Summer 2006
Let the wildlife photo rumpus start
The Wildlife in North Carolina
2006 Photo Competition enters its second year. The competition, which aims to encourage today’s wildlife photographers and to foster greater appreciation of North Carolina’s wildlife and natural resources, is accepting online entries through September 15. For more information or to enter, go to www.ncwildlife.org/contest/
Excellent wildlife photography has been the cornerstone of Wildlife in North Carolina magazine and of exhibits at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences for many decades.
Winning photographs will be published in the January 2007 issue of Wildlife in North Carolina and will be exhibited at the Museum and at other science museums and wildlife centers across the state in 2007.
Gemstone donation adds brilliance
An anonymous donor has given the museum a collection
of nearly 700 faceted gemstones ranging in
size from 1 to 27 carats. Many are uncommon
gems like indicolite and scapolite, and many specimens
are unusual cuts of stones— including trilliant
cut, “Klingon Outpost” and “Vito’s Revenge.”
Such signature names often result from a particular
artist’s unique and difficult-to-create cuts.
“The donor was a gem cutter of exceptional ability, and he cut all these stones,” says Curator of Geology Chris Tacker. “He even faceted the red reflectors from old stop signs and orange reflectors from semi trailers just for practice. All of his detailed working notes on faceting these stones came with the donation.”
The specimens came from all over the world, including some from North Carolina. Previously, the same collector donated several hundred cabochons (gems that have been rounded and polished) of all kinds — including star ruby, star sapphire, star apatite and tiger eye.
Over the past several years, the donor has also given the Museum several thousand invertebrate fossils from localities that are no longer open. Tacker says the organized, rigorous cataloging by Collection Manager Trish Weaver has impressed and influenced the benefactor.
“He donated some stuff to another museum, went back a year later, and it was still in a box on the floor,” says Tacker. “He donated some fossils to us, and when he came back they were numbered, labeled and in storage cases. So for three years, he’s just kept on donating stuff.”
A selection of the new gemstones will be on display in a permanent gem and mineral exhibit that will open at the Museum this fall.
Online adventures
The annual Educators
of Excellence Institutes
— workshops designed
to give area teachers an
up-close look at the
natural world — begin
a new year of adventure
June 10 when 16
teachers travel to
Wyoming for the
Yellowstone Ecology
Institute. Another
group of teachers will
explore Ecuador, South America, for the South
American Culture and Ecology Institute. And the
final group heads out on July 18 to Belize, Central
America, for the Tropical Ecology Institute.
Travel along with them via the Web at www.naturalsciences.org/education/online.html. You can meet team members online, download curriculum materials and review itineraries. Photos and journal entries will be posted daily. In addition, you can send questions to Belize and Ecuador participants. Yellowstone questions will be selected from the students of participating teachers ahead of time.
New this year: If you download the mapping software Google Earth® onto your PC, you will be able to zoom in on 3D satellite images of selected trip destinations.
Visit “Space” this fall
“SPACE: A Journey to Our Future” is created to
ignite a desire for discovery, sparking your imagination
and inspiring new generations of explorers
to dream of the possibilities that lie ahead. This
extraordinary exhibit — at the Museum from
October 7, 2006, through February 11, 2007 —
gives audiences an opportunity to experience our
past explorations and future destiny in space.
Visitors to the exhibit are reminded that only through dreaming and exploration can we truly begin to live as inhabitants of this universe in which we find ourselves adrift. “SPACE” reintroduces audiences to generations of dreamers and thinkers who have at times risked their lives to give us all a better understanding of who we are and how we fit into the universe around us.
Most important, you will meet today’s explorers who continue to understand more about our planet and how to protect it.
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, in downtown Raleigh, documents and interprets the natural history of the state of North Carolina through exhibits, research, collections, publications, and educational programming. Hours: Mon.-Sat., 9 am to 5 pm, and Sun., noon to 5 pm. Admission is free. Visit the Museum on the Web at naturalsciences.org. The Museum is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, William G. Ross Jr., Secretary.
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