The Sky Update for August 2019 is posted. You can find it at the Planetarium’s current night sky page. You’ll learn about pioneering astronomer Maria Mitchell, find out how to see the planets, and learn how and when t see the annual Perseid meteor shower!
Category Archives: Blogs
August 2019 Sky Update available
Also posted in Astronomy, News, Planetarium, Science Gallery & Planetarium, Space News Comments closed
Bogs and Dunes: Together at Last!
Water-saturated bogs and burning hot, cactus-covered sand dunes are not the kinds of habitats that you would normally expect to find near each other. But on a recent trip to Canadian Forces Base Shilo, I was surprised to find just that! In July, I was able to visit this restricted area to collect plants as part of a research project. We went to a part of the base that I…
A crash course in pollinator identification
Now that the weather is nice and warm, you’re probably seeing pollinators flying about. The main insect pollinators in Manitoba in order of decreasing abundance are: bees, flies, butterflies, moths, wasps and beetles. If you’d like to tell them apart, there are a few key features you need to look for. First off, count the number of wings. Are there four or just two? What is the texture like: membranous,…
Also posted in Botany Tagged botany, Manitoba, plants, Pollination, pollinators, prairie Comments closed
A crash course in pollinator-friendly gardening
The loss of biodiversity and plight of wild pollinators has been all over the news lately. If you’re interested in doing something to make life easier for these creatures, you might want to consider making your garden more pollinator friendly this year. Pollinators have three basic needs: food, nesting/breeding habitat and shelter. Food The best thing you can do is grow at least some native plants in your yard. Native…
Also posted in Botany Tagged botany, conservation, Manitoba, plants, Pollination, pollinators, prairie Comments closed
Dioramas: Where Science Meets Art
Post by Debbie Thompson, Diorama and Collections Technician Dioramas are incredible works of “science meets art”. Planning the layout, construction and content often takes years, with a tremendous amount of research and collaboration with curators, diorama artists, carpenters, and electricians. Volunteers are also a vital part of the making of dioramas; they take on the mammoth task of hand painting individual leaves. But what happens after the fanfare of the…
Also posted in Collections & Conservation Comments closed
Monumental Moves: Sweating over Big Artifacts (Part 1)
Post by Carolyn Sirett, Conservator If you want to see the blood pressure rise in a conservator, display really big, historically significant, breakable objects at least ten feet off the ground. It’s the next phase in our Bringing Our Stories Forward capital gallery renewal project, and the conservation team has moved to treating artifacts for the Winnipeg Gallery set to open in the fall of 2019. The objects going on…
Also posted in Collections & Conservation Comments closed
Lesser Known Manitoba Botanists (Part 1)
Post by Karen Sereda, Collections Registration Associate (Natural History) The incredible diversity of the Museum’s herbarium can only be credited to the dedicated collectors of botanical specimens, both modern and historical. Recently, while updating some herbarium specimens, I came across some plants in our collection dating from the early part of the 20th century. The importance of these specimens cannot be emphasized enough, as many of them come from locations…
Also posted in Collections & Conservation Comments closed
Plants just want to have sex
I personally feel a little sorry for plants. When plants want to have sex they can’t just go to a bar to meet someone; they are stuck in the ground. So what’s an amorous plant to do? For most of the earth’s history plants lived in water. When they wanted to have sex they just released their sperm into the ocean where it would swim around for a while before…
Going My Way? Conservation of a Streetcar Sign
Post by Angela May, Conservation Intern The Collections and Conservation Department hosted Angela May on her 15 week curriculum-based internship between September and December 2018. This internship was the final requirement for Fleming College’s Graduate Certificate in Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management. Before artifacts go on exhibition in the galleries, they come to the conservation lab for assessment and treatment if necessary. Recently I began work on preparing artifacts for…
Also posted in Collections & Conservation Comments closed
Imprisoning Our Own: Caught at Emerson! (Part II)
Jan 9, 2019 Post by Dr. Leah Morton, Assistant Curator (History) This research was supported by a grant from the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund. During the Great War, 8,579 people were sent to internment camps in Canada. Over 5,000 of them were Austro-Hungarian, or Ukrainian, civilians who had been classified as ‘enemy aliens.’ They were from countries Canada was fighting against, but the main reason for their…
Also posted in History Comments closed
