Museum offers behind-the-scenes tours
July 31, 2013
![Photo by Theresa Bakker. Scientists from Idaho State University are making high-resolution 3-D scans of arctic mammals from the museum's collection.](https://news.uaf.edu//news.uaf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/scan-9-300x200.jpg)
907-474-6941
7/31/13
The University of Alaska Museum of the North is offering behind-the-scenes tours to visitors through the end of August. Participants will get exclusive tours of the museum's labs and work spaces, where collection managers and curators take care of almost 1.5 million specimens and artifacts, and have the opportunity to ask researchers about their work.
For the next three weeks, scientists from Idaho State University will be at the museum taking high-resolution 3-D scans of specimens, particularly marine mammals. This is part of a large National Science Foundation-funded project to put every bone from every arctic bird, fish and mammal online in 3-D in a searchable, taxonomic system for vertebrate analysis. Tour participants will have chance to see how the museum's specimens are used by the broader scientific community.
![Photo by Theresa Bakker. Items from the ethnology and history collection.](https://news.uaf.edu//news.uaf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/uamn_tb_eh_01-300x200.jpg)
ON THE WEB: See the Virtual Zoology of the Arctic Project database here: http://vzap.iri.isu.edu/ViewPage.aspx?id=230
TB/7-31-13/018-14