The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments

What makes a scientific experiment beautiful? For New York Times science writer George Johnson it's the simplistic but breathtaking experiments conducted not in high tech labs with a team of scientists but home labs by the hands of individuals such as Galileo, Pavlov and Newton. Come listen to Johnson speak tonight (7 pm) at the Burke about his new book, The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments.

Johnson will be available to sign copies of his book after the lecture, which will be available for purchase at the Burke. Admission is $5 for the general public and free for Burke members and students.

If you can't make it tonight check out some of Johnson's past interviews:

Colbert Nation (The link doesn't always work so keep trying. It's pretty funny.)

NPR On Point

Earth Hour this Saturday

Next Saturday, March 28, at 8:30 pm, spend an hour in the dark. The World Wildlife Fund has organized a global effort to turn off the lights in homes and businesses across the world for one hour. The purpose? To send a message to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhangen in late 2009 that the world's citizens want governments to adopt policies that will take action against global warming. For more information, visit the Earth Hour web site or watch the video below:



Come back after the weekend and share your stories about Earth Hour!

Coffee Talk

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications

Coffee, coffee, coffee! Lately it’s on the mind and in my cup. I’m a coffee newbie, so this is actually worth noting. Whereas I used to be satisfied with a nice chai, now I read a coffee blog, make French press coffee in the morning, and read up on local specialty coffee vendors. This week, I’ve been learning more about two vendors in particular that will be at the museum this weekend offering free tastings of their delicious coffee.

Camano Island Coffee Roasters, who will be serving up the goods from 11 am – 2 pm this Saturday (March 21), is a mission-based business that uses its profits to support third-world coffee growing nations. You can join their Coffee Lover’s Club to receive fresh shipments of coffee from around the world knowing that, among other great benefits, $1 of every package you order will be donated to Agros International (they help landless communities achieve land ownership and economic sustainability). Learn more about what Camano Island Coffee Roasters does if you visit on Saturday.

The Vancouver BC based Hines/Origins will be at the museum on Sunday, also from 11 am – 2 pm, to give visitors a chance to taste single origin Ethiopian coffee while focusing on the birthplace and history of the drink. They will also have their coffee available for purchase.

What are citizen scientists?

Posted by: Karin Hoffman, Communications

For over 50 years, citizen scientists from around the Northwest have been contributing a wealth of information that may help scientists better understand global climate change, and some of that information has been stored at the Burke Museum. In addition to housing over 70,000 bird specimens, the Burke is also a repository for 12,000 file cards gathered by staff and volunteers over many years that document ecological data of over 100 bird species. The study of plant and animal life cycle events in relation to climate change is known as phenology. Increasingly scientists are turning to volunteers to help identify and understand changing environmental trends, and the Burke Museum has a long history of working with such volunteers.

What can you do to help? Become a citizen scientist! Check out the National Phenology Network to volunteer. While they currently only monitor plants, they will soon expand their efforts to include animals and physical phenomena.

For more information about citizen scientists and the Burke’s role in recording their findings, read these recent articles: The Tacoma News Tribune, Seattle Times

Photo: Robert Faucett, Burke ornithology collections manager, with part of the museum's egg collection. Photograph by Ken Lambert, courtesy Seattle Times.

How to Move a 10-Foot Tall Statue

Posted By: Rina Luzius, Ethnology

How do you go about moving a 10 foot tall, 2 feet wide welcome figure that is in 4 pieces from a museum into a public lobby? Very carefully!

First hire a first class art handling firm to help move the heavy but delicate Welcome Figure to the University of Washington Tower for installation. Separate pieces were delicately wrapped in blankets, strapped down and driven to their new display venue in a moving van. Once there, Ethnology collections manager Rebecca Andrews and I met with the art handlers, along with our good colleagues Arn Slettebak from Exhibits and Sarah Tollefson from Facilities. Kurt Kiefer, former campus art administrator, was also there to help.

The first step in the installation process was to cordon off the installation area from the public employees walking through the building! We attracted quite a crowd of on-lookers as we worked to install the figure. Fortunately, the Welcome Figure already had a very sturdy metal platform mount that it was attached to, so this made our job easier. We had to lift the heavy figure plus mount safely onto the display platform without scratching the painted surface, this took all 6 of us. Then the art handler securely bolted the figure into place on the platform, so it wouldn’t tip over in an earthquake.

