Post by L Roebuck on Oct 23, 2005 7:17:00 GMT -5
DRI researchers display their wares
Alex Newman
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 10/23/2005
Some crinkled their noses as Dave Rhode of the Desert Research Institute explained the value of old "pack rat poop" while gesturing to a pile of the stuff in his lab Saturday.
"This gives you the environmental context to understand the archaeological changes you see," said Rhode, an archaeologist, anthropologist and paleontologist.
The pile on display -- a lump of mud, pine needles and droppings -- is about 20,000 years old, a rare find Rhode and his colleagues pulled out of a cave near Caliente in Eastern Nevada.
The pack rat nest, technically called a midden, was one of dozens of scientific wonders DRI researchers put on display for the first-ever "DRI Day."
More than 1,000 visited the research institute, learning about global warming, cloud-seeding and satellite photography.
The Advanced Computing in Environmental Science lab put on a 3-D computer graphics show for visitors.
Polarized glasses allowed visitors to see the heart, photographs of buildings and a rendering of Mars in 3-D.
Joshua Gauntt, 11, said he liked the ACES lab and a model car that split water molecules to power a hydrogen engine.
Gloria Ramsey of Reno gushed about her "DRI Day" experience and said it helped make her more aware of environmental problems in Reno and in the world.
"The whole point of all the experiments here is how we as humans are impacting the environment," she said. "You read about it all the time, but it's another thing to actually see it."
Researchers put on demonstrations while visitors looked, touched and asked questions.
Rhode explained how pine needles preserved in the pack-rat midden helped them prove that the Nevada climate had been cool enough that limber pines were able to grow 5,000 feet below today's levels. At the same time, another researcher helped people see different geologic events in a mud core from Blue Lake, south of Wendover.
news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051023/NEWS10/510230366/1002/NEWS
Alex Newman
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 10/23/2005
Some crinkled their noses as Dave Rhode of the Desert Research Institute explained the value of old "pack rat poop" while gesturing to a pile of the stuff in his lab Saturday.
"This gives you the environmental context to understand the archaeological changes you see," said Rhode, an archaeologist, anthropologist and paleontologist.
The pile on display -- a lump of mud, pine needles and droppings -- is about 20,000 years old, a rare find Rhode and his colleagues pulled out of a cave near Caliente in Eastern Nevada.
The pack rat nest, technically called a midden, was one of dozens of scientific wonders DRI researchers put on display for the first-ever "DRI Day."
More than 1,000 visited the research institute, learning about global warming, cloud-seeding and satellite photography.
The Advanced Computing in Environmental Science lab put on a 3-D computer graphics show for visitors.
Polarized glasses allowed visitors to see the heart, photographs of buildings and a rendering of Mars in 3-D.
Joshua Gauntt, 11, said he liked the ACES lab and a model car that split water molecules to power a hydrogen engine.
Gloria Ramsey of Reno gushed about her "DRI Day" experience and said it helped make her more aware of environmental problems in Reno and in the world.
"The whole point of all the experiments here is how we as humans are impacting the environment," she said. "You read about it all the time, but it's another thing to actually see it."
Researchers put on demonstrations while visitors looked, touched and asked questions.
Rhode explained how pine needles preserved in the pack-rat midden helped them prove that the Nevada climate had been cool enough that limber pines were able to grow 5,000 feet below today's levels. At the same time, another researcher helped people see different geologic events in a mud core from Blue Lake, south of Wendover.
news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051023/NEWS10/510230366/1002/NEWS