Botanical
US Virtual Herbarium
The goal of the US Virtual Herbarium (USVH) project is to digitize (database, image, georeference) all specimens in all US herbaria, enabling them to be made available through a single portal. Herbaria house specimens of plants, fungi, and algae, so USVH will offer a rich portrait of biodiversity in the US and in the other countries represented in US herbaria. Equally importantly, working towards this goal will engage people with herbaria and the organisms they house, expanding their appreciation of both the power of biodiversity informatics and the demands that it places on data providers while developing improved communication among those working in and with herbaria. The project is not funded but has strong support among those working in herbaria. It works through regional herbarium networks, some of which existed prior to the USVH project, while others are still in gestation. It differs from most digitization projects in its emphasis on helping those involved with herbaria become part of a national enterprise, an aspect that is seen as critical to creating the resources needed to develop and sustain the project. In this paper, we present some of the lessons we have learned and the difficulties we have encountered during the first few years of the project.
Deep Data Prototype 2: arabidopsis
<p>Consistent with the Deep Data concept, this work would reproduce or reinterpret space bioscience experiments using the same organism. It appears that arabidopsis has been used extensively for gravitaxis and root development experiments, and despite my future plans to build a random positioning machine, that was not feasible on the short timescale I had to develop and make the piece.</p> <p>Being a model organism, arabidopsis has numerous documented naturally occurring and genetically manipulated mutants. One of these is the photomorphogenic mutant NW67, which will show variations in the development of the hypocotyl depending on the spectrum of light it receives at the seedling stage.</p>
Water and Bonsai
<p>A beautifully curved deadwood of Sabina chinesis is attached to java moss resembling leaves. Different trunk and leaves are combined to form Bonsai, which now rests in a new environment with water.</p> <p>Within a fully glazed aquarium eliminated any excrescences, we catch a glimpse of Bonsai in its true light, from its foliage, nervure to breath. The aquarium’s internal environment follows a natural cycle, by stimulating photosynthesis with LED lights and CO2 emissions, which are reversed day and night. A filtration system runs constantly to keep clean water.</p>