1.
Natural history
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Natural history is the research and study of organisms including animals, fungi and plants in their environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. It encompasses scientific research but is not limited to it, with articles nowadays more often published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the sciences, natural history is the systematic study of any category of natural objects or organisms. That is a broad designation in a world filled with many narrowly focused disciplines. For example, geobiology has a strong multi-disciplinary nature combining scientists, a person who studies natural history is known as a naturalist or natural historian. The English term natural history is a translation of the Latin historia naturalis and its meaning has narrowed progressively with time, while the meaning of the related term nature has widened. In antiquity, it covered essentially anything connected with nature or which used materials drawn from nature. For example, Pliny the Elders encyclopedia of this title, published circa 77 to 79 AD, covers astronomy, geography, man and his technology, medicine and superstition as well as animals and plants. Medieval European academics considered knowledge to have two divisions, the humanities and divinity, with science studied largely through texts rather than observation or experiment. In modern terms, natural philosophy roughly corresponded to modern physics and chemistry, natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as Linnaeus aspiration to improve the economic condition of Sweden. Similarly, the Industrial Revolution prompted the development of geology to help find useful mineral deposits, the astronomer, William Herschel was also a natural historian. Instead of working with plants or minerals he worked with the stars and he spent his time building telescopes to see the stars and the rest of the time watching the stars. In the beginning, he believed there to be a known as a nebulae. Herschel can be considered a natural historian because he observed the natural world, in the process he made charts of all the stars and kept records of all that he saw. S. Wilcove and T. Eisner, The close observation of organisms—their origins, their evolution, their behavior and it encompasses changes in internal states insofar as they pertain to what organisms do. Some definitions go further, focusing on observation of organisms in their environment. Bartholomew, A student of history, or a naturalist, studies the world by observing plants. A common thread in many definitions of natural history is the inclusion of a component, as seen in a recent definition by H. W. Greene
2.
Atlanta
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Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the U. S. state of Georgia, with an estimated 2015 population of 463,878. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,710,795 people, Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County. In 1837, Atlanta was founded at the intersection of two lines, and the city rose from the ashes of the American Civil War to become a national center of commerce. Atlantas economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors that include logistics, professional and business services, media operations, Atlanta has topographic features that include rolling hills and dense tree coverage. Revitalization of Atlantas neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, has intensified in the 21st century, altering the demographics, politics. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in north Georgia, Creek Indians inhabited the area, standing Peachtree, a Creek village located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, was the closest Indian settlement to what is now Atlanta. As part of the removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area in 1821. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western, the initial route was to run southward from Chattanooga to a terminus east of the Chattahoochee River, which would then be linked to Savannah. After engineers surveyed various possible locations for the terminus, the zero milepost was driven into the ground in what is now Five Points. A year later, the area around the milepost had developed into a settlement, first known as Terminus, and later as Thrasherville after a merchant who built homes. By 1842, the town had six buildings and 30 residents and was renamed Marthasville to honor the Governors daughter, later, J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested the town be renamed Atlantica-Pacifica, which was shortened to Atlanta. The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29,1847, by 1860, Atlantas population had grown to 9,554. During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies, in 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, on November 11,1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Armys March to the Sea by ordering Atlanta to be burned to the ground, sparing only the citys churches and hospitals. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt, due to the citys superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868. In the 1880 Census, Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgias largest city, by 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology and the citys black colleges had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, during the first decades of the 20th century, Atlanta experienced a period of unprecedented growth. In three decades time, Atlantas population tripled as the city expanded to include nearby streetcar suburbs
3.
