The selected projects are intended to communicate Earth systems science research to lifelong learners. Â
Systems Institute has awarded two education and outreach grants to support projects led
Deborah Matthews hunts for plume moths in darkness, waiting for the halo of her headlamp to catch a brief flicker. About the size of mosquitoes, the delicate, feathery moths fly only a few feet at a time. Matthews must watch for that short flight while keeping clear of poisonwood, cracks in the lime
Led by Florida Museum curator Jacqueline Miller, the team sampled pinelands, dunes
Nature seems to have an inexhaustible supply of inspiration when it comes to butterflies. With over 18,000 species, each with a unique geometry and color combination, butterflies look as though they’re trying their best to imitate a sunbeam that crossed paths with a prism. A new study published i
was overharvested in the early 1900s, but later efforts to cultivate the plant led
Botanist Cody Coyotee Howard compares bulbs to living bunkers. With an underground stockpile of resources, bulbs can hunker down during disasters and spring up faster than other plants when conditions turn balmy. The bigger the bulb, the more nutrients a plant has in times of need. But bulb size
His curiosity led to one of the first studies of the evolution and ecology of bulb
Annisa Karim has always nurtured a fondness for the natural world. In her hometown of Nairobi, Kenya, Karim’s father took her and her sister to nearby national parks almost every weekend, instilling a deep appreciation for nature and laying the foundation for her future career in conservation biolog
entirely new array of ecosystems in which to deepen her regard that ultimately led
Florida Museum researchers‘ discovery of a giant fossilized snake in Colombia reveals a picture of warmer tropics ruled by beasts larger than anyone imagined. The largest snake the world has ever known – as long as a school bus and as heavy as a small car – ruled tropical ecosystems only 6 mi
imagination, but reality has exceeded the fantasies of Hollywood,” said Bloch, who co-led
Catnip is most famous for its ability to launch felines into a euphoric frenzy, but the origin of its cat-attracting chemical is a remarkable example of evolutionary innovation. While the compound nepetalactone drives two-thirds of cats batty, likely by mimicking sex pheromones, its real purpose
ancestral genes and enzymes, they were able to trace the sequence of events that led
In February 2020, researchers undertook a broad study of how museums used distance learning in their education programs, not anticipating the world would soon be turned on its head. With the sudden spike in the number of COVID-19 cases the following month, 90% of museums and science centers around t
2021 Florida Museum photographer Kristen Grace helps set up a virtual summer camp led
T he National Science Foundation has awarded iDigBio nearly $20 million to continue its mission of digitizing natural history collections nationwide, making them available online to researchers, educators and community scientists around the world. For the past decade, iDigBio, a collaborative
based at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida, has led
Some male butterflies go to extreme lengths to ensure their paternity – sealing their mate’s genitalia with a waxy “chastity belt” to prevent future liaisons. But female butterflies can fight back by evolving larger or more complex organs that are tougher to plug. Males, in turn, counterattack by fa
some butterfly mating plugs, such as this winglike form in Euryades duponchelii, led
