Pic of the Day
Monday, 31 May 2004

Opening Registration
31 May 2004

The RTP Class of '04 has arrived!

The boring task of completing registration documents was made more bearable by their realization that as part of the RTP they are now officially part of the Smithsonian community of scientists. Visits to office spaces and through the vast collections proved, in many cases, awe inspiring. Gasps of delight could be heard as we walked Lynn Copes past the "Terry Collection" and, leaving nose prints on the glass, we had to pry Neil Aschliman away from the fish collection window. Arden Ashley was especially delighted to find her name on her Smithsonian office door, along with that of her research advisor, Dr. David Pawson. It's going to be a great summer! Stay tuned

Opening Registration
31 May 2004

Amid a foggy, wet morning the smiling faces of the 19 students joining the RTP of '04 arrived on time (8:45 a.m.) to the Constitution Avenue Lobby, about to begin their summer as part of the Smithsonian community.

Opening Registration
31 May 2004

No, no silly games to remember each others names, but still everyone, including Tony Alvarez, took a moment to introduce themselves, describe their research topic for the summer, and what they're looking forward to the most during their stay in DC. Tony is most looking forward to seeing the sights around the Washington DC area.

Opening Registration
31 May 2004

Even after listening to Mary talk most of the morning about museum policies and completing lots of registration paper work, happy smiling faces could still be found in the ARC late into the afternoon.

Group Photo
1 June 2004

Group Photo
1 June 2004

Group Photo
1 June 2004

The RTP Class of '04 lined up in front of the Smithsonian Castle (left to right) Lynn Copes, Tony Alvarez, Jon Chen, Arden Ashley, Adrienne Sussman, Emily Moran, Lee Zelewicz, Miguel Pinto, Neil Aschliman, Xavier Haro, James Morgan, Amie Garcia, Digna Ortiz, Andrew Gaudreau, Mauricio Torres, Joaquin Aldabe, Megan Brown, Jorge Velez, and Kate Musica.

Group Photo - REU
1 June 2004

The RTP Class of '04 includes 11 students supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program (DBI-0243512). They are: (top row) Tony Alvarez, Amie Garcia, Lee Zelewicz, Arden Ashley, Emily Moran and James Morgan. (bottom row) Megan Brown, Lynn Copes, Jorge Velez, Adrienne Sussman, and Jonathan Chen.

Group Photo - Latino Initiatives
1 June 2004

The RTP received a special grant from the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Fund to support the participation of four students as part of the RTP Class of '04, including: Miguel Pinto, Xavier Haro, Mauricio Torres, and Joaquin Aldabe.

Opening Day
1 June 2004

Mauricio Torres and the "Thorington Panda."
Each summer beautifully painted statues adorn the streets of DC. This year the theme is "pandas" and gracing the NMNH mall steps is a panda statue painted by Carey Thorington (spouse of Dick Thorington). The painted "Thorington Panda" features 45 different animals.

Learn more about the panda statue project at:

Welcoming Reception
1 June 2004

NMNH Director Dr. Crisitan Samper hosted a special reception in the Director's Office to welcome the 19 students joining the RTP Class of 2004 - the 25th class of the RTP. More than 100 guests attended the reception that featured an assortment of light refreshments.

Welcoming Reception
1 June 2004

As part of the reception students got to meet many NMNH staff representing a variety of disciplines, units, and offices including the libraries, business ventures, and sponsored projects.

Welcoming Reception
1 June 2004

The welcoming reception also provides a good opportunity for students to talk informally with their advisors. Here Anthony Alvarez (left) discusses the field work plans with his advisor, Scott Wing. Scott warns that the field aspect of the project will require a lot of work and will be conducted at a site with very hot and dry conditions, but Tony laughs off the warning in confidence.

Welcoming Reception
1 June 2004

Joaquin Aldabe (middle) first met members of his research team, including Chris Milensky (left), when Chris was doing field work in Uruguay. Joaquin was then selected for participation in the RTP working with co-advisor Carla Dove (right).

Welcoming Reception
1 June 2004

His first year at the NMNH as a research scientist, Matt Carrano (right) welcomes his first RTP student, Jorge Velez.

Welcoming Reception
1 June 2004

A seasoned advisor, Rich Vari (left) has already hosted 6 RTP students, now welcoming his seventh Mauricio Torres Mejia.

Welcoming Reception
1 June 2004

Among the invited guests attending the reception was Violet Bruce, the geology rep from the Office of Sponsored projects. Here Violet (right) talks to RTP intern Neil Aschliman (left) and technicians from the National Marine Fisheries Lab.

