To register for programs, please print and return our Winter 2012
Registration Form. If you would like to be added to our mailing list to receive
a printed copy of our program, please email us here or call 860-486-4460.


January
FOSA Lecture: Art & Science Inside Chauvet Cave, Saturday, January 28

February
Community Event: 8th Annual Big Y Kids Fair, Saturday & Sunday, February 4 - 5
Museum Lecture: Footprints on the Land, Saturday, February 11
Field Activity: Magnificent Magnification, February 18
Teale Lecture: The Future of Plants, Thursday, February 23
Community Event: CT Flower & Garden Show, Thursday - Sunday, February 23 - 26

March
Teale Lecture: In Pursuit of a New Environmentalism, Thursday, March 1
Museum Lecture: Life In The Deep Sea As Seen From Alvin, Saturday, March 3
Workshop: Scientific Illustration-Insects! Saturday, March 17
Workshop: Archaeobotany & Ancient Mesopotamia, Saturday, March 24
Teale Lecture: The Hockey Stick: Front Lines in the Climate Wars, Thursday, March 29

April
Museum Lecture: Bioluminescent Squid: Symbiosis Under the Sea, Saturday, April 14
Field Activity: Exploring Small Lakes Beyond Walden, Tuesday, April 17
Workshop: The Artificial Termite Gut: A Hi-Tech Exploration, Saturday, April 21
Field Activity: Abandoned Ghost Town: CT's Gay City State Park, Saturday, April 28


Paleolithic Paintings: Art and Science Inside Chauvet Cave
Lecture & Meeting of the Friends of the Office of State Archaeology
Zach Zorich, Senior Editor, Archaeology Magazine
Saturday, January 28, 2 pm (Snow date: Sunday, January 29)
Smith Middle School Auditorium, 216 Addison Road, Glastonbury, Connecticut
$10 general admission; $5 for student with ID.
Current FOSA, ASC, and Museum of Natural History members admitted free with ID.

Hidden away and undisturbed in the mountains of southern France for 20,000 years, the discovery of Chauvet Cave in 1994 revealed some of humankind's earliest and most extraordinary paintings. Images of horses, reindeer, lions, bears, rhinos, and numerous other species adorned the ancient cave walls with an artistry so sophisticated it was initially believed the images were relatively recent at 10,000 to 15,000 years old. Yet, radiocarbon dating showed that the earliest paintings were created 35,000 years ago, placing them in the Paleolithic era. Since its discovery people have had limited access to the cave due to preservation concerns. However, preeminent filmmaker Werner Herzog was given unprecedented access to Chauvet Cave to create his 2010 film Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

Zach Zorich, Senior Editor of Archaeology magazine, has written about the Chauvet Cave and interviewed Werner Herzog on the filming of Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Zorich's talk will explore what archaeology tells us about the human race when the Chauvet Cave paintings were created, who and what lived in Chauvet Cave, the cave painting techniques used by the ancient artists, the dangers facing cave art sites, and what the ongoing research and viewpoints from other scholars reveal about Chauvet Cave. He will also discuss Herzog's view on cave art, the inadequacy of modern imagery, and how people viewing art construct their own parallel narratives.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Office of State Archaeology (FOSA), the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Connecticut Archaeology Center at UConn, and the Archaeology Society of Connecticut (ASC). The FOSA membership meeting begins before the lecture at 1 pm and is open to the public.

8th Annual Big Y Kids Fair
Saturday, February 4 and Sunday, February 5
Connecticut Convention Center, Hartford

Stop by and visit the Museum and Archaeology Center's booth at the Big Y Kids Fair and learn about natural and cultural history! The fair will have many hands-on activities for families with babies and toddlers, as well as older children. There will be celebrity appearances, roving magicians, animals, a kid's fashion show, educational exhibits, and many vendors. Fun, entertainment, exhibits, prizes, and more are what you and your children will find at the 8th Annual Big Y Kids Fair in Hartford. For more information and directions visit: http://jenksproductions.com/kidsfair.html

Footprints on the Land: The Imprint of Culture on Connecticut's Landscape
Dr. William Berentsen, Geography, UConn
Saturday, February 11, 3 pm
Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, UConn Storrs
No registration required - FREE
Adults and children ages 8 and above. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Connecticut is progressing through its fifth stage of landscape evolution since the time of the first human settlement. The earlier four stages (primeval forest, Native American landscape, Euro-American agriculture landscape, and American industrial-agricultural landscape), have given way to the stage we are currently experiencing - the American suburban landscape.