Graham Gund
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Graham de Conde Gund is an American architect and the president of the Gund Partnership, an American architecture firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and founded by Gund in 1971. An heir to George Gund II, he is also a collector of contemporary art, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, Gund was educated at Westminster School, Kenyon College and the Rhode Island School of Design. Gund graduated from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, with a Master of Architecture degree in 1968, after graduation, Gund worked at The Architects Collaborative in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gund himself undertook property development for a number of his firms projects and he is also a noted collector of art. Gund funded the Gund Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Gund was also the driving force behind the founding of the Gund Gallery at Kenyon College. After working with modern architect Walter Gropius at the Architects Collaborative, for Bostons Institute for Contemporary Art, Gund created an unexpected, open, angular interior that played against the rigid geometry of a historic Richardsonian Romanesque building. Additional museums and education buildings represented the continued expansion of Gunds practice in these years, among the adaptive uses was the Norwalk Maritime Center in Connecticut, a museum and aquarium project housed in a salvaged iron works complex, with a new IMAX theater. New institutional buildings included major structures for Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, MA, at this time, Gund played a role as both architect and developer to reclaim threatened or damaged historic buildings, as in the Church Court Condominiums in Boston and Bulfinch Square in Cambridge. Such activity even led to his being described by Vincent Scully as a convinced preservationist, among Gunds early work was the Rockefeller residence in Cambridge, the Hyatt Regency Cambridge and the former Institute for Contemporary Art, now the Boston Architectural College. Much of Gunds work in this period involved renovations or residential adaptive reuse projects in the Boston area, in the 1990s Gunds work expanded to include considerable work with Disney Company in Florida and Paris. Gund was featured on This Old House in 1992 as the architect for the television shows Igoe Residence project, by the 2000s Gunds work was primarily focused on school and university projects. Recent notable buildings designed by the firm include the headquarters for the National Association of Realtors in Washington, Gund also designed the Boston Ballet Headquarters on Clarendon Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Gund has designed a number of projects in the Disney Companys planned community of Celebration, Florida, the firm is also known for historic redevelopment projects including Bulfinch Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Major museum projects include the Plimoth Plantation Visitor Center in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Gunds work has been widely published throughout his career, with articles by major critics in national publications. He is married to Ann Gund née Landreth, with whom he has one son, Graydon and he is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. ISBN 978-1-86470-273-6, introduction by Paul Goldberger Rapaport, Richard, graham Gund Architects, American Institute of Architects Press,1993. ISBN 978-1-55835-093-9, introduction by Vincent Scully Gund Partnership
4.
Mesozoic
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The Mesozoic Era is an interval of geological time from about 252 to 66 million years ago. This Era is also called from a paleobotanist view the Age of Conifers, Mesozoic means middle life, deriving from the Greek prefix meso-/μεσο- for between and zōon/ζῷον meaning animal or living being. It is one of three eras of the Phanerozoic Eon, preceded by the Paleozoic and succeeded by the Cenozoic. The era is subdivided into three periods, the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous, which are further subdivided into a number of epochs. The Mesozoic was a time of significant tectonic, climate and evolutionary activity, the era witnessed the gradual rifting of the supercontinent Pangaea into separate landmasses that would eventually move into their current positions. The climate of the Mesozoic was varied, alternating between warming and cooling periods, overall, however, the Earth was hotter than it is today. Birds first appeared in the Jurassic, having evolved from a branch of theropod dinosaurs, the first mammals also appeared during the Mesozoic, but would remain small—less than 15 kg —until the Cenozoic. Following the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic extended roughly 186 million years and this time frame is separated into three geologic periods. It is also known as the Great Dying because it is considered the largest mass extinction in the Earths history, the upper boundary of the Mesozoic is set at the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which may have been caused by the impactor that created Chicxulub Crater on the Yucatán Peninsula. Towards the Late Cretaceous large volcanic eruptions are believed to have contributed to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Approximately 50% of all genera became extinct, including all of the non-avian dinosaurs, the Triassic ranges roughly from 252 million to 201 million years ago. The Triassic is a time in Earths history bracketed between the Permian Extinction and the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, two of the big five, and precedes the Jurassic Period and it has three major epochs, the Early Triassic, the Middle Triassic and the Late Triassic. The Early Triassic was between about 252 million to 247 million years ago and was dominated by deserts as Pangaea had not yet broken up, thus the interior was nothing, the Earth had just witnessed a massive die-off in which 95% of all life became extinct. The most common life on earth were Lystrosaurus, labyrinthodonts. Temnospondyls evolved during this time and would be the dominant predator for much of the Triassic, the Middle Triassic spans roughly from 247 million to 237 million years ago. The Middle Triassic featured the beginnings of the breakup of Pangaea, the ecosystem had recovered from the devastation that was the Great Dying. Algae, sponge, corals, and crustaceans all had recovered, new aquatic reptiles evolved, such as ichthyosaurs and nothosaurs. Meanwhile, on land, pine forests flourished, as did groups of insects like mosquitoes, the first ancient crocodilians evolved, which sparked competition with the large amphibians that had since ruled the freshwater world
5.
