Micrarium

By Bora Zivkovic | March 5, 2013 |

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Image of the Week #82, March 6th, 2013:

From: A Museum Chapel for Microscopic Biodiversity by Hannah Waters at Culturing Science.

Source: Grant Museum of Zoology at University College London

Museums are full of organisms that are put on display to inspire awe in even the most jaded visitor. But as Hannah Waters points out in her post, A Museum Chapel for Microscopic Biodiversity, the vast majority of the creatures we select to display are vertebrates and that does not accurately represent the diversity of life on our planet. To tackle this display bias, the Grant Museum of Zoology at University College London has created a new museum exhibit they’re calling the Micrarium, featuring hundreds of microscope slides of invertebrates. In addition to pointing out our vertebrate bias, it is a lovely reminder that the everyday objects of science can be quite beautiful in and of themselves.

About the Author: Bora Zivkovic is the Blog Editor at Scientific American, chronobiologist, biology teacher, organizer of ScienceOnline conferences and editor of Open Laboratory anthologies of best science writing on the Web. Follow on Twitter @boraz.

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The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

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