Wherein I give you the personal, behind-the-scenes tour of our vast collection and its variable rooms. Welcome to The Brain Scoop. My name is Emily, and I will be your host.
Wherein I address popular queries about things and stuff. Thanks to everyone who asked questions on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube! Keep them coming!
Wherein we explore the oft forgotten wet specimen collection.
Examining a bear skull.
Wherein we collect a wolf that had been hit by a car.
Wherein I suggest ways to gain superpowers.
Wherein Mr. Wolf loses his skin.
In which I answer your questions about Mr. Wolf.
Wherein we take the insides and move them outside.
From me to you.
Wherein we search for buried treasures.
Wherein I address popular queries about things and stuff, again.
Wherein we discuss what moves us -- literally.
In which things are not always as they seem, and brains get scooped.
Wherein we discover what is living in Paris Hilton's purse.
Do you know the difference between horns and antlers? Talk to your kids. Make a difference.
It's basically a Sandshrew.
Let's just ignore the part where I thought the Twitter timestamp was part of their usernames...
We're gonna take a walk outside today - gonna see what we can find today.
Kids ask the darndest things.
Wherein we talk about what it means to 'De-Extinct' - pet dinosaurs? Probably not.
This is still a lot to consider. What do you guys think?
Wherein Emily sees things she had only ever read about in books.
Wherein Emily very nearly cries at least seven times.
Wherein we attempt to figure out our origins.
Wherein Emily dispenses advice on tackling your first dissection.
Wherein we explore tiny skeletons and adaptive evolution.
Wherein we explore the biggest things ever.
Wherein *BRAIN ASPLODE*
Wherein we discuss the underrated smell of dead chipmunks.
Dr. Janet Voight settles the eternal debate about the plural form of "octopus," and becomes my new favorite person.
Jim Boone shows off his insects. Some of these might actually be plants. I'm still not convinced otherwise.
QUESTION TIIIME WITH EMILY Don't mind the sparse office decorations.
My sincerest thanks to Dave Dyer for giving me the opportunity to volunteer in the UMZM: without your initial support and encouragement, none of this would have been possible. My deepest gratitude goes to Hank Green for seeing the potential and making The Brain Scoop a reality. Thank you, Heather Hsu; without you the next chapter in my adventure would forever remain unwritten. I thank The Field Museum for their continued support in the production of The Brain Scoop, and am so looking forward to becoming a part of their team! And - from the bottom of my heart - thank you to everyone who has watched, liked, shared and commented: this would not have happened without you. Thank you to Šafusová and Deanna Mavis for providing transcriptions for this video, and many others!
The possibilities are endless! We're going to film ALL OF THE THINGS!
Today we're talking to Bill Stanley about Kris Helgen's Olinguito!
Wherein we ask researchers, curators, scientists, docents, and visitors alike how they would define a museum. What's your definition?! Let us know in the comments below! Thank you to everyone who provided answers for this video; we couldn't do it without you!
DO NOT CLIMB! Wherein questions are answered and arms are waved.
Emily is back at it again with Anna Goldman, mammal preparation lab manager, and special guest Hosenose.
Wherein Emily and Anna explore Hosenose from the inside out.
Bill Stanley tells us all about the weird and wonderful Hero Shrew, and reveals his latest discovery!
Wherein we explore the order Lepidoptera! Huge thanks to Jim Boone, collection manager of the insect division for making this episode possible.
It's question time! Taxidermy of reptiles, museum donations, theme music, age and gender in STEM, and more!
What's black and white and red all over? A zebra on The Brain Scoop!
Nothing says collection expedition like rotten chicken liver!
Poot Poot!
Wherein we open the vaults and unveil some of the shinier secrets from the Museum's geology collection!
Check out what is living in the Hanover, IL prairie, PLUS Jim Louderman shows us how to prepare insects for the collection. WIN-WIN.
Emily discusses sexism in science, negative and sexist comments, and other STEM channels hosted by women.
Emily discusses the father of modern taxidermy, Carl Akeley.
ELEFINT. Or, how do you taxidermy an elephant?
This has been a PSA from the American Dental Association: Brush yo' teeth.
Happy Holidays from The Brain Scoop team!
Peter Makovicky introduces us to Siats meekerorum, a new species of dinosaur discovered and described by him and Lindsay Zanno!
Emily answers your questions on ocean exploration, poop, and butterfly memories!
Wanna know how you can have Anna Goldman's job? Insider's tip: DFTBA.
