New Species Hunters

Content Info | Transcript

Dr. Biology has a chance to learn some interesting things about exploring for new species from biologists Vick Funk and Richard Pyle from the Smithsonian Institute and the Bishop Museum.

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Topic Time
Intro 00:00
What kind of plants do you study? [Compositae] 01:10
Name of the plants in the Compositae family? 01:33
Why study these plants? What got you started? [taxonomy] 02:10
Travel the world to find these plants. 03:04
Travel not only horizontally around the world, but also vertically - underwater 03:47
Scuba diving to crazy deep levels. 04:48
Exotic gases - that make you sound like a chipmunk or Mickey Mouse. [helium] 05:30
Two thirds of marine diversity found in the Pacific Ocean. 06:10
What are you looking for in the ocean and why use scuba? 06:25
All about rebreather. 07:50
Coloration of organisms? 08:39
Color patterns. 10:08
Mimicry 10:59
Plant look alike due to similar environments - convergent evolution. 12:21
What's the coolest place you have been to? [the Smithsonian Diet] 13:33
Use of computers as a tool for biology research. [databases, bioinformatics] 14:52
Do you see databases easy enough for the general public to use? 17:07
Calling all citizen scientists - and - computer nerds. 18:19
When did you first know you wanted to be a biologist? [Vicki and Richard] 20:37
What would you be if you could not be a biologist? [Vicki and Richard] 22:00
What advice do you have for someone wanting to be a biologist? [Vicki and Richard] 23:53
What's it like to work at the Smithsonian? 25:10
Is there any new digital imaging equipment that is helping you do your work? 26:03
Sign-off 29:01

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New Species Hunters

Audio editor: Charles Kazilek

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