Hey everyone! Welcome to Ask Emily episode number 2!
First off, I'd like to apologize for the Grossometer apparently being inaccurate in the last episode.
If I could go back, I'd probably bump it up a little bit, but...
You should probably be warned if there is ever a Grossometer,
be wary.
Secondly, uh, huge thanks to NPR and Robert Krulwich this week
for featuring me on the front page of National Public Radio's website,
that was definitely a highlight of my life.
Do do do, question time!
A lot of you guys asked:
What kind of education do you need to do this kind of thing?
Here's the thing you guys, there is no magical academic recipe to end up in a place like this.
For example, I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art,
I have a painting degree.
I didn't find out about the zoological museum until my senior year
and at that point it was way too late for me to change my major,
so I decided to come here, uh, as an intern
practicing scientific illustration.
Half way through my internship, I picked up on a lot of curatorial tasks and duties in the lab
and have been here ever since.
Soo, what is your education?
So, in addition to having an undergraduate degree in fine arts,
now I am enrolled in the Johns Hopkins University - Master of Arts in Museum Studies program,
which is primarily distance learning based so I could do all of my coursework online,
and I'm getting my MA in museum studies.
Tumlbr user Joe2theblogs asked:
As a former art student, how did you become so knowledgeable about biology?
Books.
You have advice on how I can do this?
I strongly encourage you guys to find a local nature center,
natural history museum, or zoological collection in which you can volunteer or intern.
Worked for me!
Anonymous asked: Did you know you don't bend your arms a lot?
An anonymous user asked: Why don't you put Vicks Vapor Rub underneath your nose
if everything smells so bad?
Vicks tends to open up my airways,
so in addition to smelling the dead thing,
I smell the Vicks on top of it, it doesn't replace the smell.
It's like spraying perfume on a piece of ****.
Twitter user Benjamin @NotTheLastZuses asked:
What is one skeleton you could never get but really want?
Twitter user Elizabeth @EBeth12345 asked:
Were you squeamish about this before you started?
Yes. I didn't know I was going to be preparing a specimen that day, I didn't have time to think.
Just... scoop.
Twitter user Rachel @braunsicle asked:
Why don't you just sell some of the specimens to raise money for the collection?
This kind of concept is generally looked down upon in the museum world,
it goes against moral and ethical obligations that museums have
to preserving and maintaining collection's items indefinitely.
I don't even know how to pronounce this one, or say this,
Haley,
Twitter user Haley at @HLYCNS
CSNS?
Hylsc-nisc?
What is the protocol if you find an actual human thumb in a wolf stomach?
Freak out!
And then call the police.
Twitter user William Wood @WillWood777 asked:
I forgot your question.
Uhm...
What is the best discovery you've ever made in the collection?
The day I found out we had a pangolin in the collection, I cried tears of happiness.
Emily Brantley on Facebook wanted to know if we've ever had any crazy mishaps in the lab.
This one time a few years ago, before I was a volunteer in the lab,
somebody was working on removing the brain of a wolf in a sink
using a high pressured hose.
This person wasn't wearing any eye protection or a face mask
and because of that, they ended up blasting a bunch of wolf brain matter right into their eye.
Instead of telling the curator or anybody about it, they ended up just going home that night and going to bed.
When they woke up the next day, their eye was all bloodshot.
So they had to go to the emergency room
and get all these rabies vaccines and all this other preventative treatment.
Twitter user Maria Bleitz @NeveahWinters is wondering
what is the best and worst part of my job.
The best part of my job is getting to be all upclose and personal with all of these animals
which they obviously wouldn't let me do that to them in the wild.
The worst part of my job?
Cataloging shrews.
Definitely.
A lot of you guys are really curious how I pay my bills and stuff if I'm a volunteer.
There're a couple different ways.
Living off of financial assistance while I finish my Master's degree,
working on some marketing campaigns with the University of Montana,
but mostly through T-shirt and poster sales!
Tumblr user caribouinacave is wondering:
When will brains be scooped?
It still has brains on it.