| Download
PDF
Press Release: Evolution exhibition
opens at KU Natural History Museum November
1.
Explore Evolution, a new multimedia
exhibition, will open at the University
of Kansas Natural History Museum and
Biodiversity Research Center in Dyche
Hall on November 1. The exhibition gives
visitors the opportunity to understand
and experience how scientists conduct
research on evolution.
Current scientific research and major
discoveries by internationally recognized
scientists are featured. Seven areas,
from cells to whales, explore and illustrate
evolutionary principles and show how
knowledge of evolution is fundamental
to advances in contemporary science
and medicine.
Leonard Krishtalka, director of the
museum and research center, said, "The
University of Kansas Natural History
Museum is extremely pleased to be one
of six museums that is showcasing Explore
Evolution. Biological evolution unifies
our understanding of life on Earth,
its dramatic history over more than
3 billion years, its fantastic diversity
across continents and oceans, and its
unity from DNA to the ecological systems
that sustain the life of our planet.
Explore Evolution represents the very
best in our discovery of knowledge through
scientific research. It provides our
students and the public with the very
best science education."
Research topics presented in
the exhibition are:
- the rapidly evolving HIV virus
that causes AIDS and the need to understand
it to find a cure.
- the most complete fossil record
of the evolution of a new species
of single-cell diatom recently recovered
beneath Yellowstone Lake.
- leaf-cutter ants farming their
fungus crops and an investigation
of the partnership between four co-evolved
organisms that aid the farmer ants
to grow their crops.
- how sexual selection has shaped
the evolution of flies in Hawaii
- a study of finches in the Galapagos
Islands that shows how changes in
the size and shape of the birds’
beaks result directly from changes
in the food supply.
- a comparison of chimp and human
DNA, indicating genetic similarities
and differences.
- fossil evidence discovered in a
desert in Pakistan linking whales
to their four-legged ancestors.
The Explore Evolution exhibition demonstrates
how evolution works with state-of-the-art
technology, graphics, and interactive
modules. Bruce Scherting, director
of exhibits, said this exhibition
offers visitors several hands-on exhibit
elements to observe specimens and
computer interactive components that
allow visitors to select activities,
video, and additional information
about the research topics.
4-H organizations in five states have
developed study programs in conjunction
with the exhibition, and a book, “Virus
and the Whale: Exploring Evolution
in Creatures Small and Large”
includes inquiry-based activities
for middle-school children. Lectures
and public educational programs will
be announced during the course of
the exhibition.
The exhibition has been developed
by six natural history and science
partner museums at the University
of Kansas, the University of Michigan,
the University of Minnesota, the University
of Nebraska, the University of Oklahoma
and the University of Texas. The Explore
Evolution project, headed by Judy
Diamond, of the U of N State Museum,
is funded by a $2.8 million grant
from the National Science Foundation.
The Natural History Museum and Biodiversity
Research Center is open 9-5 Mondays
through Saturdays and noon to 5 Sundays.
See www.nhm.ku.edu
for further information about the
museum; see www.explore-evolution.unl.edu
for more about the exhibition.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact krishtalka@ku.edu
for information on the exhibition;
bruce-s@ku.edu
for digital graphics.
|
