Here’s the UWZM Newsletter for 2025, offering news and highlights of the past year. Click on the image for the pdf. Below, covers of previous years are clickable for a highlight review of our activities since 2021, when we first started publishing the yearly tome.
2021
2022
2023
2024
The UWZM has added 3D scanners and printing equipment to its repertoire of modern resources. These devices are used to duplicate fragile, rare, and/or unique specimens such as bones and eggs. The 3D models are painted for a realistic look, and then used in labs, displays, and other arenas so that the actual specimens are not put in harm’s way. Right, top: We have reproduced several eggs of the Great Auk, for which only 75 eggs are known to exist (we used our very old wooden replica as a model). Right, center: We have also reproduced all of our Galapagos Finch skulls for use in ornithology labs. (Can you identify the one real skull?) Right, lower: This summer the International Crane Foundation has donated 7 eggs that completed our collection of eggs representing the world’s 15 species of cranes. These, too, are destined for 3D scanning as soon as they are cataloged. Duplicating all 15 will make a beautiful lab–and safe– display. Another project involves scanning representative bones from our scant collection of passenger pigeon specimens, gleaned from archaeological sites. We would like to make a complete skeleton of this extinct bird, but have discovered that almost no complete skeletons of this iconic species exists. Hopefully we will find enough remains to eventually make a complete 3D model.
The Museum Store Goes Green
The Zoological Museum store has gone over to the “light side” with the addition of Botanical Posters. We have 7 posters created by Kandis Elliot during her tenure as the UW-Senior Botany Artist. The posters offer fascinating images and information on flowers, fruits, colors, plant structures, pollinators, even fungi. Reference photos were taken by Botany Photographer Claudia Lipke; information was provided by Dr. M. M. Fayyaz, Director of the Botany Garden and Greenhouses, as well as by Botany Department professors and staff. Like our selection of Zoology-themed posters, these educational outreach materials are excellent sources of basic science intended for students of all ages as well as educators, gardeners, and aficionados of plants and their biology. Click the image to view the posters in the Museum Store1
Glass Artisans Recreate Century-old Sculptures
Tracy Drier, UW-Madison Department of Chemistry Master Scientific Glassblower, administers the Scientific Glassblowing workshop in the Department of Chemistry and is the principal collaborator on a project aimed at re-creating the art and technique of glass biological models. Project participants include members from University of Wisconsin-Madison departments of Chemistry, Integrated Biology, and Art, and feature contributions from Lauren Aria, Ela Bakowska, Andrew Bearnot, Veronica Berns, Tracy Drier, Tim Drier, Astrid van Giffen, Ilia Guzei, Beth Hylen, Aaron Kirchoff, Jesse Kohl, Helen Lee, Laura Monahan, Erich Moraine, and Loren Stump.