Dr. William Berentsen, from the Department of Geography at UConn, will briefly examine the early stages of landscape evolution, the imprints of which are still to some extent evident in today's landscape. Then his illustrated talk will focus on today's American suburban landscape, the driving forces behind landscape change, and what it may mean for the future.



Magnificent Magnification: UConn's Electron Microscopy Laboratory
Dr. Marie Cantino and Steve Daniels, Physiology and Neurobiology, UConn
Saturday, February 18, 10 am to 11:30 am
UConn, Storrs Campus (directions will be sent to participants)
Advance registration required: $20 ($15 for Museum members)
Adults and children ages 8 and above. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Electron microscopes can reveal the beautiful symmetry found in a fly's eye, the motor proteins that power the heart, and the intricate patterns found on a computer chip. With their ability to make the microscopic world assessable though substantial magnification, electron microscopes offer uncommon views of the world that can be awe-inspiring, life changing, and startling.

On this exciting visit to UConn's Electron Microscopy Laboratory, learn how electron microscopes work and how samples are cut into slices a thousand times thinner than a piece of paper. Then take a very close look at microscopic specimens magnified up to 100,000X through the use of the transmission electron microscope and the scanning electron microscope.



Teale Lecture- The Future of Plants: Conservation and Use in the Twenty-First Century
Sir Peter Crane FRS, Dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Professor of Botany at Yale University
Thursday, February 23, 4 pm
Konover Auditorium, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, UConn Storrs campus
No registration required - FREE
For more information see: http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/events/teale/teale.htm

Plants are indispensable to human survival and provide us with food, medicines, and a variety of raw materials. Plants are also important regulators of ecological processes at global to local scales. However, relatively little attention is paid to how these crucial global resources, accumulated over more than 450 million years of evolution, will be managed for the future. This lecture will explore the current status of plant diversity and consider some of the challenges of conserving and managing plants in sustainable ways for human benefit. Peter Crane is the Carl W. Knobloch Jr. Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. His work focuses on the diversity of plant life - its origins, current status, conservation, and use.

31st Annual Connecticut Flower & Garden Show
Thursday, February 23 to Sunday, February 26
Connecticut Convention Center, Hartford

Escape the winter elements and explore over 300 booths overflowing with fresh flowers, plants, herbs, bulbs, seeds, gardening books and accessories. Immerse yourself in the variety of gardens, seminars, and landscape exhibits in full bloom. Visit the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History's exhibit within the Federated Garden Club's section of the show. "The Fabulous Fifties" is the Federated Garden Club's theme for the 2012 show and their Special Exhibits section will feature a design & horticulture competition, demonstrations, and a multitude of educational exhibits. Join the Museum for this annual event offering a welcomed preview of the spring and summer to come! For information and directions visit the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show at http://www.ctflowershow.com/pages/welcome.asp and Federated Garden Clubs at http://www.ctgardenclubs.org/flowershow.html.



Teale Lecture- In Pursuit of a New Environmentalism
David Gessner, Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the
University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Thursday, March 1, 4 pm
Konover Auditorium, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, UConn Storrs campus
No registration required - FREE
For more information see: http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/events/teale/teale.htm

David Gessner is the author of eight books, including Sick of Nature, The Prophet of Dry Hill, and Return of the Osprey, which was chosen by the Boston Globe as one of the top ten nonfiction books of the year and the Book-of-the-Month club as one of its top books of the year. In 2006 he won a Pushcart Prize; in 2007 he won the John Burroughs Award for Best Natural History Essay; and in 2008 his essay, "The Dreamer Does Not Exist," was chosen for The Best American Nonrequired Reading. In 2011, Gessner had two new works published: My Green Manifesto and The Tarball Chronicles. Both describe and embody a new way of writing about nature and place, full of humor and strangeness, and focused on a more "limited" nature, the only nature left to most of us.

