Public outreach is an important task for scientists, not only for those based at natural history museums. FEZ researchers aim at disseminating relevant topics relating to the group’s research interests to the public. In 2020, José, Torsten and Lutz published together with our colleague Arild Johnsen from the SERG group at NHM the popular science paper entitled ‘Naturhistoriske samlinger i den molekylære æraen: En kostbar hobby eller en bærebjelke for moderne forskning?’ in the Norwegian journal Naturen.
The paper (in Norwegian) discusses the relevance and importance of natural history collections in a time where a significant fraction of biodiversity research relies on molecular methods. We discuss the opportunities that new methods, in particular in DNA sequencing technology, offer for research on collection samples. If you are interested in the paper, you can access the abstract here.
Text in the teaser: Would like to learn what treasure chests are in the vaults of this building? The door of December 5th will give a glimpse.
Picture in the teaser:
… and only five days later the manuscript has been accepted for publication. Looking forward to seeing it printed in 2021.
Public outreach is indeed important. I am very happy that the very day we present the 2020 Naturen paper in our FEZ calendar we have submitted a further popular science paper with PhD fellow Marianne Nilsen Haugen as first author.