Research

Monthly Archive: December Rese

Not just for show: how and why museum specimens are collected

Posted: October 31, 2016 - 13:42 , by ROM
ROM technician Brad Millen processes a bird specimen that will be added to the ROM's collections. Photo by Samantha Stephens

Guest blog by Environmental Visual Communication student Samantha Stephens

The sign on the door seemed quite appropriate. “Abandon all hope ye who enter here.” I imagine that, as this quote from Dante’s Inferno indicates, this might be what hell feels like. As this last barrier swings open and the dim room is revealed, the swarm of hundreds of tiny creatures moving across the concrete floor completes that vision. However, for some of the ROM’s tireless workers, this environment is heaven. Here resides the dermestid beetle colony. These ravenous beetles are eagerly seeking their next meal. Manoeuvring themselves into the crevices of skeletons, they strip the flesh from delicate specimens with more precision and speed than the nimblest of human fingers.

The LMS Lab

Posted: September 6, 2016 - 08:00 , by ROM
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Three women in a lab running DNA testing

From discovering new species to preserving endangered ones, the ROM’s LMS uses genetic sequencing to study specimens.

Go with the Flow: Technology & Early Glass

Posted: August 5, 2016 - 15:04 , by Robert Mason
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Six-handled green glass jar - Blown glass with trailed handles, Syria - Late Roman - c. 300-425 AD, ROM #909.3.41   - The Walter Massey Collection - Height 12.9cm  Width 9.4cm  Diameter 7.6cm. ROM Photography.

Glass is probably the most fluid of solids. Looking at blown glass, such as that in the ROM's Chihuly exhibition, is like watching movement made still. If you look carefully at the handles of the perfectly preserved handles of this Roman glass vase from Syria (above), it looks as though it is still a fluid, still dynamically moving along its flow. In a way, that is because it is. Glass essentially has the atomic structure of a fluid, but it has been so rapidly cooled that it is essentially stuck in that condition. 
 

Behind the Blitz: Three Young Scientists

Posted: May 19, 2016 - 20:25 , by ROM
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Wide view of the species depot at the 2015 Ontario BioBlitz, where scientists bring back specimens to examine and identify along tables with microscopes and field guides. Photo by Krystal Seedial

Blog by Nadine Leone, ROM Hands-on Biodiversity Gallery Assistant Coordinator 

The first of four blogs in our Ontario BioBlitz: Behind the Blitz series is an interview with three young ROM scientists, who share their favourite highlights from last year's event in the Don Watershed.

A little piece of the puzzle – Citizen Science works!

Posted: April 16, 2016 - 11:17 , by Nicole Richards
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ROM Ornithologist, Mark Peck describes one of the ways he contributes to Citizen Science

Wildlife Photography: Behind the Camera

Posted: March 15, 2016 - 12:24 , by ROM
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A bolt of lightning streaks across a purple sky over the mountains and rainforests of Sri Lanka

Guest Blog written by Environmental Visual Communication students Aisha Parkhill-Goyette and Jeff Dickie

Imagine you are deep in the jungle of Sri Lanka. You find yourself blinded by the pouring rain, knee deep in a rushing river, desperately trying not to fall in. Lightning strikes only meters away, but instead you are worried about the small tickle by your left elbow, and you are hoping that it is not one of the dozens of land leeches that keep falling onto you from the trees above. Not everyone has what it takes to be a wildlife photographer. It takes a special kind of dedication and a special kind of person - someone who is just as wild as the creatures they are trying to capture on camera.

EVC Students Jeff and Aisha interviewed a pair of up-and-coming wildlife photographers who travelled with ROM mammalogist Burton Lim to Sri Lanka last fall, to share some stories about what it's like behind the camera.

How Drone Photography is Saving Wildlife

Posted: March 3, 2016 - 15:41 , by ROM
Research conducted by scientists from the NOAA Fisheries and the Vancouver Aquarium using the hexacopter to capture images of killer whales to assess their health. Photo from NOAA Fisheries.

Guest Blog written by Environmental Visual Communication student Lisa Milosavljevic

A number of photos in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibit make use of aerial photography techniques, including the use of drone photography. There is also a growing demand for its use in professional and academic fields as people are recognizing how drones can be a valuable tool in their work; one of these areas is wildlife conservation. Here we are going to look at the different ways in how drone photography is saving wildlife around the world, as well as some of the controversies and questions that this developing technology raises.

Collection Care for Hellenistic Clay sealings from Edfu, Egypt

Posted: February 9, 2016 - 16:35 , by Kay Sunahara

Over a century after they were acquired Ptolemaic artifacts at the Royal Ontario Museum, Greek & Roman collection, get new homes

Blue Whale Update: From Trenton with Love

Posted: December 22, 2015 - 11:25 , by ROM
It took a team of seven people to lift the blue whale heart enough to finish wrapping it. Photo by Stacey Lee Kerr

It’s that time of year where many of us are pretty focused on the holidays. Spending time with family and friends, baking and eating loads of treats, and - let’s be honest - the gifts. Finding them, buying them, wrapping them, and getting them to where they need to go, whether the destination is under the Christmas tree, or to be mailed to relatives somewhere else around the world.

So, given that everybody’s in this present-logistics state of mind, we have a gift-wrapping question for you… how do you ship a blue whale heart?

The ROM's Very Own Batman Returns

Posted: October 13, 2015 - 14:00 , by ROM
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The ROM’s very own ‘Batman’, Assistant Curator of Mammalogy, Dr. Burton Lim with "bat wings" outlined with light in a long exposure photo. Credit: Vincent Luk

ROM Biodiversity (@ROMBiodiversity) was in the fields and forests of Sri Lanka for an intense four weeks between Aug 23 - Sept 19, 2015, completing the first comprehensive survey of bats and other small mammals that live on the island in close to 80 years.