6 Minute Science

Paleontologist Silvia Pineda-Munoz discusses her research on diet and tooth evolution in mammals and how they relate to changing ecosystems.

What are lichens? How diverse are they? Manuela Dal Forno discusses this unique group of composite organisms.

Ingrid Ahlgren discusses her research of the importance of woven mats within the culture of the Marshall Islands in the North Pacific Ocean.

Jeremy Feinberg discusses his research about frog populations in urban settings.

Rafael Lemaitre discusses his research on the diversity of hermit crabs.

Rebecca Fischer discuses her research on the role that light elements play in making up the Earth’s core.

What are caddisflies? Paul Frandsen discusses the diversity of this insect group and why they are important not only as environmental indicators but to the medical community as well.

What is Earth Optimism? Nancy Knowlton discusses her involvement with the Earth Optimism Summit and the importance of it to educate everyone about what we can do to help save the Earth.

Why do species live where they do and why do some groups thrive more than others? Dr. Bort (Robert) Edwards discusses his work on how habitats and environment factors affect plant diversity in North America.

How do scientists monitor ocean environments down to 1,000 feet deep? Luke Tornabene, of the DROP project, discusses how a manned submersible aids researchers in monitoring deep reef ecosystems and why this environment is important.

What causes lizard populations to separate into two distinct populations or possibly form new species? Andrew Gottscho discusses his research on lizard populations on Baja California, Mexico and whether or not new populations were formed by dispersal or due to some kind of geological barrier.

How do nocturnal birds see at night and what is the evolutionary history of this adaptation in birds? Noor White discusses two potential scenarios for how nightvision evolved within a bird group that includes of hummingbirds and nightjars.

Robert Hershler discusses his inventory work on springsnails in the Western US.

How fast can spiders move their chelicerae? Hannah Wood uses high-speed video cameras to document the rate that these appendages move.

How can ethnographic collections provide information on the relationship between countries? Stéphanie Leclerc-Caffarel discusses her work about the presence of Americans in Fiji via the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1840.

Are there any wing pattern differences between butterflies and moths? Sandra Schachat discusses her research on wing pattern and wing venation in the insect order Lepidoptera.

What exactly are planetesimals? What are they made of? Why are they important? Nicole Lunning discusses her research re-creating “pocket-sized” versions of these space objects in a high temperature furnace.

Can a plant be identified solely from a photograph? Yes, and Larry Dorr discusses an instance where one photograph led to 1,000 word scientific manuscript.

Can rocks be created with an andesitic composition from very simple, low degree melting on an asteroid-sized body? According to Kat Gardner-Vandy, yes, and she explains why.

Liz Zimmer uses genomic sequences and micromorphology to identify spore-bearing vascular plants, the Lycophytes.

Torrey Rick discusses what “middens” are and how they can help in our understanding of the past, present, and hopefully the future of ecosystems and biodiversity.

Jon Coddington explains the importance of the Global Genome Initiative and its role in preserving biodiversity.

What is an oviraptor? A team of scientists, including Hans Sues, recently discovered a new oviraptor dinosaur species in the Upper Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation in North and South Dakota. Here he discusses what the team’s findings.

Anikó Tóth discusses her findings on how and if mammal communities within several East African parks change over time.

Are there any adaptive differences between juvenile and adult Theropod Dinosaurs? Rich Bykowski compared three morphological components (skull shape, teeth, and limb bones) of juveniles to adults to answer this question.

Amy Driskell discusses the importance of DNA barcoding and genomic sequences for identifying organisms to the species level.

By using the genetic sequence database, known as GenBank, Rebecca Dikow discusses her research on the genomic relationships across the three domains of life.

How do hyperiid amphipods see in the deep blue sea? Jamie Baldwin-Fergus discusses her research on these small to medium crustaceans living deep in the pelagic waters.

Can a plant be identified by its “ooze?” Jorge Santiago-Blay describes and discusses how he identifies some plants by their “gooey” substance, known as plant exudates.

What is obsidian? Laura Waters talks about this naturally occurring volcanic glass and the experiments she has conducted in the lab to uncover how it is formed.

When we think of a maple leaf, we think of the classic ‘maple leaf’ shape, however, A.J. Harris discusses the diversity of maples including the difference in their bark, leaves and fruits.

A fly is a fly, right? No. Eliana Buenaventura discusses her research on the importance and the diversity of flesh flies.

Can scientists use marine worms as a model to understand the movement and life histories of species, especially of those in the ocean? Michael Boyle discusses how his research on these worms provides relevant information on reproduction and development.

What drove the Elephant Bird to extinction? Kristina Douglass discusses how human impact may have aided in their extinction in Madagascar.

How do pelagic polychaetes adapt to their environment? Karen Osborn discusses her research on the morphological adaptations that allow these animals to live up in the water column.

How does climate change affect where people live? Dan Rogers discusses his research on how climate change has affected the Canadian demographic landscape.

Can you really tell what happened to an animal from bones? Stephanie Canington discusses what happened to an orangutan that is in the mammal collection of the National Museum of Natural History.

Carol Butler discusses the importance of collections at the National Museum of Natural History.

Have you ever wondered how toxins can effect human populations over time? Sabrina Sholts uses skeletal collections to see if there is a correlation between petroleum exposure and the decline of human head size and stature.

What kind of fossils can be found in the Eocene Messel Deposit and how do they relate to modern food webs? Conrad Labandeira from Paleobiology discusses how the Messel food web is the most complete food web known and discusses two noteworthy examples from the web.

What happens when birds smack right into planes? Why do we care? Who identifies the bird remains? Carla Dove and her team use museum collections to identify the culprits and this information is then used for wildlife management on airfields.

What drives a volcano to erupt? What are the conditions of the stored magma prior to eruption? By using laboratory experiments, Stephanie Grocke pressurizes lava samples to answer these questions.