Researchers can't test experimental cures for diseases and possible drug therapies on humans so they use the zebrafish for initial testing. That's because the journey from egg to embryo is the same in zebrafish and humans.
Technology
Looking For Lincoln
Former Disney animator and President Lincoln fan Christopher Oakley never thought his project to animate the Gettysburg Address would lead to an important historical discovery. But while researching the project, Oakley used his animation skills and new technology to discover a never-before-seen image of Lincoln at Gettysburg, also revealing that an image everyone thought was of Lincoln, was not.
What’s My Story: Marine Conservation Biologist
David Johnston is an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Marine Conservation & Ecology at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. As a kid, growing up miles from the ocean, he fell in love with the dazzling underwater photography brought into his living room by television. Today, he uses radio telemetry to get a more detailed image of the behavior of the ocean’s magnificent mammals.
Gray Seal Tracking
Hunters wiped out gray seals from the Cape Cod region in the 1800s. They've returned with federal protection, and now biologists are using high-tech tracking devices to study gray seals and how they interact with their environment, so they can be better protected.
Where The Wild Things Are
Researchers at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences are using camera traps, and enlisting citizen scientists, to study wild animal populations, behavior, habitat, and in a long term study, how human activity is affecting animal populations in a given area.
What’s My Story: Zoologist
Roland Kays started studying animals in a physics class. He thought he wanted to work in a genetic engineering lab but thought better of it when he saw a film about a zoologist peering into prairie dog mounds looking for burrowing owls. He switched his major to zoology and fell in love with mammals. Today, he keeps tabs on thousands of mammals in their natural habitats with the aid of new technology and citizen volunteers at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.
What's My Story: Ph.D. Research Assistant in Chemistry
It took Tana Villafana some time to figure out that she wanted to be a chemist. She started out hoping to be a writer and a musician. But as things worked out, she got to combine her love of the humanities with her love of electromagnetism.
Ph.D. Research Assistant: employed by a university to conduct research while seeking to earn a doctorate degree. They are typically responsible to a principal investigator.
Art Under a New Wavelength
Technologies originally designed to address one issue can be adapted to solve another. In this case, a laser designed to image and diagnose melanomas is now being used to study centuries-old works of art.
Fish Tagging
Ecosystems have limits to the numbers of organisms and population sizes they can support. These limits are set by predation, competition, diseases and the physical habitat (reefs, artificial reefs, mud flats, sea grass, and marsh). Fish biologists are using two types of tagging to understand how the physical environment constrains the population dynamics of the red drum, North Carolina's state fish.
What’s My Story: Fisheries Ecologist
F. Joel Fodrie is a fisheries ecologist at the UNC Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Science. He grew up fishing, shrimping, surfing, knee boarding, and goofing around a lot, but he didn’t think you could have a career in the ocean. A poster on a college bulletin board changed all that. Today, he is a fish detective, revealing the secret life of fish from beneath the water's surface.