Life In The Deep Sea As Seen From Alvin
Dr. Kenneth Noll, Molecular and Cell Biology, UConn
Saturday, March 3, 3 pm
Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, UConn Storrs
No registration required - FREE
Adults and children ages 8 and above. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

The Alvin submersible allows scientists to explore some of the deepest parts of the ocean and in 1977 it helped find a new source of life, the deep sea hot vents. Water up to 750¯F, containing minerals and toxic gasses from within the Earth, gush from the seafloor looking like smoke from mineral chimneys. Within these chimneys, and the hot rocks and sediment around them, are strange high-temperature microbes. These vent sites also support animals that depend on different microbes that "breathe" sulfurous toxins.

Join Dr. Kenneth Noll, from UConn's Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, who will share his Alvin experience at a deep sea hot vent site located off the coast of Baja Mexico. His talk will include slides and video clips from his dive. He will also talk about the life he saw and the life that other scientists have observed using Alvin at deep-sea sites around the world.


Scientific Illustration-Insects!
Virge Kask, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UConn
Saturday, March 17, 10 am to 12 noon
Museum of Natural History, UConn Storrs (directions will be sent to participants)
Advance registration required: $25 ($20 for Museum members); includes materials fee
Adults and children ages 8 and above. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Whether beautiful or creepy, colorful or camouflaged, living in the soil or fluttering across the sky, insects in all their variety are intriguing subjects for artists and illustrators. Join Virge Kask, Scientific Illustrator in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UConn, for the Museum's annual scientific illustration workshop. Look closely at a variety of insects using microscopes, and the naked eye, to examine their anatomy in detail. Then, Ms. Kask will teach the best techniques for conveying the essence of these captivating creatures using pencil and paper, and provide tips for drawing from mounts and live subjects. You will receive a folder with information about scientific illustration and supplies for making your illustrations in the classroom.


Seeds of Discovery: Archaeobotany & Ancient Mesopotamia
Dr. Alexia Smith, Anthropology, UConn
Dr. Philip Graham, Anthropology, UConn
Saturday, March 24, 1 pm to 3 pm
UConn, Storrs Campus (directions will be sent to participants)
Advance registration required: $25 ($20 for Museum members)
Adults and children ages 8 and above. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, witnessed the growth of the world's earliest cities, empires, and written language. The rich culture of the Mesopotamians cultivated advancements in literature, philosophy, science and technology, shaping the very beginnings of human civilization. Yet, over time, the fledging empires of Mesopotamia collapsed, shifting the centers of power and culture elsewhere.

Join Dr. Alexia Smith and Dr. Philip Graham from UConn's Department of Anthropology to discover the complicated circumstances that led to the sudden collapse of the Mesopotamian empires. Then, in UConn's Archaeobotany Laboratory, learn the techniques used by archaeobotanists to uncover how plants, agriculture, and the climate shaped the histories of ancient societies. Activities will include floating seeds from the sediment of an ancient archaeological site and examining them under a microscope to discover what they tell us about ancient societies, the environment, and the everyday lives of people from Mesopotamia.


Teale Lecture- The Hockey Stick: On the Front Lines in the Climate Wars
Dr. Michael Mann, Professor & Director, Earth System Science Center at
Pennsylvania State University
Thursday, March 29, 4 pm
Konover Auditorium, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, UConn Storrs campus
No registration required - FREE
For more information see: http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/events/teale/teale.htm

Dr. Michael Mann is one of the world's leaders in climate science. He may be best known for his research on global temperatures over the last thousand years, and the famous "hockey stick" graph that shows a significant rise in global temperatures during the late 20th century. Although there is a strong scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as well as subsequent climate studies that have confirmed Dr. Mann's findings, his work has been subject to attack and heated political rhetoric by those who deny the reality or threat of climate change.



Bioluminescent Squid: Symbiosis Under the Sea
Dr. Spencer Nyholm, Molecular and Cell Biology, UConn
Saturday, April 14, 11 am
Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, UConn Storrs
No registration required - FREE
Adults and children ages 8 and above. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

The nocturnal Hawaiian bobtail squid venture out from their sandy hiding places come nightfall to feed on shrimp and reproduce. Danger abounds out in the open water as numerous predators can make a quick and easy meal of the squid. Yet the squid are able to utilize a specialized light organ within their bodies, becoming all but invisible by illuminating their undersides to blend in with the moonlight shining above. The protective glow is possible due to a population of a bioluminescent bacterium called Vibrio fischeri living in the squid's light organ. In this symbiotic relationship, the bioluminescent bacteria enable the squid to conceal themselves in the open water. In return, the squid provides nutrients and a safe haven to the bacteria.

