Word: hanken
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...Thirty to forty years ago there was a sense, a false sense, that we knew all the organisms on our planet, and there would be no further role for natural history museums beyond libraries,” Hanken says. “This has not proven to be case...
According to Hanken and his colleagues at the museum, the collections are undergoing a rebirth...
...applying the new science of DNA to gain insight into old specimens, according to Hanken...
...What you have in a collection is millions of dead animals, preserved for longterm use,” Hanken says. “These collections were made before molecular biology was born. The techniques of molecular biology allow us to go back to preserved specimens and pull out DNA from extinct organisms and endangered species...
Because the information available in collections frequently can’t be found anywhere else, Hanken says he has found himself the keeper of key records in the global conservation effort...