Atrium (architecture)
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In architecture, an atrium is a large open air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building. Atria were a feature in Ancient Roman dwellings, providing light. Modern atria, as developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries, are several stories high and having a glazed roof or large windows. Atria are a design feature because they give their buildings a feeling of space. The atrium has become a key feature of buildings in recent years. Atria are popular with building users, building designers and building developers, users like atria because they create a dynamic and stimulating interior that provides shelter from the external environment while maintaining a visual link with that environment. Designers enjoy the opportunity to new types of spaces in buildings. Fire control is an important aspect of contemporary atrium design due to criticism that poorly designed atria could allow fire to spread to a buildings upper stories more quickly. The Latin word atrium referred to the central court from which enclosed rooms led off. The impluvium was a shallow pool sunken into the floor to catch rainwater from the roof, some surviving examples are beautifully decorated. The opening in the ceiling above the pool called for some means of support for the roof, as the centrepiece of the house, the atrium was the most lavishly-furnished room. Also, it contained the chapel to the ancestral spirits. The term was used for a variety of spaces in public and religious buildings, mostly forms of arcaded courtyards. Byzantine churches were often entered through such a space, the 19th century brought the industrial revolution with great advances in iron and glass manufacturing techniques. Courtyards could then have horizontal glazing overhead, eliminating some of the elements from the space. One of the public spaces at Federation Square, in Melbourne, Australia, is called The Atrium and is a street-like space, five storeys high with glazed walls. The structure and glazing pattern follow the system of fractals used to arrange the panels on the rest of the facades at Federation Square, as of 2016, the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, has the worlds tallest atrium at 590 feet. The Luxor Hotel, in Las Vegas, Nevada, has the largest atrium in the world at 29 million cubic feet, cavaedium Courtyard Quadrangle Roth, Leland M. Understanding Architecture, Its Elements History and Meaning
6.
Argentinosaurus
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Argentinosaurus is a genus of titanosaur sauropod dinosaur first discovered by Guillermo Heredia in Argentina. The generic name refers to the country in which it was discovered, the dinosaur lived on the then-island continent of South America somewhere between 94 and 97 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period. It is among the largest known dinosaurs, the first fossils identified as Argentinosaurus were found in 1987 by a rancher in Argentina, who mistook the leg for a giant piece of petrified wood. A gigantic vertebra, approximately the size of a man, was also found, the type species of Argentinosaurus, A. huinculensis, was described and published in 1993 by the Argentine palaeontologists José F. Bonaparte and Rodolfo Coria. Its more specific time-frame within the Cretaceous is the late Cenomanian faunal stage, the fossil discovery site is in the Huincul Formation of the Río Limay Subgroup in Neuquén Province, Argentina. Not much of Argentinosaurus has been recovered, the holotype included only a series of vertebrae, ribs of the right side of the hip region, a part of a rib from the flank, and the right fibula. One of these vertebrae was 1.59 meters tall, in addition to these bones, an incomplete femur is assigned to Argentinosaurus, this incomplete femur shaft has a minimum circumference of about 1.18 meters. The proportions of bones and comparisons with other sauropod relatives allow paleontologists to estimate the size of the animal. An early reconstruction by Gregory S. Paul estimated Argentinosaurus at between 30–35 metres in length and with a weight of up to 80–100 tonnes, the length of the skeletal restoration mounted in Museo Carmen Funes is 39.7 metres long and 7.3 metres high. This is the longest reconstruction in a museum and contains the original material, other estimates have compared the fragmentary material to relatively complete titanosaurs to help estimate the size of Argentinosaurus. In 2006 Carpenter used the more complete Saltasaurus as a guide, an unpublished estimate used published reconstructions of Saltasaurus, Opisthocoelicaudia, and Rapetosaurus as guides and gave shorter length estimates of between 22–26 metres. Weight estimates are less common, but Mazzetta et al. provide a range of 60–88 tonnes, more recently, it was estimated at 83.2 tonnes by calculating the volume of a reconstruction. In 2013, in a study published in Plos One on October 30,2013 by Dr. Bill Sellers, Dr. Rodolfo Coria, Argentinosaurus was digitally reconstructed to test its locomotion for the first time. Before this study, the most common way of estimating speed was through studying bone histology and ichnology and those features are useful when attempting to explain trackway patterns of graviportal animals. To estimate the gait and speed of Argentinosaurus, the study performed a musculoskeletal analysis, the only previous musculoskeletal analyses were conducted on hominids, terror birds, and other dinosaurs. The results further revealed that much larger terrestrial vertebrates might be possible, Argentinosaurus was, like all sauropods, a herbivore. It probably used its neck to reach into conifers, or sweep the ground in search of ferns. Once swallowed, the food would have needed to all the way down the neck before entering the stomach
7.
