Come Explore the Unknown!
By Zoom: at go.wisc.edu/240r59.
In Person: Room 1111 Genetics Biotech Center, 425 Henry Mall, Madison.
7pm Central
For January 19, 2022
Hi WN@TL Fans,
In my Morphology of Vascular Plants class at UW-Platteville, Professor Dziekanowski spent a few fleeting moments on extinct plants known only from the fossil record. The textbook illustrations at the time (about 1978) of long-gone phytons were mostly pen-and-ink drawings. Like the fossils, I was unmoved. Most vascular plants don’t move much anyway; they are the Sessile B. DeMille of the biosphere.
But when I got to Northern Illinois University, I met a paleontologist colleague who studied dinosaurs. I was astonished to learn he studied the mechanics of movement and the social behavior of beasts dead and gone for 66 million years. With extinct plants, we (or at least, I) didn’t expect to be able to extract from the mute fossils any reliable, testable ideas about plant behavior, what little behavior they might have had.
Not so for the paleontologists who studied animals, especially the two or four-legged versions.
Here, years before the book “Jurassic Park”, I was to learn that dinosaurs, in the hands and minds and calculations of an imaginative and analytical paleontologist, could leap out of the rocks, canter about, graze, browse, mate, migrate, hunt prey, even swim or fly away, or nap the day away. How did he and his colleagues figure this stuff out?
I’m not sure, but I think it had something to do with mathemechanics and aerodynamics. The social/behavioral parts have all remained a cipher to me.
At least, until this week…
On January 19 Scott Hartman of Integrative Biology will walk and chalk us through his meticulous techniques for drawing the skeletons of dinosaurs, and especially for drawing out inferences about dinosaur anatomy in his talk entitled, “Having A Bone to Pick: The Ins & Outs of Reconstructing Dinosaur Anatomy.”
Description: What can we know about the anatomy and habits of long-extinct organisms? Join us to see how new tools and old bones unravel the mysteries of how extinct organisms worked and lived. We will examine how dinosaur anatomy can help us appreciate unique aspects of avian anatomy today, and how some dinosaurs managed to approach the size of whales while living on land.
Bio: Scott Hartman is a paleontologist specializing in functional anatomy, evolution, and mass extinctions. A professional scientific illustrator and consultant for 25 years, he has supplied skeletal reconstructions for dozens of print, educational and media projects including “Dinosaurs: The Textbook”, the Smithsonian Institution, and the “Walking With Dinosaurs” movie. Scott is also a publishing paleontologist, including papers on Supersaurus, Archaeopteryx, and Medusaceratops.
Explore More: https://www.skeletaldrawing.com/
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On January 26 Bruce Johnson, Solar Farmer, returns to WN@TL to give us an update on the fast-moving field of electric cars.
Description: Ten-year-Electric Vehicle owner Bruce A. Johnson and several fellow EV owners will take you on a deep dive into the realities of electric cars in 2022 and beyond. And we will answer the question recently ripped from the headlines: Do You Want To Be Stuck In A Blizzard In An EV?
The answer will surprise you.
Tune in at go.wisc.edu/240r59 or come see it live in Room 1111 Genetics Biotech!
Bio: Bruce A. Johnson has spent over 38 years as a television production professional, first in the commercial and public TV sectors and now with a non-profit. He is also a fierce advocate for alternative energy, having installed his first set of solar panels 15 years ago, and having owned four electric cars in the last 10 years. This will be his seventh presentation to Wednesday Nite @ The Lab since 2008.
Bio: Bruce A. Johnson has spent over 38 years as a television production professional, first in the commercial and public TV sectors and now with a non-profit. He is also a fierce advocate for alternative energy, having installed his first set of solar panels 15 years ago, and having owned four electric cars in the last 10 years. This will be his seventh presentation to Wednesday Nite @ The Lab since 2008.
Explore More:
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On January 26 Bruce Johnson, Solar Farmer, returns to WN@TL to give us an update on the fast-moving field of electric cars.
Description: Ten-year-Electric Vehicle owner Bruce A. Johnson and several fellow EV owners will take you on a deep dive into the realities of electric cars in 2022 and beyond. And we will answer the question recently ripped from the headlines: Do You Want To Be Stuck In A Blizzard In An EV?
The answer will surprise you.
Tune in at go.wisc.edu/240r59 or come see it live in Room 1111 Genetics Biotech!
Bio: Bruce A. Johnson has spent over 38 years as a television production professional, first in the commercial and public TV sectors and now with a non-profit. He is also a fierce advocate for alternative energy, having installed his first set of solar panels 15 years ago, and having owned four electric cars in the last 10 years. This will be his seventh presentation to Wednesday Nite @ The Lab since 2008.
Bio: Bruce A. Johnson has spent over 38 years as a television production professional, first in the commercial and public TV sectors and now with a non-profit. He is also a fierce advocate for alternative energy, having installed his first set of solar panels 15 years ago, and having owned four electric cars in the last 10 years. This will be his seventh presentation to Wednesday Nite @ The Lab since 2008.
Explore More:
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On February 2 Rebecca Larson of Biological Systems Engineering will speak on “Climate Change and Agriculture: Mitigation Strategies for Dairy.” I’m sensing a odiferous saga of ebb & flow of rumination, and I’m guessing methane will be in the mix, along with the usual suspect: carbon dioxide.
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Remember, we’ve now shifted to Hybrid so we can both Zoom and gather in one Room—Room 1111 Genetics Biotech Center, 425 Henry Mall, Madison WI.
Hope to see you soon at Wednesday Nite @ The Lab!
Tom Zinnen
Biotechnology Center & Division of Extension, Wisconsin 4-H
Biotechnology Center & Division of Extension, Wisconsin 4-H
UW-Madison
Please share this missive with your friends & neighbors.
If you’ll be watching for the first time, please register for the WN@TL Zoom at go.wisc.edu/240r59
If you’ve already registered for a previous WN@TL zoom this year, you’re good—you don’t have to register again.
Continue to use the link found in the confirmation message Zoom sent you when you first registered.
WN@TL begins at 7:00pm Central
You can also watch the web stream at biotech.wisc.edu/webcams for one last time on October 20. The web stream thereafter will redirect viewers to the WN@TL YouTube livestream.
UW-Madison: 5.9 million owners, one pretty good public land-grant teaching, research and extension university.
Visit UW-Madison’s science outreach portal at science.wisc.edu for information on the people, places & programs on campus that welcome you to come experience science as exploring the unknown, all year round.
Here are the components of the WN@TL User’s Guide:
1. The live WN@TL seminar, every Wednesday night, 50 times a year, at 7pm CT in Room 1111 Genetics Biotech Center and on Zoom at go.wisc.edu/240r59
2. The WN@TL YouTube channel
3. WN@TL on the University Place broadcast channel of PBS Wisconsin
4. WN@TL on the University Place website
Park for a small fee in Lot 20, 1390 University Avenue, Madison, WI
In partnership with
Wisconsin Alumni Association | UW-Madison Biotechnology Center
Division of Extension | PBS Wisconsin | UW Science Alliance
#WisconsinIdea