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Jerry D. Harris 🦕👣

@helenczerski We always jokingly blamed "museum gas," an invisible gas piped through museums that makes patrons tired (and sometimes sleepy) after being in them for a few hours.

8 December at 16:44 | Wall-to-wall | Open on sauropods.win
10 comments
llewelly

@dinogami @helenczerski
although I've never tried to measure it myself, I've seen some screenshots of some freakishly high COâ‚‚ measurements inside museums. (All were paleontology museums on days with lots of children. ) So "museum gas" might actually be a plausible hypothesis, under the right circumstances.

8 December at 16:51 | Open on sauropods.win
Jerry D. Harris 🦕👣

@llewelly @helenczerski 🤯 I never even thought of that!!

8 December at 16:55 | Open on sauropods.win
llewelly

@dinogami @helenczerski
I think at some point in the last few years I read some research on the sleepiness effect of high COâ‚‚ levels in college classrooms, though I can't seem to locate it right now. Someone who actually knows how to search the literature efficiently could probably find it. And somebody who knows how to use social media to organize a "people's science" effort might be able to get a bunch of museum goers, museum volunteers, and museum workers to take some measurements.

8 December at 16:59 | Open on sauropods.win
Ambulocetus

@llewelly @dinogami @helenczerski I own a pest control business, and one of the things I have picked up over the years is that some museums use CO2 as a low-impact form of pest control. Usually the items in the collection are put into a special unit for the treatment, but it wouldn't surprise me if some of the gas escaped, and thus raised the level in the rest of the museum. I don't know how much it would take to be detectable. museumpests.net/conferences/mu

@llewelly @dinogami @helenczerski I own a pest control business, and one of the things I have picked up over the years is that some museums use CO2 as a low-impact form of pest control. Usually the items in the collection are put into a special unit for the treatment, but it wouldn't surprise me if some of the gas escaped, and thus raised the level in the rest of the museum. I don't know how much it would take to be detectable. museumpests.net/conferences/mu

8 December at 17:06 | Open on mefi.social
Jerry D. Harris 🦕👣

@Ambulocetus @llewelly @helenczerski This is fascinating! I had no idea about this--as a paleontologist working primarily in fossil-based collections, pests weren't really a worry, but I can definitely see it needed for specimens of modern animals (I know dermestids are a serious concern for taxidermied specimens). I never really learned anything about what kinds of pest-control measures museums have to take to ward off such pests, but I guess spraying chemicals around isn't really a great idea.

8 December at 17:11 | Open on sauropods.win
Ambulocetus

@dinogami @llewelly @helenczerski
Our company is kind of small, so I've only been called out to museums a few times, but it was always something different. In addition to Dermestids, there is also concern about clothes moths, silverfish, and other various invertebrate pests destroying fabrics or documents. Also vertebrates such as rodents or bats can also damage valuable artifacts. I think most of these pest problems can be solved with the CO2 treatment, except for some species of bats may need to be relocated instead, if they are federally protected.

@dinogami @llewelly @helenczerski
Our company is kind of small, so I've only been called out to museums a few times, but it was always something different. In addition to Dermestids, there is also concern about clothes moths, silverfish, and other various invertebrate pests destroying fabrics or documents. Also vertebrates such as rodents or bats can also damage valuable artifacts. I think most of these pest problems can be solved with the CO2 treatment, except for some species of bats may need...

8 December at 17:30 | Open on mefi.social
sollat

@dinogami @Ambulocetus @llewelly @helenczerski
The Bodlean collection could have issues due to humidity and oxygen acting on natural fibers, glue, and inks. Bugs like that combination.

8 December at 17:32 | Open on masto.ai
Petra van Cronenburg

@Ambulocetus Here in France, we have CO2 alarms, especially since Covid. There are administrative rules for enough aeration!
@llewelly @dinogami @helenczerski

8 December at 17:52 | Open on mastodon.online
Jerry D. Harris 🦕👣

@Ambulocetus @llewelly @helenczerski Now I'm wondering about the utility of CO2 treatment in geological and paleontological collections to counteract, or at least slow down, "pyrite disease" which can destroy specimens...

8 December at 18:42 | Open on sauropods.win
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