Academy Speaker Series: The Microsculpture of Insects

“At high magnification the surface of even the plainest looking beetle or fly is completely transformed as details of their microsculpture become visible: ridges, pits or engraved meshes all combine at different spatial scales in a breath-taking intricacy.” – James Hogan 

Join us for a special conversation on the microsculpture of insects hosted by Academy Curator of Entomology Jon Gelhaus, PhD. Microsculpture photographer Levon Biss and exhibition collaborator James Hogan, PhD, Curator of Life Collections at the Oxford University Natural History Museum, will zoom in from the U.K. to discuss how the technique of “stack focus” imaging illuminates the micro-anatomy of insects. This work advances the study of the adaptive functions and evolutionary processes of natural selection.

Jon Gelhaus will be joined onstage by Jessica Ware, PhD, Curator of Entomology at the American Museum of Natural History (where another exhibition by Biss, Extinct and Endangered is on view), to discuss how microsculpture figures into today’s leading-edge research.