From Debris to Art
Original artwork completed by eco-artist Mariah Reading during MDI Biological Laboratory’s From Debris to Art project, is now on display at the Maine Center for Biomedical Innovation. While the campus remains closed to the public for COVID-19 safety precautions, the exhibition can be viewed in a virtual gallery on our project website. As soon as...
Continue ReadingFrom Debris to Art with Nature Links for Lifelong Learning
Nature Links for Lifelong Learning is a Blue Hill-based nonprofit offering continuing education opportunities for young adults with intellectual disabilities. For one of their classes, students took part in this year’s Art Meets Science project, “From Debris to Art,” with the help of their teacher Maddy Johnson. This post is slightly adapted from a piece...
Continue ReadingFrom Debris to Art – SC School for the Blind
“From Debris to Art” was a program created through MDIBL’s Art Meets Science initiative and made possible by the generous support of the Onion Foundation. The project encourages participants to collect marine debris, log their observations and actively engage their creativity to create a unique piece of personal artwork. You can read more about the...
Continue ReadingAnecdata.org: Citizen Science keeps us connected while we’re apart
MDI Biological Laboratory has moved quickly to continue providing opportunities for educational experiences and public engagement in scientific research. Anecdata.org, our online citizen science platform, is just one way we’re increasing our connectivity with like-minded people while we all need to stay apart to slow the spread of COVID-19. Based out of our Community Lab,...
Continue ReadingThis Is Why: Supporting What We Believe In
Supporting MDIBL’s infrastructure in a way that also helps the environment was an easy decision to make. As scientists, we are always looking for the next innovation. It is important to me that we think beyond ourselves and to the future; we need to be ahead of the curve. An electronic vehicle charging station may...
Continue ReadingNext Generation Citizen Science Using Anecdata.org
This guest post on citizen science by Jane Disney, Duncan Bailey, Anna Farrell and Ashley Taylor is excerpted from an article that originally appeared in the Maine Policy Review.
Continue ReadingSaving Sea Turtles Through Community Litter Cleanups
This guest post by Christi Hughes, a conservation and research specialist at the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston, discusses how an online citizen science app developed by the MDI Biological Laboratory to crowdsource meaningful, actionable environmental data is facilitating the clean-up of plastic trash that threatens the lives of sea turtles.
Continue ReadingTroubled Water
Jane E. Disney, Ph.D., MDI Biological Laboratory senior staff scientist and director of education, and Anna Farrell, program coordinator for the institution's Community Environmental Health Laboratory, were interviewed for the investigative documentary, "Troubled Water," on environmental threats to the nation's water supply.
Continue ReadingA Biomedical Rationale for Having Strong Social Safety Nets
MDI Biological Laboratory Associate Professor James A. Coffman, Ph.D., discusses how susceptibility to disease is determined epigenetically -- that is, by environmental influences that affect the developmental and physiological regulation of gene activity.
Continue Reading