[Nhcoll-l] The Dangerous Museum

[Gali Beiner]

What would you say if I told you we had not one failed freezer, but three?
Actually it's ”have", not ”has”... At the moment we're dealing with the
lovely fragrant contents.

Evidently, we need to find out our very own local version for 'sod's law'!

Gali
בתאריך 11 בדצמ 2013 16:08, "Callomon,Paul" <prc44 at drexel.edu> כתב:

>  We had a freezer fail the other day. Sod’s Law (the UK version of
> Murphy’s Law) said it was the only one that did not have a fail alarm, so
> things got good and warm and stayed that way for several days, if not
> weeks. The first indication something was wrong was the presence of
> Drosophila in the adjacent collection area. Laudably – but inadvisably –
> one of our botanists investigated, found the delinquent freezer…and opened
> the lid. In retrospect, he shouldn’t have taken a sudden intake of breath
> with that many fruit flies directly in front of his face…
>
>
>
>
>
> *Paul Callomon*
> *Collection Manager, Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General
> Invertebrates*
>  ------------------------------
>
> *Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia*
> *callomon at ansp.org <callomon at ansp.org> Tel 215-405-5096 <215-405-5096> -
> Fax 215-299-1170 <215-299-1170>*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:
> nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] *On Behalf Of *Kate Pocklington
> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 10, 2013 10:17 PM
> *To:* dinoceras at juno.com; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [Nhcoll-l] The Dangerous Museum
>
>
>
> Story goes that back in the old days (late 1800's, early 1900's) some chap
> found a cone snail on a beach in South Africa, it made it back to the
> museum but sadly he didn't, he got harpooned and killed. (I heard this
> whilst working at Oxford University Museum of Natural History.)
>
>
>
> Personally the most disgusting thing I've come across; a tank of fish, the
> alcohol had evaporated down to about 5cm in the bottom of the tank (~10%),
> the whole thing was infested with *Megaselia scalaris* including the
> maggots. The tank surfaces were covered with a layer of eggs and maggots.
> Not to mention how disgusting the smell was... the fish were rotting and
> the worst part; they were squirming with the amount of maggots.
> Conservation to the max.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [
> mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>]
> On Behalf Of dinoceras at juno.com
> Sent: 10 December 2013 23:19
> To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> Subject: [Nhcoll-l] The Dangerous Museum
>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> I'm working on a talk for visitors to our museum that's all about the
> types of dangers (dangerous objects, substances, activities, etc.) we
> sometimes encounter in our work behind-the-scenes in collections. It's
> meant to be informative, not to mention---entertaining. I'm starting with
> how we get objects to the museum, preparing & conserving them, handling
> them, etc. If any of you have any stories or images you are willing to
> share along these lines, please contact me. I'd love to hear about what
> you've had to deal with from disease-carrying rodents to nasty stuff on
> clothing & herbarium sheets, and everything in between.
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
>
>
> Chris Chandler
>
>
>
> Curator of Natural Science
>
> Putnam Museum
>
> Davenport, IA
>
>
>
> dinoceras at juno.com
>
> 563-324-1054 x226
>
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