Specimen

Winner, 2016 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Fiction Finalist, 2016 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize The stories in Specimen are a unique exploration of science and the human heart; the place where physical reality collides with our spiritual and emotional lives. In “The Blood Keeper,” a young academic travels to North Korea to work on her dissertation and embarks on a dangerous affair. In “Mamochka,” which was nominated for the 2012 Journey Prize, an archivist at the Institute for Physics in Minsk, must come to terms with her daughter’s marriage to a Chinese man in Vancouver. In “Peptide P,” scientists study a disease that seems to affect children after they eat hotdogs. In “Side Effects,” a woman’s personality is altered, and not necessarily for the better, by botox injections. In “The Big One,” a woman and her daughter find themselves trapped in the rubble of an underground parking garage after an earthquake. Stylistically varied and with settings that range from North Korea and Minsk to Vancouver and Gdansk, Kovalyova is daring and confident new voice in Canadian fiction.

The Extended Specimen highlights the research potential for ornithological specimens, and is meant to encourage ornithologists poised to initiate a renaissance in collections-based ornithological research. Contributors illustrate how collections and specimens are used in novel ways by adopting emerging new technologies and analytical techniques. Case studies use museum specimens and emerging and non-traditional types of specimens, which are developing new methods for making biological collections more accessible and "usable" for ornithological researchers. Published in collaboration with and on behalf of The American Ornithological Society, this volume in the highly-regarded Studies in Avian Biology series documents the power of ornithological collections to address key research questions of global importance.

Examines how scientific objects in museums and other collections act as inspiration to contemporary art practice, its histories, curating and aesthetics. Cross-disciplinary essays from leading arts professionals explore how scientific encounters in museums provoke new modes of creative thinking about art, science and curating. 84 col. illus.

M.J. Schwuger The Environmental Specimen Bank is a repository of representative environ mental specimens for safe long-term storage over decades and centuries without any chemical change in the constituents. It represents the modern form of a systematically designed collection which will permit comparative analyses and evaluations of chemicals in the future. The aims are: - the determination of selected chemical compounds at the time of storage, - comparative investigations with new methods for chemicals which, at the time of storage, could not be determined or were not recognized as important, - observation of trends in the environment using authentic material from the past and - documentation of long-term changes. Environmental specimen banking is thus suitable for identifying environmental changes and initiating necessary measures of remediation. It may be used to identify problems, study correlations between cause and effect and determine the effectiveness of legislative measures as well as to recommend the activities required. This is not only ecologically important, but also relevant for man, since he is the last member in the food chain and is therefore affected by all compartments of the environment. For this reason, two banking systems were established in Germany, one for environmental specimens (Jiilich), and the other for human specimens (Miinster).

There is a great dispar.ity between the ability of the major industrial nations to produce and distribute chemicals and our ability to comprehend the nature and potential severity of unintended consequences for man, his life support systems and the environment generally. Furthermore, the gap between our ability to produce and distribute myriad chemicals and our ability to identify, understand or predict unfavorable environmental impacts may widen. As environmental scientists we are conscious of the interrelatedness, not only of environmental systems, but of nations as well. Materials are continually moved across boundaries by human as well as natural agencies. The extent, rate and nature of transfer for most pollutants is largely unknown. We can only guess which of the numerous chemicals produced are candidates for concern. More important still is our practical ignorance of the mechanisms of chronic effects upon natural systems and of the concentrations, combinations and circumstances that may lead to irreversibilities or to serious consequences for man. We know very little also regarding the potential for or the kinds of indirect effects that might occur. With respect to the environmentltself, we know little of its assimilative capacity with regard to widely dispersed pollutants and their transformation products. But what we do know is disquieting, and a much-improved system for the evaluation and management of toxic and hazardous chemicals is needed.

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I awaken in a laboratory. I don't know who I am. I'm inexplicably drawn to the doctor who cares for me. She tells me I've been altered, that I'm stronger and faster, that I'll be a key component in a war between corporations. She says I volunteered for this. She says I volunteered to be transformed, but I have no way of knowing if what she says is true. Something isn't right. My memories have been taken, wiped clean, but dreams begin to slip into my conscious mind. I can't let anyone know when that happens, or they'll remove my memories again. Somewhere inside of me, I know I need to remember something important. I'm fighting a war I don't understand, and the one woman I rely on can't be trusted.