The Global Museum: natural history collections and the future of evolutionary science and public education

Autor: Alexander Schliep, Søren Faurby, Ellen Larsson, Johannes Müller, Rosemary G. Gillespie, George K. Roderick, Freek T. Bakker, Martin Irestedt, Joseph A. Cook, Kennet Lundin, Pável Matos-Maraví, Alexandre Antonelli, Niklas Wahlberg, Nuno Ferrand, John Wiedenhoeft, Scott V. Edwards, Julia A. Clarke, Ted von Proschwitz, Mari Källersjö, Magnus Gelang, Per G. P. Ericson
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
0106 biological sciences
Epigenomics
Field education
Science Policy
Specimens
Natural history
lcsh:Medicine
Biomimetic design
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Medical and Health Sciences
General Biochemistry
Genetics and Molecular Biology
Global museum
03 medical and health sciences
Naturvetenskap
Global health
Digital resources
Public education
Transcriptomics
030304 developmental biology
Biosphere Interactions
0303 health sciences
Food security
Ecology
Community engagement
General Neuroscience
lcsh:R
Biodiversity
General Medicine
Biological Sciences
Collections
Data science
Evolutionary Studies
Biosystematiek
Innovation-incubator
Academic community
Biosystematics
Zero Hunger
Place-based
Generic health relevance
EPS
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Natural Sciences
Zdroj: PeerJ, 8
PeerJ, Vol 8, p e8225 (2020)
PeerJ 8 (2020)
PeerJ
ISSN: 2167-8359
Popis: Natural history museums are unique spaces for interdisciplinary research and educational innovation. Through extensive exhibits and public programming and by hosting rich communities of amateurs, students, and researchers at all stages of their careers, they can provide a place-based window to focus on integration of science and discovery, as well as a locus for community engagement. At the same time, like a synthesis radio telescope, when joined together through emerging digital resources, the global community of museums (the ‘Global Museum’) is more than the sum of its parts, allowing insights and answers to diverse biological, environmental, and societal questions at the global scale, across eons of time, and spanning vast diversity across the Tree of Life. We argue that, whereas natural history collections and museums began with a focus on describing the diversity and peculiarities of species on Earth, they are now increasingly leveraged in new ways that significantly expand their impact and relevance. These new directions include the possibility to ask new, often interdisciplinary questions in basic and applied science, such as in biomimetic design, and by contributing to solutions to climate change, global health and food security challenges. As institutions, they have long been incubators for cutting-edge research in biology while simultaneously providing core infrastructure for research on present and future societal needs. Here we explore how the intersection between pressing issues in environmental and human health and rapid technological innovation have reinforced the relevance of museum collections. We do this by providing examples as food for thought for both the broader academic community and museum scientists on the evolving role of museums. We also identify challenges to the realization of the full potential of natural history collections and the Global Museum to science and society and discuss the critical need to grow these collections. We then focus on mapping and modelling of museum data (including place-based approaches and discovery), and explore the main projects, platforms and databases enabling this growth. Finally, we aim to improve relevant protocols for the long-term storage of specimens and tissues, ensuring proper connection with tomorrow’s technologies and hence further increasing the relevance of natural history museums.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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