Welcoming Reception
1 June 2004

The RTP class of 2004 and their advisors, photo by Chip Clark. This was the first time we tried a complete group photo of all students and advisors - what a large group!

Anthropology Lecture
2 June 2004

Anthropology Day started out with a lecture by Rick Potts on "Searching for Human Origins." Rick Potts conducts a summer field season each year in Olorgesaiille, Kenya to look for evidence of our earliest ancestors.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

Long hallways of bones in boxes is characteristic of the Anthropology hallways! Here interns patiently wait their turn to see the Human Origins Program lab.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

Jennifer Clark hosts a tour of the Human Origins Project office and lab, explaining why, exactly, fossil elephant and horses belong with the hominid skulls.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

An example of a cabinet holding casts of hominin skulls (these are Asian Homo erectus specimens). The originals are always kept in the country where they were found.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

Interns tour the Human Origins Lab.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

In the Human Origins Lab, on display were stone tools from the first Olduwan technologies (2.5 mya) to more sophisticated Acheulian hand axes and later examples of North American clovis points.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

In Rick Pott's new office he displayed a spread of skulls representing the past 3-4 million years of hominin evolution, from "Lucy" to anatomically modern humans.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

Rick Potts describes how the human skull changed over time.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

Included in the set of skulls displayed are Mrs. Ples, an Australopithecus africanus, the Black Skull (A. aethiopicus) and KNM-ER 1813 and 1470, members of the debated species of Homo habilis

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

Emily Moran, a true botanist, couldn't help speculating about the diet of our ancestors and the evolutionary adaptation in the skull to accommodate different dietary changes.

Pic of the Day
Wednesday, 2 June 2004

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

Fresh back from presenting her research on the brain of the Monte Circeo Neandertal at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists' meeting, Lynn Copes was delighted to examine the newest (and smallest) adult Homo erectus cranium yet discovered. The skull theme reflected on her shirt, Lynn is dreaming of finding more fossil hominins when she goes to Olorgesailie, Kenya, with Dr. Potts next month

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

Laurie Burgess shows Digna Ortiz a Patu. This Patu was first manufactured in New Zealand, then traveled with Captain Cook to Canada, and was ultimately a funerary object in Oregon. It will be repatriated this month.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

Anthony Alvarez holds an Obsidian tool, flaked by Alan Alda during the filming of an upcoming TV special.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

Obsidian arrowheads.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

Amie Garcia, Megan Brown, Joaquin Aldabe, and Xavier Haro listen carefully as Laurie Burgess describes the few specimens she has brought to talk about compared to the vast collections stored at the Museum's Support Center (MSC) in Suitland, Maryland.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

The original (center), a painted cast (bottom), and unpainted cast (top) of Captain Cook's Patu. Before repatriation a quality painted cast is prepared to document the artifact, reproducing as much detail as possible.

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

Mali cooking pot

Anthropology Tour
2 June 2004

This Mail textile was recently added to the collections. More than just a design, the pattern tells the story of the jealous wife. Still sold in Mali market places, women buy and wear the textile, not for the beauty of the color and design, but to communicate insight about their home situation.

Event Evaluations
2 June 2004

Miguel Pinto fills out his first event evaluation form. All students attending RTP events complete an evaluation of the event which are then compiled and events evaluated. Student evaluations, and comments, about events are very important and determine which events are, and are not, offered in subsequent years.

Pic of the Day
Thursday, 3 June 2004

Norman Rockwell Painting for the ARC

Painted by Norman Rockwell in 1971 for Look magazine, the ARC will house the original "Audubon Observing the Passenger Pigeon" - much to the amazement of Megan Brown, Amie Garcia, Yvette Osborne, and Lee Zelewicz who couldn't believe the colorful art work that appeared was the original painting!

Botany Lecture
4 June 2004

Botany Day started off with a lecture by Vicki Funk on Asteraceae, the largest plant family, and in particular the use of "super trees" to determine estimates of phylogenetic relationships between species and genera in the Asteraceae.

Botany Lecture
4 June 2004

All RTP lectures this year will held in the ARC using the powerpoint projector installed in December and projecting on the newly painted wall. The arrangement of couches, tables, and chairs will be determined by each student host.

Botany Herbarium Tour
4 June 2004

Traditionally Greg McKee provides the tour of the Botany collections but since Greg was in Mongolia doing field work Botany collection manager, Rusty Russell filled in. Xavier Haro introduced Rusty to the group before beginning the tour of the U.S. National Herbarium.

