MEDIA ADVISORY: Meet your microbes at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences’ new featured exhibition
For immediate release ‐ October 20, 2016
Contact: Jon Pishney, 919.707.8083. Images available upon request
Join us for a special media preview — Friday, October 21, 10:45 a.m. — as the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences reveals “The Secret World Inside You,” a new featured exhibition that explores the microscopic organisms that live on us and in us — microbes! The Museum is located at 11 West Jones St. in Raleigh.
Exhibition Overview
The microbes in and on your body are more numerous than the stars in the Milky Way. Clump them together, and they weigh about as much as your brain — approximately three pounds. Microbes — the term used for organisms that are too small to be seen with the naked eye — have often been seen simply as “germs” that cause disease. Yet contrary to this common misconception, most of the microbes that live in your body are vital to keeping your digestive system, your immune system, and even your brain working properly. Opening October 22, “The Secret World Inside You” uses larger-than-life models, computer interactives, videos and art installations to explore the rapidly evolving science that is revolutionizing how we view human health and understand the inner workings of our bodies.
Interview Opportunities
Speaking at the Media Preview (and available for interview following the preview) will be:
Julie Horvath – Head, Genomics & Microbiology Research Lab | NC Museum of Natural Sciences
Julie Horvath is a comparative evolutionary genomicist interested in understanding the evolutionary forces that have shaped primate genomes and that impact health and disease. Genetic and genomic comparisons between humans and our closest relatives, the primates, are crucial for understanding our own evolution and unique characteristics. She (and colleagues) initiated an armpit biodiversity project to identify the microbes that live under primate (including human) armpits. This entails a sample swab under the armpits that is genetically analyzed by sequencing small regions of the genomes of the microbes that live there. Since animal “fragrance” is partially determined by what is under the armpit, and it is the microbes living on skin that produce body odor, this has mate choice and evolutionary implications.
Holly Menninger – Director of Public Science | Your Wild Life | NC State University
As Director of Public Science, Holly Menninger coordinates the citizen science projects and online science communication activities affiliated with Your Wild Life (yourwildlife.org). An entomologist by training, she is a science communicator by passion and practice. Her research interests lie at the intersection of science and society. Menninger has investigated the consequences of human activities on ecological communities and processes – from the effects of cleaning habits on the bacterial diversity in our homes to the consequences of land-use change on stream ecosystem function. “I am passionate about engaging the public in the process of science and moving the outcomes of research into the hands of people who need it,” she says.