Museum Blog

AChemS 2011 Optogenetics Craze

Posted 04/14/2011 by Nicole Garneau | Comments
Optogenetics is not the newest craze (dates back to 2002), but it has huge potential and momentum (one peer reviewed article in 2006, exponential growth predicts 280 scientitsts will publish using this method in 2012). Optogenetics allows scientitsts to selectively express a gene in neurons…
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AChemS 2011 Day 2 Recap

Posted 04/14/2011 by Nicole Garneau | Comments
Day 2 Recap I woke up to the sounds of "Bell Tower" through my phone's alarm clock, and could not for the life of me understand why my husband hasn't hadn't hit snooze already, "but wait!" I realized groggily, "I'm in Florida, not in Denver, that must be the alarm I set last night." In…
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AChemS 2011 Day 1

Posted 04/13/2011 by Nicole Garneau | Comments
Made it to FL in one piece, no holes in the plane. Here's Meghan carrying our two posters we will present to the scientists and meeting attendees. Today was registration, an awards banquet and a cool key note address by Dr. Karel Svoboda on how mice use whiskers to identify objects -- scientis…
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National Library Week

Posted 04/04/2011 by Library | Comments
April 10-16, 2011 is National Library Week. Here at the Bailey Library, we are celebrating by launching our new web page. We will be using this space to highlight parts of our collections and announce new acquisitions. One of our recent donations was the Grand Canyon collection assembled by th…
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Scads of Spiders: Zoology Object of the Week (April 11, 2011)

Posted 04/04/2011 by John Demboski | Comments
The arachnology collection includes nearly 28,000 vials of identified arachnids. Arachnids include spiders, solifuges ("camel spiders"), pseudoscorpions, daddy longlegs and other eight legged beasties. The specimens are preserved in alcohol and, as with all other specimens in Zoology collectio…
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Mission Impossible: Conservation-style

Posted 04/07/2011 by Meghan McFarlane | Comments
Have you always wanted to be a secret agent & a conservator? If so, check out this great interactive website from National Museums Liverpool where you can review real science related to museum artifacts and guess the culprit behind the damage you see: Agents of Deteriora…
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A Tale of Two Shoes

Posted 04/06/2011 by Meghan McFarlane | Comments
DMNS aims to preserve excellent examples of our natural and cultural world. What you may not know, however, is that we also preserve artifacts pertaining to our museum's history. Among the artifacts in our Archives Department are the original mailbox for the Colorado Museum of…
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Shells and More Shells: Zoology Object of the Week (April 4, 2011)

Posted 04/03/2011 by John Demboski | Comments
The DMNS conchology (shell) collection includes nearly 18,000 lots (or groups of shells). The first donation of shells was recorded in 1904 and the collection has grown primarily through donations from collectors. Most of the specimens represent marine species with a smaller number of fr…
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Specimen jackets

Posted 04/01/2011 by Logan Ivy | Comments
Fossil specimens are found on the surface or at a relatively shallow depth in the ground or rock. In such a situation the fossils are often cracked or broken. This can be due to weathering if on the surface, water infiltration if at a shallow depth, root penetration, or expansion a…
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New Member Night April 7: Haida

Posted 04/01/2011 by Isabel Tovar | Comments
On April 7th from 6 - 9 PM, the museum will be hosting a free event for new members. It is a wonderful opportunity to get a look at collections and projects that are happening behind-the-scenes. From the Department of Anthropology store-rooms, we will be bringing out several ite…
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