her young one, world-renowned fossil collection to the public the classic Tibetan medical text Four Tantras. The fate of the or the attacking Allosaurus, we removed the in a number of intriguing ways, including videos original paintings, which were created between 1687 and center section of the exhibit’s platform so that on fossil hunting, an interactive “Dinosaurs A-Z” 1703, is unknown. But in the late 1990s, Romio Shrestha, visitors can walk straight into the Museum—and encyclopedia, cladograms, and more. This exciting a Nepalese artist, and his students reproduced 79 paintings, directly between and under the dueling dinosaurs. new website is just a glimpse of a completely painstakingly rendering their intricate details in vegetable This 8-foot-wide opening becomes a new redesigned amnh.org that is coming this spring. and mineral dyes on canvas. These Tibetan Medical Paintings, “welcome mat” to the Museum while offering Stay tuned! acquired and conserved with the support of Emily H. Fisher and John Alexander and exhibited with the support of a generous gift from the Estate of Marian O. Naumburg, are believed to be among only a handful in existence, providing a unique and Table of Contents rich history of medicine in Tibet. Among the paintings on display in the exhibition are News 3 depictions of human anatomy; the process of human development from conception to birth; 302 points of the body vulnerable to Close-Up 4 injury; and the origin of dreams and how they bring the sleeper 5 8 to either the beautiful realm of the gods or the ugly realm of In The Field 6 tormented spirits. A “tree of diagnosis” conveys how a doctor makes a diagnosis and treats diseases by observing, touching, and Branching Out 8 The Tree of Diagnosis is one of 64 pieces in the new exhibition questioning the patient. Other paintings illustrate various Tibetan Body and Spirit: Tibetan Medical Paintings. medical implements, therapies, and remedies—one of them, an Spotting New Species 10 elixir of many ingredients, including honey, yak butter, garlic, Just as Western medical historians prize classic texts, whether and flowers, that works through the healing power of the Buddha The Heart of the Matter 12 Henry Gray’s 1858 Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical or Walter to give the patient “the body of a 16-year-old with the prowess of B. Cannon’s 1932 The Wisdom of the Body, students of Tibetan a lion, strength of an elephant, complexion of a peacock, speed Next 14 medicine value scroll paintings that illustrate traditional of a trained horse, and the life span of the Sun and Moon.” medical knowledge and procedures. Sixty-four modern copies Explore 18 12 21 of such medical paintings from the Museum’s collection For details, visit amnh.org. Members 20 Museum Separates Battling Dinosaurs Seen 22 For 20 years, visitors entering the Museum’s majestic Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda have been greeted with a dramatic representation of an imagined prehistoric encounter: a Barosaurus rearing up to protect her young from an attacking Allosaurus. American Museum of Natural History ISSN 0194-6110 Now visitors can become part of this scene by walking between the Chairman Lewis W. Bernard USPS Permit #472-650 Allosaurus and the towering Barosaurus, the tallest freestanding dinosaur President Ellen V. Futter Vol. 36, No. 1, Winter 2011 mount in the world. Last summer, the Museum separated the two long-time Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Rotunda is published quarterly by the Membership Office of the American combatants by cutting an 8-foot-wide pathway through the fiberglass and Strategic Planning, and Education Lisa J. Gugenheim Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY steel platform they had shared since the mount was first installed in 1991. Chief Philanthropy Officer Peter W. Lyden 10024-5192. Phone: 212-769-5606. Website: amnh.org. Museum membership of In preparation for the task, a team from Research Casting International Director of Membership Louise Adler $70 per year and higher includes a subscription to Rotunda. ©2011 American (RCI), the company that installed the original mount, secured the skeletons Museum of Natural History. Periodical postage paid at New York, NY, and Magazine at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: please send address changes to in part by lassoing the neck of the Barosaurus and tethering the supporting Editor Eugenia V. Levenson Rotunda, Membership Office, AMNH, at the above address. rope to the top of the vaulted ceiling, 100 feet above the floor. Contributors Ashton Applewhite, Jae Aron, Joan Kelly Bernard, Cynthia Franks, Kristin Phillips, Elena Sansalone, Karen Taber, Jessica Ulrich, Michael Walker Please send questions, ideas, and feedback to [email protected]. Design Hinterland Photo of painting © AMNH; photo of dinosaurs © AMNH/R. Mickens Watch a video of the ceremonial first cut in the mount atamnh.org/news . The Museum separated the two dinosaurs late last summer. Rotunda / Winter 2011 / AMNH.org 4 Close-Up at the Museum 5 Not the Biting Kind The Butterfly Brief: Never Folded or Hung Unlike the famous “very hungry caterpillar,” Storage of the textile collection was greatly adult butterflies do not have mouths for Heliconius cydno improved with the help of a 2003 grant from chomping down on leaves. Instead, butterflies the National Endowment for the Humanities. “eat” by using a long curled proboscis, much Butterflies that belong to theHeliconius genus, known colloquially as longwings, To store each piece effectively, old cabinets were like a drinking straw, to suck up nectar and other have discovered the secret to butterfly longevity. Like most members of the order retrofitted and new cabinets installed in an airy liquids, and “taste” using chemical receptors Lepidoptera, longwings sip nectar from flowers using a straw-like organ called 10,000-square-foot space kept at 70˚ Fahrenheit on their feet and proboscides. a proboscis. What distinguishes them from fellow butterflies—and moths—is that and 45 percent relative humidity. “That’s the climate longwings can broaden their diet beyond these sweet liquids—which, in turn, which works best for the greatest number of Butterflies in the Belly is thought to extend their life. materials,” says Paul Beelitz, director of Collections They were seen as the souls or spirits of the That’s because Heliconius butterflies are able to ingest pollen by secreting and Archives in the Division of Anthropology. deceased in ancient Greece, bad omens in Europe enzymes onto their proboscides. When these enzymes mix with pollen grains, “It’s very comfortable for people, too.” in the Middle Ages, symbols of conjugal bliss they create a protein-rich liquid that the butterfly can absorb. Longwings spend in Korea, and metaphors for nervousness in hours collecting and processing pollen grains and depositing them at other Pest Control Germany. All over the world, butterflies have stops along the way. The plants pay them back, big time: the amino acids found Newly acquired textiles are frozen at -40˚ figured in local superstitions, reflecting a range in pollen are thought to increase egg production and lifespan up to eight months, Fahrenheit for 48 hours to kill insects at all stages of societal anxieties and expectations. making longwings one of the longest-living groups of butterflies in the world. of life. Windows are double-glazed to keep insects Their lifespan isn’t what gives these butterflies their name, however; their out, and a seamless floor surface extends up the Comely Moths elongated wings do. Longwings are also sometimes called passion flower walls a few inches to eliminate cracks where they Moths are often stereotyped as dull creatures butterflies because they favor the passion vine both as a place to lay eggs and might live.
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