Botany week, where do I even start? I had trouble getting started on this post for a while, wondering how exactly to describe the biocollections experiences I’d had at Alameda. Do I talk about mounting, or specimen collecting or even the intricate organizational structure of the collections?
But out of all the techniques we refined during Botany week and fun facts we learned, the most impactful experiences I had at the... Read More
This is a guest post by 2021 JEDI Biocollections Summer Scholars Program alum, Faith Cisneros.
Consumed by the way each thick hair lay defined, colored like a piece of old dry wood that has begun to fade, I imagined the stiff body revitalizing within moments of focusing on it. I drew in a quick breath of air before I began to untangle what the life of the moth under my microscope must have been like. The white lit background of the microscope quickly faded... Read More
This is a guest post by 2021 JEDI Biocollections Summer Scholars Program alum, Savage Cree Hess.
Behind most modern science, there's at least a touch of coding.
For bioinformatics week, we the JEDI Scholars plunged into the fundamentals of programming, poked around with databases, and crafted a personal bio (come check them out ... Read More
The original aim of the ASU Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Biocollections Summer Scholars Program was to foster human-nature connections and provide hands-on biocollections experience for undergraduates from groups historically excluded from STEM fields. By these measures, the first year of the program was an immense success.
The 2021 scholar cohort
Four students from across different majors and undergraduate career stages at ASU comprised our first cohort of JEDI Biocollections Scholars. While they all entered the program with... Read More
A unique, funded, and hands-on opportunity for students underrepresented in biodiversity science to participate in natural history collections research
... Read More
Dear Research Community:
In August 2018, Arizona State University's (ASU) Biocollections and Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center were selected by the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) leadership to be the NEON Biorepository, potentially for the full 30-year duration of the project as presently designed.
Latest NEON release on the Biorepository... Read More
This morning, I had a new paper published on the beautiful darkling beetles in the genus Eleodes Eschscholtz. In it I described a new species I discovered from doing field work in Nevada during the summer of 2015. When I tell them about my research, that I discover and describe new species of beetles, I am moreo ften than not greeted with surprise and the qustion "I thought we knew all the species on the planet, how do you find new ones?" This blog post is my attempt to explain the process by telling the story of Eleodes inornatus Johnston, 2016.
Are Herbaria Still Relevant in the 21st Century?
By Walter Fertig, Arizona State University herbarium
Originally published in Sego Lily 2016 Vol 39(1):6-8.
The oldest herbaria date to the Middle Ages when European physicians first learned that dried and pressed plants could retain their color and appearance for decades if properly preserved. Initially specimens were bound in books to provide doctors with a handy reference for identifying the sources of herbal medicines. Over time it became more convenient to keep specimens on loose sheets that could... Read More