Giganotosaurus
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Giganotosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Argentina, during the early Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 99.6 to 97 million years ago. The holotype specimen was discovered in the Candeleros Formation of Patagonia in 1993, the animal was named G. carolinii in 1995, the genus name translates as giant southern lizard and the specific name honours the discoverer, Rubén D. Carolini. A dentary bone, a tooth and some tracks, discovered before the holotype, were assigned to this animal. The genus attracted much interest and became part of a debate about the maximum sizes of theropod dinosaurs. Giganotosaurus was one of the largest known terrestrial carnivores, but the size has been hard to determine due to the incompleteness of the remains found so far. Estimates for the most complete range from a length of 12 to 13 m, a skull 1.53 to 1.80 m in length. The dentary bone that belonged to a larger individual has been used to extrapolate a length of 13.2 m. The skull was low, with rugose nasal bones and a ridge-like crest on the bone in front of the eye. The front of the jaw was flattened, and had a downwards projecting process at the tip. The teeth were compressed sideways and had serrations, the neck was strong and the pectoral girdle proportionally small. Giganotosaurus is thought to have been homeothermic, with a metabolism between that of a mammal and a reptile, which would have enabled fast growth and it may have been relatively slow-moving, with a suggested running speed of 14 metres per second. It would have been capable of closing its jaws quickly, capturing and bringing down prey by delivering powerful bites, the chin may have helped in resisting stress when a bite was delivered against prey. Giganotosaurus is thought to have been the apex predator of its ecosystem, Giganotosaurus is thought to have been one of the largest theropod dinosaurs, but the incompleteness of its remains have made it difficult to estimate its size reliably. It is therefore impossible to determine with certainty whether it was larger than Tyrannosaurus, for example, different size estimates have been reached by several researchers, based on various methods, and depending on how the missing parts of the skeleton have been reconstructed. Length estimates for the specimen have varied between 12 and 13 m, with a skull between 1.53 and 1.80 m long, a femur between 1.365 and 1.43 m long, and a weight between 4.2 and 13.8 t. Fusion of sutures in the braincase indicates the specimen was a mature individual. A second specimen, consisting of a bone from a supposedly larger individual, has been used to extrapolate a length of 13.2 m, a skull 1.95 m long. Some writers have considered the largest size estimates for both specimens exaggerated, Giganotosaurus has been compared to an oversized version of the well-known genus Allosaurus
8.
