On March 1, 2021, NSC Alliance joined forces with the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) in highlighting to lawmakers the value of mobilizing biodiversity specimens and data in spurring new scientific discoveries. In the letter to House Science Committee Leadership, the groups bring attention […]
Lawmakers Advance Next COVID-19 Relief Package
Lawmakers are now working to pass a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 pandemic relief package—the blueprint for which was adopted by both chambers of Congress on February 5, 2021 in the form of a budget resolution. A budget resolution does not require the President’s signature and serves as a guide to the House and Senate on overall […]
New Report on the Economics of Biodiversity
A new report, The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review, offers a comprehensive economic framework for biodiversity. It contends that the ongoing biodiversity loss is undermining the productivity, resilience, and adaptability of nature and poses significant risks to the global economy and human well-being. The independent review was commissioned by the UK government and led […]
Collections in the News
A new paper published in Nature shows how collections have been used to understand the impacts of recent wildfires on Australian vegetation. The publication, Implications of the 2019–2020 megafires for the biogeography and conservation of Australian vegetation (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21266-5), reports on the biogeographic and taxonomic impact of Australia’s 2019–2020 ‘Black Summer’ bushfires. The authors quantified the […]
Global Consultation on Converging Digital and Extended Specimens Begins
Over the past year there have been several exciting conversations about the possibilities of digital representations of the billions of specimens currently held in the world’s natural history collections. Two concepts—the Digital Specimen proposed by the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) in Europe and the Extended Specimen emerging from the Biological Collections Network (BCoN) […]
Registration Open: 2021 Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference
The Florida Museum of Natural History in collaboration with iDigBio and the Natural Science Collections Alliance are hosting the fifth annual Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference virtually on June 7-9, 2021. The conference, Digital Data’s Grand Challenge: Expanding Discovery Across Multiple Domains, will provide an important opportunity to explore digital data tools, techniques, research […]
Biden Names Science Adviser, Elevates to Cabinet
President-elect Joe Biden has announced that he will nominate Dr. Eric Lander—a geneticist, molecular biologist, and mathematician—to serve as the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and his science adviser. According to the announcement, Biden will be “elevating the role of science within the White House, including by designating […]
New Congress Brings Changes to Science Committees
Details about who will serve on and lead key congressional committees with jurisdiction over scientific research and education are emerging. The House Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for allocating federal funding, including to federal science agencies and programs, will have new leadership and several new faces. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) will succeed Chairwoman Nita […]
Collections in the News
According to a new NSF-funded study published in the journal mBio, a lack of clarity on the exact origins of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a glaring weakness in the current approach to pandemic monitoring and response. The paper, entitled Preserve a Voucher Specimen! The Critical Need for Integrating Natural History Collections in Infectious Disease […]
Recording Available: Forward-Thinking Discussion on Biological Collections
On January 14, 2021, the Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA), in partnership with the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), organized a joint discussion between the Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN) and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) on the future of […]