Stay tuned for The Brain Scoop family band - I'm playing the backup gourd.
This Valentine's Day, woo your boo with sexy entomology words! Spermatheca"..."aedeagus".... "oral-anal social trophallaxis"...
CSI Meteorites: I guess you could say this show is.... astronomical. YEEAAAAAAAAAH
Emily answers your questions from the antler room!
Wherein Emily meets our collective origins.
Wherein we seriously ask ourselves - are two heads better than one?
Come for the 4 eyes, stay for the beetle time lapse.
Come visit "The Machine Inside: Biomechanics" at the Field or find a traveling show in your area, and check out Bob's fun interactives for yourself! :D
Meet Max: The Replicator. Baby Turtle Maker. Termite Mound Architect. Giant Worm Enthusiast.
Crocodilia: Keeping it real for the last 83.5 million years.
On April 26th, Audubon's 229th birthday, we remember the making of The Birds of America and JJ's flowing golden locks of hair.
Wherein our dynamite Exhibitions Department creates an immersive media experience inspired by a discarded wax candle.
Wherein we discuss the biological and evolutionary imperatives of human breastfeeding over the last 80 million years.
RAINDROPS ON ROSES AND WHISKERS ON KITTENS: these are a few of Emily's favorite things!
They're not.
The answer to the ever-burning question: why do we need so many dead things?
Your dead insects and their details are valuable to science. Start your own collection today!
Bonus clip from our episode "How To Pin An Insect" - enjoy the lil' tiger beetle!
Where biology and engineering meet: let's puzzle out what the function is for some of our specimens! QUIZ SHOW!
Wherein we go on a fishing trip for 52-million year old fossils! The first in a series about the excavation of Fossil Lake, Wyoming.
Join us for Part II in our quest to uncover the tropical world of ancient Fossil Lake! Palm trees in Wyoming! Sex in the fossil record!
Welcome to five consecutive calendar days dedicated to programming about everyone's favorite cartilaginous fishes: the sharks!
Wherein we take an adventure into the deep oceans of history in pursuit of fossilized sharks.
Weapons made with shark teeth from 100+ years ago are not only awesome, but they may also help us uncover clues about species distribution.
Every year millions of sharks are slaughtered for their fins. The Field has developed new methods to identify some of these sharks to better enforce laws and help end the illegal trade. Science FTW!
There are 12 living Orders of sharks and rays swimming in our oceans today, and more than 440 known species. Here are some of the wackier ones!
In which we set out and find fossil meteorites in time and space. Wait... meteorites can be fossilized?! Mind blown.
2014 marks the 100-year anniversary of the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, the most numerous bird species in the history of our planet.
So.... we've got all of these fish fossils. Now what? To the prep lab!
Team Brain Scoop is about to helicopter into a biologically unknown region of the Peruvian jungle with a team of conservationists to study and document the area's biodiversity for the first time in its history.
In January 2014, Emily accompanied Curator of Mammals Bruce Patterson on a field expedition into the bat caves of Kenya. They were joined with Field Museum Media Producers Greg Mercer and Emily Ward to document the experience. This is the 1st installment in a 2-part series of highlights from the trip; there's much more to come!
This is the 2nd installment in a 2-part series of highlights from our expedition deep into the bat caves of Kenya!
In which we take an expedition deep into an area of unstudied rainforest, and document our discoveries. At night. This is the first part in a series about The Field Museum's Rapid Inventory No. 27, a journey through the forests between the rivers Tapiche and Blanco in Peru. Every year, the Museum's conservation group [the Action Center!] gathers together leading scientific experts across a number of disciplines (botany, zoology, geology, and anthropology) in order to gain an understanding of little-known areas of the rainforest. They work with local communities and their governments to help inform decisions made for conserving these unique, precious, and threatened parts of the world.
When in doubt, sniff a tree. No, really! Botanists and rainforest ecologists follow their noses to identify certain species in addition to looking at the plant's flowers, and counting leaves on branches. This is the second part in a series about The Field Museum's Rapid Inventory No. 27, a journey through the forests between the rivers Tapiche and Blanco in Peru. Every year, the Museum's conservation group [the Action Center!] gathers together leading scientific experts across a number of disciplines (botany, zoology, geology, and anthropology) in order to gain an understanding of little-known areas of the rainforest. They work with local communities and their governments to help inform decisions made for conserving these unique, precious, and threatened parts of the world.
