Sauropodcast

Imagine if you had to come up with a concept that explains what everything in the universe is made of.

Could there be a more complicated assignment? To describe the stuff that comprises everything we know -- every galaxy and star and planet and person and protoplasm and dust mite? To boil all those complex, myriad things down into a basic set of ingredients and rules, that apply across the board?

If someone asked you to do that, you’d say it was impossible, right?

So it might surprise you to know that scientists have already done it. They’ve come up with an answer to the question of what fundamental particles and forces underpin almost everything in the universe (gravity is the only exception), and what governs the behavior of those ingredients.

And it might surprise you even more to know that that answer has been around now for 50 years.

It’s a pretty good answer too – so good, in fact, that this answer, this theory, has survived every attempt by scientists to challenge it and prove that it isn’t correct.

This theory was so ahead of its time that, only now, in the 21stcentury, are we able to design and build machines that can test the theory’s most extreme predictions. And those predictions are holding up. The tests show that every one of the theory’s predictions about the universe’s ingredients and forces are accurate. The theory has a 50-year-long winning streak.

We’re going to explore this remarkable theory, known as the Standard Model, in today’s episode. Our guest is one of the best people in the world to help us understand what the Standard Model is, how it came to be, why it’s important, and where we’re headed next.

Dr. Glenn Starkman is an internationally known theoretical physicist.

His research interests include searching for habitable planets, probing the shape of the universe, looking for miniature black holes, and extending and testing Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. He also serves as the Distinguished University Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Case Western Reserve University. And he directs the university’s Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics, and the Institute for the Science of Origins.

And by the way, he thinks the name “Standard Model” is pretty boring. He suggests replacing it with “The Absolutely Amazing Theory of Almost Everything.”

To celebrate the accomplishments of the Standard Model on its 50thanniversary, Dr. Starkman has organized a four-day symposium here in Cleveland, from June 1-4, 2018, called “The Standard Model at 50 Years.” Its all-star lineup of scientific speakers includes eight Nobel laureates in physics, including Dr. Steven Weinberg, whose landmark 1967 research forms the cornerstone of the Standard Model.

To register to attend the symposium's free public lecture, by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dr. David Gross, or to live-stream the entire symposium, go to artsci.case.edu/smat50/

Sauropods are the most iconic of dinosaurs. They’re the big guys, bigger than any animal alive today. In fact, they were the largest land animals that ever lived, with huge torsos, extremely long necks and tails, and massive legs.

Paleontologist Cary Woodruff is going to tell us all about sauropods, from why scientists think they got so big, to how they managed to move around, and what their lives were like.

Woodruff's research focuses on sauropod biomechanics and ontogeny. Ontogeny, is a field of biology that examines the changes an animal’s body, especially its bones, undergoes as it develops and matures.

Woodruff currently works in the lab of paleontologist Dr. David Evans at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, and is earning his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. While at Montana State University for his undergraduate and master’s degrees, Woodruff worked with paleontologist Dr. Jack Horner, the legendary dinosaur researcher, fossil-hunter and technical advisor on the Jurassic Park movies.

Woodruff, a Virginia native, is the author or co-author of a number of significant research studies on dinosaurs, including examining the biomechanics of sauropods’ long necks, and describing the first burrowing dinosaur, called Oryctodromeus cubicularis.

In addition to his position at the Royal Ontario Museum, he is the director of paleontology at the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Malta, Montana.

Our interview took place in Cleveland, while Woodruff was visiting the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to examine our sauropod specimen, Haplocanthosaurus delfsi.

Sauropods are the most iconic of dinosaurs. They’re the big guys, bigger than any animal alive today. In fact, they were the largest land animals that ever lived, with huge torsos, extremely long necks and tails, and massive legs.

Paleontologist Cary Woodruff is going to tell us all about sauropods, from why scientists think they got so big, to how they managed to move around, and what their lives were like.

Woodruff's research focuses on sauropod biomechanics and ontogeny. Ontogeny, is a field of biology that examines the changes an animal’s body, especially its bones, undergoes as it develops and matures.

Woodruff currently works in the lab of paleontologist Dr. David Evans at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, and is earning his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. While at Montana State University for his undergraduate and master’s degrees, Woodruff worked with paleontologist Dr. Jack Horner, the legendary dinosaur researcher, fossil-hunter and technical advisor on the Jurassic Park movies.

Woodruff, a Virginia native, is the author or co-author of a number of significant research studies on dinosaurs, including examining the biomechanics of sauropods’ long necks, and describing the first burrowing dinosaur, called Oryctodromeus cubicularis.

