Museums house clues to our polluted past, UTA biologist says. Can we probe the artifacts?

As a graduate student working out of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, evolutionary biologist Shane DuBay noticed soot clinging to the bird specimens he handled. Like many researchers, he long regarded these collections kept by museums as windows into biodiversity. But that moment made him wonder if bird feathers could also map the historic arc of industrial pollution. Now an ...