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Then we assembled the figure: separate arms had to be lifted up, set in place and bolted on. Although this sounds like a simple process, the arms are designed to move up and down, and needed to be secured in an outstretched position. Once the figure and arms were in place, the head had to be inserted into a steel mount at the back of the figure. This was the most technically difficult portion of the installation, as the heavy head had to be lifted over our heads. We were balanced on tall ladders on either side of the figure, and it was a challenge to gravity with the heavy wooden head. The final step was securing the 6 foot tall woven tunic on the figure.

The Welcome Figure now stands prominently in the UW Tower lobby, welcoming all visitors in the traditional First Nations way, with outstretched arms. Figures such as this one once stood along the shores of Washington and Vancouver Island facing the water, to greet people as they arrived by canoe. We hope you get a chance to see the Welcome Figure sometime.

Woah, Dinos!

Dino Day 09 was a smashing success. Over 3,000 people poured into the Burke last Saturday afternoon to get a taste for some of greatest paleontological wonders in the museum's collection. As evidenced in the slide show of pictures below, everybody who came had a blast!

All photos by Lora Shinn.

Burkemobile hits the road!

Posted by: Tim Stetter, Education

Last week, the Burke Education office conducted our first Burkemobile (yes, Burkemobile!) outreach program at Lincoln Elementary School in Ellensburg. This classroom-based program features three hands-on lessons (ecosystems, fossils, Native Cultures) that bring a unique museum experience to schools and students that normally can't visit us. One of the 5th grade teachers wrote that this was "an amazing day for our students." Next up on the schedule: Gilbert Elementary in Yakima and the Lummi Nation School in Bellingham. We also have multi-day trips in May to Aberdeen and Forks. A special thanks goes to the Burke collections managers and curators who helped prepare specimens for this outreach program!

This photograph shows a model of a wetland ecosystem, created by a team of 5th graders using specimens from the Burke Museum's education collection, including a juvenile Chinook Salmon, pressed Cattail, Monarch butterfly, Muskrat skull, and Great Blue Heron feather.

For more about Burke Education programs, visit our website.

Coffee talk

Posted by: Karin Hoffman, Communications

This weekend the Burke welcomes Pangaea Organica, an employee owned cooperative coffee roaster located right here in Seattle. While sipping on their organic, fair trade, single origin coffees from around the world, you can learn about fair trade and how their cooperative company is committed to their customers, product, suppliers, environment and each other. Stop by Sunday from 11 am to 2 pm to sample their coffee.

In the meantime, check out this video on fair trade produced by EQ.TV, a network of people committed to sustainability. The video features local vendors committed to supporting fair trade as well as the UW’s Fair Trade Coalition and Parnassus Café.

The Age of Dinosaurs

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications

It's a dino-riffic week at the Burke Museum, with Dino Day approaching and the launch of a brand new interactive Burke Box called Age of Dinosaurs! Dozens of physical Burke Boxes travel the state visiting classrooms all over Washington, but online Interactive Burke Boxes make it even easier for educators anywhere to utilize the resources of the Burke Museum. This is the second Interactive Burke Box (with more on the way); the first was called Rocks and Minerals of Washington State.

Click here to launch Age of Dinosaurs and learn all about geologic time, evolution, and life as a paleontologist. And if you know any educators, pass along the word about this great new tool that makes teaching about dinosaurs easy and fun!

Dino Day is Dino-mite!

Posted by: Karin Hoffman, Communications

On Saturday, March 7th from 10 am – 4 pm the Burke presents the 24th annual Dino Day. The star this year is Triceratops! Come learn about where it lived, what it ate, and who tried to eat it. Crack open a rock with Stonerose Interpretive Center, draw a dinosaur with illustrator Mark Orsen and watch Burke scientists extract fossils from rock right before your eyes. Here’s a little fossil preparation preview with Bruce Crowley, Burke fossil preparator, as he works on triceratops horns that will be on display for the first time at Dino Day.