Botany Herbarium Tour
4 June 2004

Positioned near the "Botany Best" collection of interesting herbarium specimens, students also got their first demonstration of the Museum's compactor system.

Botany Herbarium Tour
4 June 2004

Most botanical specimens are pressed, dried and mounted on 11x17 sheets of acid-free paper. However, not all specimens press well, such as this cactus, so in many cases acid-free trays and boxes are used to store "bulky" specimens.

Botany Herbarium Tour
4 June 2004

Here Kate Musica examines a flowering specimen of the bamboo Phyllostachys bambusoides, known to flower only once every 120 years. When this species came into flower in the '70's many individuals from around the world participated in the study, sending in samples from their gardens including drawings, photos and letters.

Botany Herbarium Tour
4 June 2004

Like all museum collections, herbarium specimens not only document the taxon, but also represent a point in time - freezing the moment and documenting the conditions surrounding it's life, growth, and development. A specimen of the same species collected in 1862 isn't the same as one collected today. While the species characters may have remained the same, the growing conditions have certainly changed. This is one reason why we continue to collect individuals of the same species, although there are already museum representatives found in the collections. As one of the first tours, interns listened with interest to the reasons museums specimens are important and how they're used.

Botany Herbarium Tour
4 June 2004

It might look a block of concrete but this plant (the red spots) can survive at greater depths than any other photosynthetic organism. Discovered by Mark and Diane Littler in 1983, it generated excitement in the scientific community as the discovery of the deepest plant life ever collected from the ocean. The crustose red alga was found in the Bahamas at a depth of 880 feet. This extended the depth distribution limits of marine plants and challenged established theories concerning the minimum light levels necessary to maintain plant growth.

Botany Herbarium Tour
4 June 2004

One of the cool things about the RTP is not just learning about research in the natural history sciences but also getting the opportunity to personally examine the specimen of studies, up close and personal. Here James Morgan holds a specimen of the deepest known algae, possibly contemplating the wonder of photosynthesis.

Botany Herbarium Tour
4 June 2004

One of the oddest of botanical specimens, Welwitschia mirabilis, found mainly in the Namib and Mossamedes Deserts, has just two long (very long) leaves that never fall off but just keep growing. While the leaf tips may split, curl, and break off, new tissue continues to arise from the base. Most plant leaves can grow only to a predetermined limit, with just the tip generating new tissue. Welwitschia plants can live for more than 1,500 years and few individuals are known. The plant produces small cones instead of "flowers" and an individual cone holds either male or female reproductive parts. Plants are pollinated by flies, drawn to the cones by droplets of sweet liquid. The cones caused botanists to first place Welwitschia as a gymnosperm but anatomical examination revealed that the plant had processes and structures more consistent with flowering plants.

What a rare treat to not only see a specimen of Welwitschia, but also examine it up close, like Jorge Velez and Kate Music are doing.

Botany Herbarium Tour
4 June 2004

James Morgan and Mauricio Torres hold a specimen of wood from Trindade, one of the many wood specimens included in the US National Herbarium. The Wood Collection contains approximately 42,500 specimens representing almost 3,000 genera. Approximately 60% of the specimens are vouchered, with most of the vouchers deposited in the US National Herbarium (US). But what's so special about the Trindade wood?

"Out in the South Atlantic some 1,500 kilometers east by north from Brazil's Rio de Janeiro, a volcano top called Trindade juts above the sea." . . . "Sailing ships shunned Trindade's ironbound shore unless they lacked water for drinking or wood for the stoves. There was wood aplenty, too, for the steep slopes bore thousands of trees, by all accounts trees of one kind only. Before 1821, however, something or some event had killed them - killed them all - leaving a weird landscape of standing corpses. It was, in the words of one who saw it, a forest of desolation, as if nature had at some particular moment ceased to vegetate." - - to read more: Eyde, R.H. and S.L. Olson. 1983. "The dead trees of Ilha da Trindade" Bartonia 49: 32-51.

But what were the trees and what killed them?
Enter Smithsonian scientists Richard Eyde, plant anatomist, and ornithologist Storrs Olson. With nothing remaining but dead stumps, how could the trees be identified? Using histological comparisons of the wood the tree was identified as Colubrina glandulosa, a member of the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae). As to what killed them, you'll have to go to the library and read the article (I'll never tell). A copy of the article is also available in the ARC.

Botany Herbarium Tour
4 June 2004

Examining the specimen of Trindade wood, geologist Megan Brown speculates, "volcanic eruption, that's what changed the climate and killed the trees." Was she right?