We found so many snakes with Pablo that we decided to have a few episodes devoted to these beautiful and often misunderstood creatures. First: the common Fer-de-lance! This is a segment in a series about The Field Museum's Rapid Inventory No. 27, a journey through the forests between the rivers Tapiche and Blanco in Peru. Every year, the Museum's conservation group [the Action Center!] gathers together leading scientific experts across a number of disciplines (botany, zoology, geology, and anthropology) in order to gain an understanding of little-known areas of the rainforest. They work with local communities and their governments to help inform decisions made for conserving these unique, precious, and threatened parts of the world.
Pregnant bats and the world's largest spider; your average evening in the Amazon. Studying bats allows biologists to make valuable connections between the animals and their environments, as insect eaters thrive in jungles and fruit-eaters act as seed dispersers and plant pollinators. We may not have netted an incredible number that evening, but the two bats documented provide important insights on the biodiversity of their forest home. This is a segment in a series about The Field Museum's Rapid Inventory No. 27, a journey through the forests between the rivers Tapiche and Blanco in Peru. Every year, the Museum's conservation group [the Action Center!] gathers together leading scientific experts across a number of disciplines (botany, zoology, geology, and anthropology) in order to gain an understanding of little-known areas of the rainforest. They work with local communities and their governments to help inform decisions made for conserving these unique, precious, and threatened parts of the world.
Taking a break from our Amazon Adventures to bring you answers to all of life's biggest questions! .... or, just whatever you asked me on Twitter (@ehmee) or the Facebooks.
Considering how sweaty and dehydrated I became during this film shoot, it's remarkable that Ernesto and the rest of the bird team were diligently out for long periods of time, at all hours of the day and night, to listen for the birds of the Amazon.
Mummies: Images of the Afterlife will begin touring in September, 2015. Stay tuned to see them visiting a museum near you!
Not every part of the rainforest is filled with towering canopies! We discovered an area with trees only twice my height, and it took a couple of geologists to help us figure out why.
Wherein Emily and Anna learn taxidermy from Katie Innamorato, founder of AfterlifeAnatomy! There are a number of significant differences between the art of taxidermy and the preparation of animal specimens for research. Join us as we gut it... together!
YOU can be a part of The Field Museum's History -- Donate to the #ProjectHyenaDiorama and help the hyenas !!
Check out these extra bits and pieces from our How To Taxidermy a Squirrel episode -- and be sure to check out our Indiegogo campaign!
Wherein Isobel and Maria show us the ropes -- or nets -- for surveying fishes in the Amazon. The distribution of fish in tropical river systems is important to understanding how animals move around these waterways. Where there are big fish -- like the electric eel -- we know there must be an ample supply of prey species, too!
The Amazon rainforest is a dense, seemingly impenetrable place. Before our scientific team can accurately document the biodiversity of an area they need a map to follow and clear trails on which to walk. Enter Alvaro del Campo, the Rapid Inventory logistics guru!
Wherein Dr. Corrie Moreau shows us how she dissects ants to learn about their gut microbiomes for her research!
Bullet ants (Paraponera clavata) have the most intense sting of any insect -- but what makes it so painful? Dr. Corrie Moreau walks us through how she extracts their venom to learn more about the chemistry of this remarkable species!
Naked mole-rats are some of the most fascinating members of the animal kingdom - but just how unique are they? Turns out, they diverged from their nearest relative more than 31 MILLION years ago! Field Museum curator Dr. Bruce Patterson, and Yale postdoctoral researcher Nate Upham have determined they ought to be in their own scientific family. Now, can someone please update their Wikipedia page?
For our final installment in the Amazon Adventures series, I interviewed expedition leader Corine Vriesendorp about what it means to protect and conserve areas of the rainforest in spite of the overwhelming global demands for its natural resources.
By the 1960s the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) was extinct in many states - including Illinois - because of the negative effects of the pesticide DDT. But, thanks to dedicated reintroduction and monitoring efforts over the last 30 years in part from Field Museum scientist Mary Hennen and The Chicago Peregrine Program, just recently these birds were removed from the Illinois threatened species list!
BABY DINOSAURS IN THE CITY!... and we've been studying them for years! We talked with Field Museum ornithologist Josh Engel about how scientists gather information and take risks while monitoring these impressive aerial predators.
Joyce Havstad, PhD holds the title Philosopher-in-Residence at The Field Museum.* We had the joy of interviewing her about some of the fascinating concepts she researches and explores -- in this case, what is a holotype? And how can paleontologists determine new species of prehistoric life based off of incomplete fossil skeletons? *It's probably the only job title that can compete with 'Chief Curiosity Correspondent', really.