Fernbank Science Center
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The Fernbank Science Center is a museum, classroom, and woodland complex located in Atlanta. The nearby Fernbank Museum of Natural History is a private organization that is separate from the Science Center. The Fernbank Science Center opened in December 1967, and is an educational facility and it provides programs for the science education of local students, pre-K-12. Both its planetarium and observatory are open for public shows on specific occasions, the mission of the Science Center is to provide and promote an understanding of science and technology and to communicate to its visitors the harmony and order of the natural world. Fernbank contains many materials for instruction, including dinosaur skeletons, rocks and minerals, a collection of tektites, an Aeronautics Education Laboratory and an electron microscope lab. The center also has an authentic Apollo spacecraft from the unmanned Apollo 6 Saturn V test flight, the Jim Cherry Memorial Planetarium is a 500-seat celestial theater in the round, equipped with a 70-foot, a Mark V Zeiss star projector, and over 100 special effects projectors. The planetarium, which was built in the 1967s is the largest planetarium within the state of Georgia and it was also the first planetarium to be owned and operated by a public school system in the United States of America. A major component of technological upgrade is the projection system. The fulldome system is intended to complement the planetariums iconic Zeiss star projector not replace it, prior to the 2012 upgrade, Fernbank staff had been using standard projectors for the video portions of the shows, which put an image on only a small segment of the dome. With the digital projection system which throws extraordinarily bright light onto a spherical mirror tuned to the exact shape of our dome. Now the video and other images cover the entire dome, before the upgrade science center staff had the capability to project images, which was rather like a slide show. With the new system, animated images move across the entire surface, Fernbank LINKS was established in 2002. Since then, the team has participated in two robotics competitions, while winning many awards. All of their members graduate high school and pursue a college degree, in the fall, Fernbank LINKS competes in and hosts the free Georgia BEST Robotics Competition. During their original tenure from 2004-2014, LINKS had been one of the more successful BEST Teams in Georgia, however, in 2015, they forfeited their chance to compete in order to host the Georgia BEST hub. Under their leadership,12 BEST teams competed, with 2 qualifying for the Souths BEST Regional Championship, in 2016, LINKS plans to expand the Georgia BEST hub to 24 teams, thus allowing more teams to experience the fun of STEM. In the spring, Fernbank LINKS competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition, like the BEST Robotics Competition, teams are challenged to build a robot in 6 weeks. Following the main season, teams prepare for and compete in competitions to advance to the FIRST Championship
9.
DeKalb County, Georgia
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DeKalb County is a county in the U. S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 691,893, DeKalb County is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area. It contains roughly 10% of the city of Atlanta and it is Georgias most diverse county. In recent years, some communities in North DeKalb have incorporated, dunwoody and Brookhaven are now the largest cities entirely within the county. The oldest existing house in the county is the 1831 Goodwin House along Peachtree Road in Brookhaven, in 1853, Fulton County formed from the western half of DeKalb, divided along a perfectly straight and due north/south line down the middle. Until this time, the city of Atlanta had been inside DeKalb. North and southwest Fulton came from two counties, Milton and southeast Campbell, respectively. DeKalb once extended further north to the Chattahoochee River, but this strip was later given to Milton. During the Civil War, much of the Battle of Atlanta took place in DeKalb, until the 1960s, DeKalb was a mainly agricultural county, but as the sprawl of the metropolitan Atlanta region expanded, DeKalb became increasingly urbanized. Only Interstate 20 and Interstate 85 were successfully built through the county, DeKalb also became one of only two counties to approve MARTA rapid transit in the 1970s, the county now contains the east and northeast heavy rail lines. The current Chief Executive Officer of DeKalb County is Michael Thurmond and he took office on January 1,2017. Fire services are provided throughout the county by DeKalb County Fire, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is based in the Druid Hills CDP in an unincorporated area in the county. The Federal Bureau of Investigation Atlanta Field Office is located in Chamblee, the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice has its headquarters in Avondale Estates, near Decatur. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has its headquarters near Decatur, in an unincorporated area, the Metro State Prison of the Georgia Department of Corrections was formerly located in an unincorporated area in DeKalb County. Female death row inmates resided in the Metro State Prison, the prison was closed in 2011. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 271 square miles. The county is crossed by the South River and numerous creeks, including Nancy Creek, Snapfinger Creek, Peachtree Creek and Nancy Creek drain into the Chattahoochee River and eventually to the Gulf of Mexico. South River drains into the Ocmulgee River and ultimately into the Atlantic Ocean, Stone Mountain lies near the eastern border of the county
