How to Print a Penguin: Part 2

In an earlier post, we saw the Bruce penguin being scanned at MakerBot.  Now for the test - will the scan print out correctly? We decided to start small, with this three inch tall version. It looks a little like a penguin cookie awaiting frosting, but the beak, flippers, and feet came out very well. Soon, we will give it a run at full power and see if we can create a perfect life-size replica!

Hour of Code

Hello world! Robin here. On Friday, I wrapped up a whirlwind two weeks of bringing the Hour of Code to local elementary schools. It's a great program organized by Code.org to introduce millions of people to computer science.

I started coding as a grad student—it's a really interesting (and efficient) way of interacting with a computer. For Hour of Code, we used a language called Scratch to make interactive holiday cards.

How to Print a Penguin: Part 1

Our Bruce Museum  Black-footed Penguin sure gets around town. Originally from South Africa, this fellow now resides in our natural history collection: you may remember the penguin from last week's naming contest. Our still nameless penguin has been on another adventure, this time serving as the model for a technological demonstration. In this photo, our penguin is sitting on a chair being laser scanned (actually, he is a tad short so had to stand on a milk crate). The screen to the right shows the read-out.

This 3D scan will allow us to make a replicate of the penguin at live size. The Bruce Museum is partnering with the local MakerBot store for a special Penguin Appreciation Day event where we will have a penguin evolution lecture and then print a penguin live. If you are in the Greenwich CT area on January 11th, please join us at 6:30pm.

Dinosaurs on Ice

When most people think of paleontological expeditions, they tend to envision burning deserts or cactus-studded arid badlands. However, one paleontology team heads South for their field season and actually excavates fossils in the shadow of the Transantarctic Mountains.

On Tuesday December 9th, the Bruce Museum will welcome Dr. Nathan Smith of Howard University and the Field Museum of Natural History for a lecture entitled Dinosaurs on Ice: Fossil Hunting in the Jurassic of Antarctica.

Doors open for light refreshments at 6:30 pm and the lecture begins at 7:00 pm. Science lectures are free to all members, and open to non-members for a $15 fee.

Reservations: 203-413-6757.

Name Our Penguin!

The Bruce Museum needs your help!  We have a wonderful penguin in our collection, and it needs a name.

Please go to the museum's Facebook page to vote for your favorite name - or suggest your own! We'll report the winner and then cover some of the planned travels of this particular penguin in service of science and education.

https://www.facebook.com/BruceMuseum

So far, the leading candidates are Mrs. Bagley (after the 1942 donor of the specimen), Marples (after penguin paleontologist Brian J. Marples), Griswold (after original Bruce Museum Curator Paul Griswold Howes), and Moffat (after Robert Moffat Bruce, who ceded his estate to house the Bruce Museum in 1908).

We'll announce the winning name on January 1.

Our unnamed but beloved penguin. Photo by Paul Mutino.

Storage Room 2 Team: Daniel Ksepka

Greetings to all from Storage Room 2. My name is Daniel Ksepka, and I joined the Bruce Museum in June as Curator of Science. This is my first post to our collaborative blog, so it may be best to start with a brief introduction. Museums have always been my favorite places, and as a lover of birds (fossil and living), natural history collections feel like my own personal natural habitat. Before arriving at the Bruce, I completed my Bachelor's Degree at Rutgers University where I spent much time at the wonderful and eclectic Geology Museum (home of mastodons, mummies, and minerals). Later, I earned a PhD through Columbia University's joint program with the American Museum of Natural History.

As Curator of Science at the Bruce Museum, I spent much time in our blog's namesake, Storage Room 2. My responsibilities include collecting data from our remarkable natural history collections, acquiring new specimens, arranging for their long-term conservation, and organizing their use in exhibitions. Over the next few months, I hope to share some of the interesting stories behind our collections and a bit of behind-the-scenes content as we prepare the coming seasons science exhibitions.

Daniel Ksepka studying the fossil skull of Pelagornis sandersi, the largest known flying bird.

Avian evolution is my research passion, and I am particularly interested in using fossils to understand evolutionary transitions, biogeography, and patterns of extinction and radiation. A major part of my work focuses on the fossil record of penguins. Penguins have become vastly different from "normal" birds as they adapted to a secondarily aquatic lifestyle. Fortunately, these remarkable birds have a deep, rich fossil record extending back over 60 million years and spanning four continents that can help us piece this transition back together. Fossil discoveries have revealed many extinct species, such as the giant penguin Kairuku waitaki shown below, the spear-billed Icadyptes salasi and the red and grey feather cloaked Inkayacu paracasensis. My work has brought me to South America, Africa, and New Zealand searching for fossil clues to reconstructing the early evolutionary history of penguins. From time to time, I will cross-post articles at my penguin research blog March of the Fossil Penguins. Of course, the Bruce Museum collections would not be complete without a penguin, and I'' shift into the present day to document the adventures of one special specimen this winter.

Kairuku waitaki, and extinct giant penguin from New Zealand. Artwork by Chris Gaskin, copyright University of Otago Geology Museum.