In addition to his position at the Royal Ontario Museum, he is the director of paleontology at the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Malta, Montana.

Our interview took place in Cleveland, while Woodruff was visiting the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to examine our sauropod specimen, Haplocanthosaurus delfsi.

Mokolo, a 30-year-old male silverback gorilla at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, experienced some dramatic changes in his life last year, both good and bad. He lost one longtime partner, and gained two others.

And the Metroparks Zoo’s scientists were in a unique position to evaluate what was going on with him.

As our guest, biologist and primate behavior specialist Austin Leeds will explain, the zoo is in the midst of a groundbreaking research project. The study aims to use hormones to better understand gorilla behavior.

These critically endangered animals are highly social. Gorillas form relationships with each other that can last a lifetime. But gorillas aren’t as outwardly demonstrative as other primates, like chimpanzees. That can make it challenging to interpret their actions and state of mind.

So the zoo’s scientists have recently begun monitoring levels of the hormones oxytocin and cortisol in gorillas here in Cleveland and at other institutions, as a window into their behaviors. Oxytocin is important for bonding, while cortisol reflects stress.

It’s part of the zoo’s ongoing efforts to improve conditions for the gorillas in its care, and to protect those remaining in the wild. That work also includes helping train scientists and conservation professionals in Rwanda – preparing them to serve on the front lines in the battle to save gorillas from extinction.

Austin Leeds is earning his Ph.D. in biology from Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, and holds bachelors and masters degrees in primate behavior. He’s a graduate research associate at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, where he conducts research, recruits and trains research volunteers and works closely with the zoo’s gorillas.

Leeds is also a mentor for students in the Memoirs Program operated by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, the University of Rwanda and the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, which we’ll talk more about during the show.

You can find more information about these projects on our website, cmnh.org/Sauropodcast. Here’s our interview.

Mokolo, a 30-year-old male silverback gorilla at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, experienced some dramatic changes in his life last year, both good and bad. He lost one longtime partner, and gained two others.

And the Metroparks Zoo’s scientists were in a unique position to evaluate what was going on with him.

As our guest, biologist and primate behavior specialist Austin Leeds will explain, the zoo is in the midst of a groundbreaking research project. The study aims to use hormones to better understand gorilla behavior.

These critically endangered animals are highly social. Gorillas form relationships with each other that can last a lifetime. But gorillas aren’t as outwardly demonstrative as other primates, like chimpanzees. That can make it challenging to interpret their actions and state of mind.

So the zoo’s scientists have recently begun monitoring levels of the hormones oxytocin and cortisol in gorillas here in Cleveland and at other institutions, as a window into their behaviors. Oxytocin is important for bonding, while cortisol reflects stress.

It’s part of the zoo’s ongoing efforts to improve conditions for the gorillas in its care, and to protect those remaining in the wild. That work also includes helping train scientists and conservation professionals in Rwanda – preparing them to serve on the front lines in the battle to save gorillas from extinction.

Austin Leeds is earning his Ph.D. in biology from Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, and holds bachelors and masters degrees in primate behavior. He’s a graduate research associate at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, where he conducts research, recruits and trains research volunteers and works closely with the zoo’s gorillas.

Leeds is also a mentor for students in the Memoirs Program operated by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, the University of Rwanda and the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, which we’ll talk more about during the show.

You can find more information about these projects on our website, cmnh.org/Sauropodcast. Here’s our interview.

Some were as small as pigeons. Others had bodies as big as a single-engine airplane.

Pterosaurs ruled the skies for more than 150 million years, a remarkable span, from the Triassic to the Cretaceous. They were the first animals with backbones to take flight.

They shared the Earth with dinosaurs, but they weren’t dinosaurs themselves.

We’ve known about pterosaurs since the first fossils were discovered in the late 1700s. But scientists are still learning new things about them, from how well they could fly and their behavior while on the ground to what colors their elaborate head crests might have been.

If you’re as fascinated by pterosaurs as I am, you’ll love today’s show.

Our guest is Dr. Mark Norell, curator and chair of the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Dr. Norell is an internationally known paleontologist whose research focuses on the evolutionary relationships between dinosaurs and modern birds. He has hunted for dinosaur fossils in in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, Patagonia and the Chilean Andes in South America, and the Sahara Desert in North Africa. He’s made major fossil discoveries, including the first embryo of a primitive meat-eating dinosaur, and an Oviraptor found nesting on a brood of eggs, which constituted the first evidence of parental care among dinosaurs.

Dr. Norell is the co-curator of the traveling exhibit “Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs,” which is on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History through August 12, 2018.

