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Did not expect HN to make me feel nostalgic tonight. I live not too far from Mazon Creek, where many of these fossil-containing nodules were found, and a few s

Did not expect HN to make me feel nostalgic tonight. I live not too far from Mazon Creek, where many of these fossil-containing nodules were found, and a few summers back, I was fossil hunting (on allowed-use lands) with my kids. We found about a dozen intact nodules; four of them had fossils of some kind. Three were plants, and one ... The state fossil of Illinois: The Tully Monster. It's a lot of fun to see your kids' eyes open wide when they realize they just exposed the deathbed of a life form older than they can imagine. That they're the only humans ever to touch the impressions left behind. Of course, I like to wax poetic with my science lessons with them, but I don't mislead. Kids (indeed, most adults) don't often stop and really absorb the significance of things that really are quite amazing. That when you see the faint smudge of the Andromeda Galaxy, your retinas are the sole beneficiary of particles of light that have been screaming through space longer than the Homo genus has been in our fossil record. When you see them, you've captured them; they're gone. 2.5 million years, since saber-tooth cats were roaming the Americas, and blip ... gone. Just for you. The Tully Monster fossils were the same for my family. An amazing and humbling and exciting experience, just needed the right storytelling to help them understand how special it was. Edit: incidentally, the Field Museum [0] was truly instrumental to these revelations, in cooperation with Argonne National Labs' [1] Advanced Photon Source. [0]: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/science/blog/monster-mystery-solved https://www.fieldmuseum.org/science/blog/monster-mystery-sol... [1]: http://www.anl.gov/photos/tully-monster-secrets-revealed http://www.anl.gov/photos/tully-monster-secrets-revealed

jonchang 11y ago
Unfortunately, the NSF announced today that it was suspending support to natural history collections like the Field Museum. Hopefully they'll reverse course but in general museums are on the decline and it's possible that our ability to do this kind of work with fossils and other organisms will be limited in the future. http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503651 http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503651
- spdustin 11y ago
  Cringe. Just two months ago we were "dozin' with the dinos" at the Field Museum, and went on a behind the scenes tour where we got to learn about the huge fish collection there. Seeing the huge halls of movable shelving units on tracks, filled with specimens, made me feel like the Field Museum may just have the Ark of the Covenant (movie reference too vague?). Learning about the research being done in just that one section was eye-opening, and I left feeling like there was so much more to natural history collections than meets the eye. So what can I do to help? Write my congress-critter? Donate to the museum? Field Museum, MSI, Adler, Shedd - my kids love the hell out of each of them and it makes me sad to know that institutions like these are hurting.
  - jonchang 11y ago
    Hi there, I didn't see this comment until just now. Unfortunately you don't have contact information in your profile so hopefully you see this message. If you are not a practicing scientist, contacting the NSF will work best if you focus on how the collections at the Field Museum helped the Field Museum succeed in reaching out to the public about science. NSF has a dual purpose of "intellectual merit" and "broader impacts", and if you can speak about how the collections aligned with the NSF's goal of broader impacts that could make a difference. The proper contact email is dbicsbr@nsf.gov I know that the Field Museum has been doing a lot of layoffs recently. I don't know how well it's managed but definitely things like being a museum member and attending tours will signal to the museum that their research and outreach missions are important. Writing your senator and representative can definitely help, especially if you live in the district where a museum with a major collections focus is located. Most of them will have contact details or a constituent services form that you can use to get their attention.

jonchang 11y ago

Unfortunately, the NSF announced today that it was suspending support to natural history collections like the Field Museum. Hopefully they'll reverse course but in general museums are on the decline and it's possible that our ability to do this kind of work with fossils and other organisms will be limited in the future. http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503651 http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503651

spdustin 11y ago
Cringe. Just two months ago we were "dozin' with the dinos" at the Field Museum, and went on a behind the scenes tour where we got to learn about the huge fish collection there. Seeing the huge halls of movable shelving units on tracks, filled with specimens, made me feel like the Field Museum may just have the Ark of the Covenant (movie reference too vague?). Learning about the research being done in just that one section was eye-opening, and I left feeling like there was so much more to natural history collections than meets the eye. So what can I do to help? Write my congress-critter? Donate to the museum? Field Museum, MSI, Adler, Shedd - my kids love the hell out of each of them and it makes me sad to know that institutions like these are hurting.
- jonchang 11y ago
  Hi there, I didn't see this comment until just now. Unfortunately you don't have contact information in your profile so hopefully you see this message. If you are not a practicing scientist, contacting the NSF will work best if you focus on how the collections at the Field Museum helped the Field Museum succeed in reaching out to the public about science. NSF has a dual purpose of "intellectual merit" and "broader impacts", and if you can speak about how the collections aligned with the NSF's goal of broader impacts that could make a difference. The proper contact email is dbicsbr@nsf.gov I know that the Field Museum has been doing a lot of layoffs recently. I don't know how well it's managed but definitely things like being a museum member and attending tours will signal to the museum that their research and outreach missions are important. Writing your senator and representative can definitely help, especially if you live in the district where a museum with a major collections focus is located. Most of them will have contact details or a constituent services form that you can use to get their attention.