More than 420 million years ago ancient millipedes took their first many -- many many many -- steps onto land. Today they remain largely cryptic animals, as there are tens of thousands of species still unknown to science. Associate Curator Dr. Petra Sierwald, arachnologist and millipede expert, is working to create a visual atlas to help with our understanding and identification of these mysterious creatures!
Out of any creatures in the animal kingdom, spiders seem to have the worst reputation. Their many legs and unpredictable movements elicit a fear response in even the most stoic of individuals. Let's take a moment to put our fear aside and learn more about these global dominators with Dr. Petra Sierwald!
WASSAP YOUTUBE comin' at you with some answers to your FAQ's! Got another query?! Leave it in the comments!
Diaphonization -- otherwise known as clearing and staining -- is one of the most photogenic preparation methods used by research scientists. It's beautiful, but is it practical? We interviewed Dr. Caleb McMahan, Collection Manager of Fishes, on how he uses this technique to answer questions about the evolution of fish!
Paleontologists today look at more than just fossil evidence to learn about organisms that lived millions of years ago. In this case, we're seeking to answer the question: how, and when, did mammals evolve their specialized movements? Turns out, the next step in this process involves dissecting a giant weasel...
Paleontologists today look at more than just fossil evidence to learn about organisms that lived millions of years ago. For this episode we visited Dr. Katrina Jones at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology to learn how she dissects and examines animals living today in the search for answers about the movements and evolution of early synapsids!
Our ability to use today's technology in unique and novel ways is a major part of scientific discovery. In this episode, Dr. Stephanie Pierce shows us how she uses 3D modeling software to experiment on the bones of animals that went extinct millions of years ago, in order to figure out how they moved and walked. This is the final installment in a three-part series supported in part by The Field Museum, the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, and The National Science Foundation (!!!!).
DEATH ROCKS! An episode about deadly rocks! Really, it's about some minerals which may contain harmful elements that through the repeated, ongoing, and/or prolonged exposure to them in unregulated environments may cause damage over time... but that doesn't fit in the title.
Last year, The Brain Scoop kicked off Project Hyena Diorama, an Indiegogo campaign aimed at raising the funds necessary to build a brand new permanent habitat diorama at The Field Museum that would house a quartet of striped hyenas taxidermied by Carl Akeley in 1896. In six weeks we raised 91% of the funds thanks to Brain Scoop and museum fans from all over the world, and so began the long process of research and construction. The diorama will be officially open to the public on January 27th, 2016!
In 1896, taxidermist Carl Akeley ventured to Somalia on a research expedition with Field Museum scientists, and procured a quartet of striped hyenas (among many other things). For more than six decades, these taxidermied mounts sat in an unfinished diorama case - and we wanted to do something about it! Fast forward to last year, when we launched our Indiegogo campaign, "Project Hyena Diorama." Today, thanks to more than 1,500 donors, 50+ staff, viewers of The Brain Scoop, and many many more supporters who shared and promoted Project Hyena Diorama, the Field Museum is celebrating the opening of its first full-scale habitat diorama in more than six decades.
Field work can be the most exciting part of research science, but unfortunately there aren't a lot of resources for adventurers when it comes to managing your period in oftentimes remote locations, which can lead to a lot of nervousness about your upcoming trip. Never fear! We talked with a number of experienced field scientists in order to compile some tips and tricks to help you plan for the next adventure. Explore on!
145-year-old beans from the Field's botanical collections are being used today to help restore a local native plant habitat. How does that work? We talked with Robb Telfer - a poet, and a passionate 'plant nerd' - about how he became involved in working to de-extinct rare species of endangered legumes and flowers!
New species of lifeforms are being discovered and described on our planet every single day -- but, when we talk about a species, what are we really referring to? Turns out, the answer is... complicated. This video is by no means comprehensive. Species concepts are some of the most complex and, at times, controversial topics in biology. This video ought to serve as your window down into the rabbit hole.
In our previous video 'What is a Species?,' we talked about the many ways scientists approach classifying organisms. So, I thought it'd be fun to get a few scientists from The Field Museum to apply their taxonomic know-how on something we're all familiar with: candy! How would you have organized these various confections? This experiment in classification can be used with anything from pasta, to cell phones, beverages, cereals... seriously, start asking your friends and family if they think Pepsi and Coca-Cola are synonymous species, or similar via convergent evolution, and you're sure to have a lively Tuesday night.