Some were as small as pigeons. Others had bodies as big as a single-engine airplane.

Pterosaurs ruled the skies for more than 150 million years, a remarkable span, from the Triassic to the Cretaceous. They were the first animals with backbones to take flight.

They shared the Earth with dinosaurs, but they weren’t dinosaurs themselves.

We’ve known about pterosaurs since the first fossils were discovered in the late 1700s. But scientists are still learning new things about them, from how well they could fly and their behavior while on the ground to what colors their elaborate head crests might have been.

If you’re as fascinated by pterosaurs as I am, you’ll love today’s show.

Our guest is Dr. Mark Norell, curator and chair of the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Dr. Norell is an internationally known paleontologist whose research focuses on the evolutionary relationships between dinosaurs and modern birds. He has hunted for dinosaur fossils in in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, Patagonia and the Chilean Andes in South America, and the Sahara Desert in North Africa. He’s made major fossil discoveries, including the first embryo of a primitive meat-eating dinosaur, and an Oviraptor found nesting on a brood of eggs, which constituted the first evidence of parental care among dinosaurs.

Dr. Norell is the co-curator of the traveling exhibit “Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs,” which is on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History through August 12, 2018.

Where does the stuff we see in museums come from?

In the case of natural history museums, the fossils, the rocks, the insects, the animals and birds, and all the other items on display — someone had to go out and find and collect them.

It’s that process — natural history researchers traveling long distances to exotic places, searching for specimens they’re interested in, bringing them back for study, then displaying them so that museum-goers can learn about them — that’s the subject of our story on this episode of the Sauropodcast.

Back in the 1920s, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History was brand new, literally starting from scratch. It had almost nothing to display, just a few cabinets of stuffed animals and birds. Not much to work with.

So the museum’s leaders came up with an ambitious idea — in some ways an audacious idea. They would buy a sailing ship, assemble a team of scientists and explorers, and send them off for two years. The crew would travel all around the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, stopping in foreign countries, landing on tiny islands, some of which were uninhabited, going even as far as the Antarctic, to bring back specimens for the Museum to study and display.

That was the plan. A combination of Charles Darwin and Indiana Jones. And as with all plans, the devil was in the details.

Our guest today will tell us how that plan worked out. It’s quite a tale.

Wendy Wasman is the former Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s librarian and archivist. She holds degrees in cultural anthropology from Oberlin College and in library science from Kent State University. She’s spent years researching the Blossom Expedition, as this journey came to be known. An exhibit based on her research, called “Sailing for Science: The Voyage of the Blossom,” opened at the Museum on March 24.

Where does the stuff we see in museums come from?

In the case of natural history museums, the fossils, the rocks, the insects, the animals and birds, and all the other items on display — someone had to go out and find and collect them.

It’s that process — natural history researchers traveling long distances to exotic places, searching for specimens they’re interested in, bringing them back for study, then displaying them so that museum-goers can learn about them — that’s the subject of our story on this episode of the Sauropodcast.

Back in the 1920s, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History was brand new, literally starting from scratch. It had almost nothing to display, just a few cabinets of stuffed animals and birds. Not much to work with.

So the museum’s leaders came up with an ambitious idea — in some ways an audacious idea. They would buy a sailing ship, assemble a team of scientists and explorers, and send them off for two years. The crew would travel all around the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, stopping in foreign countries, landing on tiny islands, some of which were uninhabited, going even as far as the Antarctic, to bring back specimens for the Museum to study and display.

That was the plan. A combination of Charles Darwin and Indiana Jones. And as with all plans, the devil was in the details.

Our guest today will tell us how that plan worked out. It’s quite a tale.

Wendy Wasman is the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s librarian and archivist. She holds degrees in cultural anthropology from Oberlin College and in library science from Kent State University. She’s spent years researching the Blossom Expedition, as this journey came to be known. An exhibit based on her research, called “Sailing for Science: The Voyage of the Blossom,” opens at the Museum on March 24.

Our special guest on this edition of the Sauropodcast is Margot Lee Shetterly.

Her best-selling book, “Hidden Figures,” and the Oscar-nominated movie it inspired tell the previously unknown story of an extraordinary group of female African-American mathematicians, known as human computers, whose work at NASA in the early days of the space race helped the first astronauts reach orbit and return safely to Earth.

Ms. Shetterly recently received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, which honors authors who help improve public understanding of issues of race and diversity.

Our interview took place in Cleveland, where she attended the award ceremony.

To watch a video of the interview, visit cmnh.org/Sauropodcast.