Author: Jo Louise Seltzer

The mastodon, that huge elephant-like creature that symbolizes the Ice Ages for many of us, is once again part of an archeological controversy concerning the origin of native Americans.

Before their extinction about 10,000 years ago, mastodons roamed North America for about 2 million years.  Missouri was no exception.  In fact, when Albert Koch, Ph.D. unearthed a nearly complete skeleton in the 1840’s for display in his St. Louis Museum, he named it “Missourium.”

The site that Koch dug near Kimmswick has yielded many more mastodon skeletons, as well as the bones of other ice-age ‘mega-fauna’ such as giant sloths, giant beavers, and dire wolves.  But the discovery by Russell Graham in 1980 of a carefully crafted stone spear-point touching a mastodon bone caused that site to be preserved as Mastodon State Historic Site.

Continue reading Mastodon State Historic Site is link to prehistory in Missouri

Visitors to Missouri Botanical Garden these days are greeted by an enormous yellow dragon lantern that stretches down the entrance to Ridgeway Visitor Center.  It is easy to deduce that this creature is part of the upcoming Lantern Festival to be launched Memorial Day weekend.

Thoughtful and/or frequent visitors will remember that this year’s orchid show had a Chinese theme, and that the Brookings Interpretive Center features an interactive exhibit on Chinese culture.  Why the emphasis on China?

The Garden’s year of China is celebrating the imminent completion of a monumental scholarly achievement–the 45-volume Flora of China.  This detailed description of each of the approximately 31,500 vascular plants that grow wild in China has great botanical value.

Continue reading Garden’s year of China celebrates publication of complete Flora of China

The OMNIMAX movie “Space Junk” will have its world premiere at the Saint Louis Science Center this weekend, January 14.  The movie explores the growing problem of man-made debris orbiting the earth at super speeds, with the intent of raising public awareness of the situation and its impact on satellite communication and space travel.

Continue reading ‘Space Junk’ illustrates the growing danger in Low Earth Orbit

When Rebecca Messbarger, the daughter of Irish-Catholic parents, announced to her family at the age of nineteen that she was going to “become Italian,” neither she nor they envisioned that she would one day organize an international conference on a little known pope who was a major shaper of the Italian Enlightenment.

The conference, to be hosted jointly at the end of April by Washington University, Saint Louis University, and the Missouri Historical Society will bring together European and American scholars to discuss and interpret the accomplishments of “The Enlightenment Pope: Benedict XIV (1675-1758).”  It is the first conference in the United States ever to be devoted to this historic figure.

The conference is an offshoot of Messbarger’s studies of women in the Italian Enlightenment, and especially of one woman, Anna Morandi Manzolini. Messbarger’s 2010 book on this artist, “The Lady Anatomist: The Life and Work of Anna Morandi Manzolini” has received international attention. It has been nominated for the Charles Rufus Morey Book Award honoring “an especially distinguished book in the history of art.”

Continue reading Women, science and Pope Benedict XIV

One third of Missouri (15 million acres) is covered by forest.  This forest is highly important to the state, both ecologically and economically, but is in danger from at least three exotic insect pests.

The European gypsy moth, the emerald ash borer, and the walnut twig beetle could wreak havoc on great numbers of trees.  They seem to be headed our way. Actually, according to Perry Eckhardt, Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) urban forester, most experts expect that attack by these pests is inevitable. Fortunately, state and federal agencies have extensive programs in place to monitor appearances of these pests and to try to combat them if they establish footholds.

Continue reading Insect pests threaten Missouri’s forests and urban landscapes