In celebration of the official start of winter today, we proudly present our humble thoughts on the importance of the Sun’s path through the sky as perceived by different cultures around the world. Although it barely seems worth mentioning today, in the past, solar events like the winter solstice were cause for great celebration, […]
Photo courtesy of wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eurypterus_Paleoart.jpg Eurypterids: you may never have heard of them, but you will come to fear them. They appear in the fossil record during the Ordivician Period, over 400 million years ago, and finally went extinct about 250 million years ago during the Great Permian Extinction. Because of their appearance, Eurypterids […]
The holidays are a time to be with family, to re-prioritize your life, rediscover yourself and your road to inner peace…they’re also a time to eat lots of sweet potatoes! That’s right, nothing says “Happy Holidays” like a big, fat turkey with a side of sweet potatoes. The little guys have been trying to break […]
Christmas Astronomy Lecture “The Star of Bethlehem: Mystery, History and Science” Carolyn Sumners, Ed.D. Thursday, December 8, 6 p.m. Learn the science behind the Star of Bethlehem– star, planet, comet or miracle? Explore the leading theories of the heavenly light that might have guided the wise men from the east to Bethlehem. Using the new […]
Photo courtesy of Pixabay Our resident astronomer James Wooten is back, and he’s here to tell you what to look up for this month! From meteor showers to solar events, December is shaping up to be an exciting end of the year. And of course he will give you the update on when and where […]
Tuesday, December 06, 2016 – 6:30 PM A guarded secret for decades, learn how enriched uranium from Nazi Germany came to be used in United States’ atomic bombs. Researcher Carter Hydrick will detail the surrender of U-boat 234 and its cargo of 1,120 pounds of uranium that was concealed in nose of the U-boat in sealed […]
Winding through the Paleozoic section of our Morian Hall of Paleontology, past the trilobotes, the placoderms, the Sea Scorpions and the other terrifying creatures that roamed the earth at that time, you will eventually come to what we affectionately call our “wall of poop“. It’s in the Permian section of the Hall, to the right […]
Today! Lecture – Scales in Amber: Lizards that ‘Resinate’ Through Deep Time by Juan Daza Lizards preserved in Amber! New to science! The order Squamata is represented today by lizards and snakes (9900 species). Lizards were probably established by the Late Jurassic, although their ancestors were likely present in the Triassic. Amber deposits around the […]
We’ve all been to one, some of us probably feeling slightly jaded about being pressured to contribute a dish that will surely be outdone by that one magnificent chef that attends every celebration. But where does the tradition of the potluck come from? A common myth is that the word derives from the Potlatch feasts […]
Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia In the old days, paleontologists classified dinosaurs into two general groups: The Ornithischian, or “Bird-hipped” and the Saurischian, or “lizard-hipped” dinosaurs. As the names suggest, the Ornithischians had hip-structures similar to modern birds and the saurischians had hips structures similar to lizards. Although modern paleontologists have been able to distinguish many […]
