ICYMI: Holiday Break Edition

Happy New Year! Classes are back in swing today here at NC State and we’re slowly but surely digging ourselves out from under the pile of emails that accumulated over the winter break.

A few exciting research developments and stories emerged while we were on our holiday hiatus, and we thought we should dedicate our first post in 2015 to catching you up those items you may have missed:

• Visually explore Wild Life of Our Homes data: We’ve launched a new data visualization page for the Wild Life of Our Homes project. Download microbial data sets (inner and outer door frames from 1000 homes) and use Phinch, an innovative visualization tool, to help us understand what species live where and why. In a December 19 blog post, Rob explains how our collaboration with Phinch may lead us to a whole new way of doing citizen science.

• Urban Ecology FTW: Research conducted by Amy Savage, Elsa Youngsteadt and colleagues on the arthropods that inhabit Broadway medians and adjacent parks in New York City continues to make headlines. Perrin Ireland interviewed Amy and Elsa about Manhattan’s ant clean-up crews and illustrated the key findings of their research for onEarth Magazine. And check out the story in Science News (Cities are brimming with wildlife worth studying, 29 December 2014, by Kate Baggaley) and the related cover photo by our own talented Lauren Nichols.

• Now Tracking Cats in Connecticut: In collaboration with the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, Cat Tracker has recently expanded its GPS collar loan program to residents of Fairfield County, Connecticut, and Westchester County, New York. Learn more about our Connecticut collaboration in this December 19 video from It’s Relevant and a recent article from Greenwich Time.

• Citizen Microbiology: In a feature in the December 2014 issue of Microbiologist Magazine, Rob and Holly explain how the Belly Button Biodiversity and Wild Life of Our Homes projects have enabled us to simultaneously engage the public in doing real science and gaining greater awareness about the invisible life living on us, in us and around us.