Want to travel the world? Become a biologist! Crystal Maier - Collections Manager of Insects at The Field Museum - spent a month in New Zealand, going from stream to stream in search of hobbits. And by hobbits I mean beetles that spend their entire lives underwater. How?! Why?! We get answers. Thanks to Crystal for taking the time to talk with us about her research!
The insect collection is the largest at The Field Museum, with more than 12 million specimens - only (only?!) 4 million of those are pinned in the dry collection. Crystal is in charge of all of them- no pressure. Want to search the zoological collections on your own? Look no further!: http://bit.ly/fmnhzoology Big thanks to Crystal for showing us around! Can we come back some time!?
How is it that a Museum can have 1,200+ fossils of a particular species in its collection since the 1960's... and not even know what it is? For decades, it was thought the 'Tully monster' -- a bizarre animal that lived 307 million years ago -- was an invertebrate, like a kind of worm. But in March, Field Museum scientists helped finally crack the mystery of the monster, to reveal it's actually related to lamprey fish. BOOM.
What does it mean to be an endangered species? Are endangered species destined for extinction? We're exploring some of these ideas in celebration of Endangered Species Day, May 20th!
In 2015, a deep-sea discovery was described to be unlike anything else in the animal kingdom. It was a snail with a shell made out of iron sulphide, with some populations also having magnetic properties in their unique exoskeletons. It made me wonder - what other magnificent marine snails are out there?
Datuk Dr. Robert F. Inger published his first scientific paper in 1942 and hasn't looked back since. I'm inspired by his dedication to science, and his commitment to curiosity - and although it's impossible to cover his 74+ year career in a 10-minute video, I hope you'll take away the lesson I did: never stop asking questions and seeking answers!
In 1936, Ruth Harkness - a dressmaker from New York -- set off to China in search of the rare, elusive Giant Panda. Her goal? Bring one back alive to share the wonder of China's wildlife with the western world. She became the first explorer to do so, and so set in motion a public fascination with these creatures that continues 80 years later.
Original Title: This flower only grows in the wild on a single tiny island... in Illinois. The Kankakee Mallow (Iliamna remota) is a special little flower. The only place in the world it's found in the wild is on a single small island in the middle of the Kankakee River in Illinois - but until last year, it hadn't been seen in over a decade, and was feared to be extinct. Thanks to volunteer efforts, we got to be some of the first to see it back in bloom!
In our last video we got to see one of the rarest flowers in the world blooming in its habitat for the first time in over a decade. It's the Kankakee mallow (Iliamna remota), under threat of extirpation and completely unique to Illinois... and we want to make it the official state flower! Field outreach coordinator Robb Telfer kicked off the campaign and we're TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS. It's an election year, after all.
In 1898, two African lions began attacking and consuming railway workers in Tsavo, Kenya. First reports estimated that 135 people fell victim to these "man-eaters," but further research published in 2009 lessened that number to 35 individuals. Over the years, different theories as to what motivated these attacks have varied, and recently we got to talk with two experts who are working towards finding an answer.
Darkling beetles (Family: Tenebrionidae) might not look like much at first glance, but this huge group of insects includes more than 20,000 species, all with their own unique life histories and adaptations. So, Dr. Margaret Thayer invited us to come learn more about them!
Quetzalcoatlus was the largest flying animal of all time. But this extraordinary animal is known from only a handful of bones; a complete skeleton has never been found. So how do scientists know what it looked like?
Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers visited the museum to film a "Thoughts from Places" video about a month ago. A lot of the footage he took wasn't used, here's some that didn't make it to the final video. Also...in here is where I talk about "The Brain Scoop" which is where we got the name for the channel.
Here Hank and I talk about albino skunks, vampire bats, human skulls, and finger monkeys.
Hank and Emily and Michael walk around the museum a bit more...checking out some bats, an echidna, possums, kangaroos, elephants, wallabies, and owls.
Anthropological case study of the subspecies Homo sapiens graslii
Wherein I very informally upload a thank you from my hotel room. New content coming soon! Surprises!
Emily: "I could have never imagined this last year would be as rewarding and as transformative as it turned out to be. Thank you all for watching and learning with me!"
With all the great press The Brain Scoop has been getting lately, it's time to put our best foot forward!
y0 we've got some updates!
Tom! Good luck in the big city, and thanks for all of your hard work over the last 1.5 years. We'll miss you!
STARTING SEPTEMBER 14TH! There's a lot of science that happens both within and outside the walls of a natural history museum, and we thought it was about time we bring more of those stories right to you. Stay tuned for regular news updates!