January 19, 2017

A Curious Case of Evolution Repeating Itself

January 19, 2017/ Bruce Science

The body plan and lifestyle of crocodilians has changed so little in the last 83.5 million years that they are often called "living fossils." There is something about being a crocodile that is very evolutionary advantageous. It’s so advantageous in fact, that animals that look and act like crocodiles have evolved time and time again throughout the evolutionary history of the earth. In this curious case, evolution appears to have repeated itself over and over throughout the history of life on Earth.

January 10, 2017

Allochromatism - How imperfections provide some of the world’s most beautiful minerals

January 10, 2017/ Bruce Science

Why is color a useless identifier of minerals? As it turns out, there are a lot of minerals that can be found in a variety of different colors that are not the minerals’ natural color. Why do some minerals come in different colors? The answer to that question is a bit more complicated.

December 29, 2016

The Dinosaur on Trial for Cannibalism

December 29, 2016/ Bruce Science

In modern societies, cannibalism is considered one of the most terrible of crimes. When a skeleton of the dinosaur Coelophysis was discovered with small bones within its rib cage it was dubbed a cannibal, one that might even eat its own young. Are these allegations true, or do we have a prehistoric mistrial on our hands?

December 16, 2016

Fossilizing the Footsteps of Dinosaurs

December 16, 2016/ Bruce Science

If you visit our newest science exhibit, Last Days of Pangea: In the Footsteps of Dinosaurs, you’ll see an amazing array of fossilized footprints displayed. These footprints come in all sizes: Some as small as a fingernail, some longer than the length of my forearm. Some are hazy and indistinct, clearly having weathered the forces of time and erosion. Others look like they could have been made yesterday. It’s much easier to imagine a tough and solid bone surviving millions of years than a single delicate footprint laid down in soft mud. How is it that these footprints made it from the Triassic to now? It takes just the right set of conditions.

December 14, 2016

Hour of Code 2016: Bigger and Better than Ever!

December 14, 2016/ Bruce Science

Tis the season… to teach kids coding! For the third year in a row, the Bruce Museum is bringing free Hour of Code programs to schools throughout Greenwich and beyond during the month of December. Last year we reached exactly 550 students with our Hour of Code programming. We're proud to announce that our numbers have more than doubled this year! It's never been a better time to learn how to code.

November 21, 2016

The First Days of Last Days of Pangea

November 21, 2016/ Bruce Science

The last days of Pangea were filled with wonder, with death, and then with renewal. This is the story captured in our exhibit. In August, we checked in on the construction of Postosuchus for our new exhibit, Last Days of Pangea: In the Footsteps of the Dinosaurs. Now that the exhibit is open, it's time to dig a little deeper into how exhibits come together here at the Bruce.

November 18, 2016

The Hamster Wheel of the Wild

November 18, 2016/ Bruce Science

Hamsters were the pet of my childhood and I was often kept awake at night listening to the squeaking of the wheel as they ran. Were my pets really enjoying themselves, or were they running because they were driven to neuroses by the boredom of captivity? Two researchers put the running wheel to the test. They placed them in the wild, where rodents have the whole world to engage and entertain them. Would they still be drawn to the wheel, or is wheel running something for caged rodents only?

October 20, 2016

The Herbivores That Crave Meat

October 20, 2016/ Bruce Science

The classification of herbivore vs carnivore is one of the earliest biology lessons we’re taught in school. Herbivores eat plants, carnivores eat meat, and omnivores eat some of each. However, these definitions are much more permeable than we once thought

When you’re looking out for werewolves and other flesh-eating beasties this Halloween, maybe you should keep an eye on your local deer, too…