Join Dr. Spencer Nyholm from UConn's Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and learn about this unusual symbiotic relationship between the bobtail squid and bioluminescent bacteria. Discover what their relationship may tell us about how the immune system functions to distinguish beneficial bacteria from harmful bacteria, and how research of this symbiotic relationship may enhance our understanding of how the human immune system alerts our bodies to the presence of dangerous pathogens among the helpful microbes.



Exploring Small Lakes Beyond Walden
Dr. Robert Thorson, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Anthropology, and the Center for Integrated Geosciences, UConn
Tuesday, April 17, 12:00 noon - 1:30 pm
Storrs, CT (directions will be sent to participants)
Advance registration required; this program is limited to no more than 30 people.
Free for adults and children ages 8 and above. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Please register by mail or call the Museum to reserve your space.

Approximately 100,000 small glacial lakes and ponds adorn the American landscape along a broad arc of sandy soils from Maine to Montana. Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts and mythical Lake Wobegon in Minnesota's Mist County, are perhaps the most famous. Though lacking in grandeur, both are nonetheless beautiful in their humble simplicity. Each lake can be thought of as an "organic machine" powered by five manifestations of solar radiation: light, heat, wind, precipitation, and photosynthesis. When properly tuned, this unified combination of geology, forestry, hydrology, and aquatic ecology creates a healthy habitat where flora and fauna flourish, and opportunities for human engagement, from simply enjoying the view to fishing, swimming, boating, and exploring natural history.

Join Professor Thorson for a mid-day educational hike around Tift Pond in Storrs, our local stand-in for Walden or Wobegon, located within easy walking distance of campus and a shuttle bus stop. Learn how such small lakes work, and how they influence ecosystem health and sustainability. Wear appropriate footwear for moderate hiking.


The Artificial Termite Gut: A Hi-Tech Exploration of Microbes and Biofuels
Dr. Kenneth Noll, Molecular and Cell Biology, UConn
Saturday, April 21, 10 am to 12 noon
UConn, Storrs Campus (directions will be sent to participants)
Advance registration required: $20 ($15 for Museum members); includes materials fee
Adults and children ages 10 and above. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Termites eat wood, but they don't do it alone. Inside their gut, microbes break down the wood into small chemicals and gasses while providing food for themselves and the termite. They do this while communicating with one another so they can work together on the difficult task of wood digestion. Learning how termite gut microbes communicate might teach us how to better process wood to biofuels like methane gas. A termite gut is exceptionally complex, making it difficult to study, so UConn engineers and microbiologists are recreating termite guts artificially inside termite-sized devices.

Discover what artificial termite guts may teach us about microbe communities and biofuels in this workshop led by Dr. Kenneth Noll from UConn's Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Find out how UConn's Department of Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering constructs microfluidic devices and how the devices work. Then view the incredible diversity of microorganisms that live inside termites, and learn how to make a termite farm in order to watch them tunnel through wood



Abandoned Ghost Town: Connecticut's Gay City State Park
Dr. Nicholas Bellantoni, State Archaeologist, CSMNH UConn
Saturday, April 28, 10 am to 12 noon, rain or shine
Hebron, CT (directions will be sent to participants)
Advance registration required: $20 ($15 for Museum members)
Adults and children ages 10 and above. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Join State Archaeologist Dr. Nicholas Bellantoni for this walk steeped in Connecticut history and folklore. Amongst Gay City State Park's outdoor recreational facilities lie the ruins of a 19th century town that offers a unique glimpse into Connecticut's past. Stone foundations, the remnants of an abandoned mill, and old tombstones contain a story that stretches back from the village's settlement in 1796, through its development as a small industrial community, to its eventual abandonment and return to nature. The area was ultimately purchased and used as a summer retreat before being sold to the State of Connecticut and becoming Gay City State Park. This hike may be challenging and moderately difficult for some, and will include hilly areas.