Restituire un museo alla cittadinanza. Il caso del MusAB

Nato nel 2015 come museo dell’Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica e riconosciuto dalla Regione Lombardia come collezione museale, il Museo Astronomico di Brera (MusAB) è una straordinaria collezione di strumenti utilizzati dal personale dell’Osservatorio astronomico di Brera nel corso di 250 anni di storia. Oggi, grazie a un finanziamento della Regione Lombardia, nell’ambito di un’iniziativa volta al miglioramento dei luoghi della cultura, il MusAB ha l’ambizione di rispondere alla domanda: cosa fa l’astronomo/a? Osservare, scoprire, misurare, rappresentare, sono le operazioni che caratterizzano il loro lavoro e che la nuova esposizione cerca di illustrare con l’aiuto degli antichi strumenti della Specola di Brera. La realizzazione di questo nuovo allestimento ha coinvolto diverse figure professionali che hanno trovato soluzioni per raccontare difficili argomenti scientifici al grande pubblico, attraverso i testi discorsivi, una nuova distribuzione nello spazio degli strumenti e immagini evocative. La comunicazione del progetto ha sfruttato i canali dell’Osservatorio, valorizzando la nuova identità visiva del museo e il portale web. In attesa della riapertura sono stati realizzati materiali divulgativi e multimediali con studenti delle scuole superiori e stagisti in master in divulgazione della scienza. Il museo ha inaugurato il nuovo allestimento il 5 marzo 2021, in occasione di Milano MuseoCity in diretta sul canale YouTube dell’INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, ma ha riaperto ufficialmente, a causa dell’emergenza pandemica, solamente il 7 dicembre 2021. Nella parte finale di questo documento analizziamo l’impatto sul pubblico di questo progetto attraverso i dati raccolti in questa prima giornata di apertura

AQUATIC ACOUSTIC NOISE: BEHAVIORAL AND MOLECULAR RESPONSES IN ECHINODERMS, THE CASE OF A. LIXULA (LINNAEUS, 1758) SEA URCHINS

Anthropic noise is considered a real pollutant, in particular the submarine noise. The impact on biodiversity is not yet sufficiently understood. Further research is needed to evaluate any negative effects. The noises associated with anthropogenic activities are increasing: shipments, seismic surveys, sonar, recreational rowing and future mineral extraction activities from ocean depths (DSM). These noises are having an impact on the welfare of many marine species. The understanding of the effects on biodiversity could be important for the creation of guidelines, laws or rules for the most environmentally sustainable exploitation of natural resources. Our study aims to investigate the motility, biochemical and molecular responses of Arbacia lixula exposed to an acoustic stimulus produced by anthropogenic activities and perhaps perceptible by invertebrates. The animals were divided into a control tank and experimental tank. The specimens were exposed to sonic stress for 3 hours after which biological sampling was performed. The sonic stress used was a linear sweep from 100 to 200 kHz emitted every 1 second. The Sound Pressure Level ranges between 173 and 181 dBrms (re 1μPa), with a peak at 150 kHz. To measure the motility, on the top of the tanks two cameras were placed to make photo each 8 seconds during acoustic stimulus. The bottom of the tanks were divided virtually by squares and the vertical walls were divided by two quote. At each photo we assessed the position of the animals and count the number of squares/levels crossed comparing to the precedent photo. In this way we obtained the motility of the specimens in the three directions (cm/s). After three hours of stimulus projection, the sea urchins were captured and the coelomatic fluid was extracted. The protein concentration and the enzymatic activities of esterase, phosphatase, catalase and peroxidase were measured on the celomocytes and on the supernatant of the celomatic fluid. The gene expression of HSP70 and HSP90 with RT-PCR was evaluated on celomocytes. Exposure to this type of noise produced a significant changing in motility and an increase in the expression of HSPs gene, more so for HSP70. No statistical difference was observed in the extent of enzymatic activities and protein concentration. The results obtained indicate that this type of acoustic stimulus has effects on the behavior and on the gene expression of HSPs of individuals of Arbacia lixula

A Deep Insight into the Diversity of Microfungal Communities in Arctic and Antarctic Lakes

We assessed fungal diversity in water and sediment samples obtained from five Arctic lakes in Ny-Ålesund (Svalbard Islands, High Arctic) and five Antarctic lakes on Livingston and Deception Islands (South Shetland Islands), using DNA metabarcoding. A total of 1,639,074 fungal DNA reads were detected and assigned to 5980 ASVs amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), with only 102 (1.7%) that were shared between the two Polar regions. For Arctic lakes, unknown fungal taxa dominated the sequence assemblages, suggesting the dominance of possibly undescribed fungi. The phylum Chytridiomycota was the most represented in the majority of Arctic and Antarctic samples, followed by Rozellomycota, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and the less frequent Monoblepharomycota, Aphelidiomycota, Mortierellomycota, Mucoromycota, and Neocallimastigomycota. At the genus level, the most abundant genera included psychrotolerant and cosmopolitan cold-adapted fungi including Alternaria, Cladosporium, Cadophora, Ulvella (Ascomycota), Leucosporidium, Vishniacozyma (Basidiomycota), and Betamyces (Chytridiomycota). The assemblages displayed high diversity and richness. The assigned diversity was composed mainly of taxa recognized as saprophytic fungi, followed by pathogenic and symbiotic fungi