Museum Blog

Number of Articles: 269

Planet Waves: Nothing but Zooms

Posted 02/28/2011 by David Grinspoon | Comments
Science has shown us the largest and smallest of structures, situating us in size. We humans exist at a scale roughly halfway (at least on a logarithmic scale) between the largest and smallest structures in the universe. A human is, to an astronomer, a meter in length. The…
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- Space Sciences
Tags:
- Time
Astrobiology Collection: Miller-Urey Apparatus

Posted 02/28/2011 by David Grinspoon | Comments

Object #1: The Miller-Urey Apparatus
The Miller-Urey Apparatus on display in the Prehistoric Journey exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. In 1952, Stanley Miller, a graduate student at the University of Chicago, had an idea for an experiment. He had st…
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Snowmass Site work

Posted 02/28/2011 by Logan Ivy | Comments
Sediments from the Pleistocene Snowmass Village site are being washed through fine mesh screens and the material stopped by the screens is being picked through to find small fossil animals. This work is being perfomed by the volunteers and they are finding rodent teeth, amphibian bo…
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Why Do We Collect?

Posted 02/25/2011 by Steve Nash | Comments
In 2010, an Ice Age site of mammoths, mastadons, and other animals and plant specimens was discovered. Why did the Museum's Snowmastadon Project want to collect these specimens and where will they store all of them?
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Blue Tongue Blog Migration

Posted 02/22/2011 by Nicole Garneau | Comments
For those of you keeping track, you'll notice that we have research update posts that occur all on the same day. This is because we are in the process of mass migrating the many posts from our original "Blue Tongue Blog". The posting date cannot be changed to the orignal blog post date, thus, …
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Preparing a fossil leaf slab for loan

Posted 02/16/2011 by Meghan McFarlane | Comments
DMNS has a really nice collection of fossil leaves--so nice, in fact, that occasionally other museums borrow our specimens for their own exhibits. This week, Jessica Fletcher examined and documented the condition of a large slab of fossil leaves that was collected in the Hell Creek Forma…
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Uniquely Blue, Uniquely You

Posted 02/08/2011 by Nicole Garneau | Comments
Welcome to a world where very small changes in a persons' DNA can have a huge impact on how they perceive taste. This blog aims to explore this and other findings from the live research study, Genetics of Taste: A Flavor for Health, happening right now in the permanent exhibit Expedition He…
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Categories:
- Health Sciences
Tags:
- Genetics
Hot Bisque

Posted 02/08/2011 by Nicole Garneau | Comments
Well I did it-the thing we ask visitors daily if they did as a way to screen their taste data. Did you burn your tongue recently? Yesterday the Museum catering team made incredible (and incredibly hot) tomato bisque. In a rush, I plunged in my spoon and slurped -- ouch. You w…
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Categories:
- Health Sciences
Tags:
- Tongue
Spreading Blue Tongue Love!

Posted 02/08/2011 by Nicole Garneau | Comments
This post comes directly from the field! Meghan Sloan (see picture above), one of our fantastic staff members from the science laboratory in Expedition Health writes: In late January I visited Mrs. Waage's class at McLain Community High School to talk about the coolest job I've ever had: A…
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The Salty Story of a Sweet Theory Gone Sour

Posted 02/08/2011 by Nicole Garneau | Comments
In our Genetics of Taste lab, we study Tas2r38 (allows us to taste certain bitter substances), only ONE of the MANY genes that allow us to perceive taste, but just because here at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science we only study bitter doesn't mean we don't love each of the other taste…
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Categories:
- Health Sciences
Tags:
- Genetics