12 Months of Phenomenal Science

Luiz Rocha elected as a 2022 AAAS Fellow

Academy Curator and Follett Chair of Ichthyology and Co-Director of Hope for Reefs Luiz Rocha, PhD, was elected as a 2022 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Rocha has dived to the mesophotic, or twilight, zone as deep as 500 feet about 1,500 times since 2002, describing more than 20 new-to-science species along the way. "It’s great to be able to draw attention to these lesser-known reefs through this recognition," Rocha says.

One database, one billion scientific objects

The Academy joined a global natural history initiative linking the scientific collections of 73 museums in 28 countries. The resulting database of more than 1.1 billion biological, geological, paleontological, and anthropological objects can help us forecast the future by providing an unprecedented peek into the past.

Bringing a butterfly back from the brink

In collaboration with the Presidio Trust, Creekside Science, and Revive and Restore, Academy researcher Durrell Kapan, PhD, led a team at Fort Ord Dunes State Park in Monterey on a search for silvery blue butterflies—the closest living relative to the extinct Xerces blue, a butterfly in San Francisco that was the first known insect species in North America to go extinct due to human disturbance, in 1943. The team is hoping to relocate a handful of native butterflies similar to the Xerces blue to the Presidio’s recently restored dune habitat.

Making the cover of Nature

Researchers from the Academy and other institutions co-authored a paper published in Nature on the pervasiveness of plastic pollution in coral reefs. Surprisingly, they found that twilight zone reefs 100 to 500 feet below the surface were most heavily impacted by plastic debris. “We need to protect deeper reefs and make sure that they are included in the conservation conversation,” says Bart Shepherd, senior director of Steinhart Aquarium and one of the paper’s co-authors.

Reimagining SF: From doom to bloom

A new movement took root atop our Living Roof on September 7. Reimagining San Francisco is an alliance of 37 (and counting) organizations working to improve the ecological health of San Francisco and equitably distribute the benefits of local nature to all. “With the combined resources, brilliance, and passion of this many organizations and talented individuals, we can be a powerful agent for regenerating San Francisco,” said Dr. Rebecca Johnson, co-director of the Academy’s Thriving California initiative and a leader on the Reimagining San Francisco steering committee.

Spark lights up the planetarium dome

Morrison Planetarium’s newest original film, Spark: The Universe in Us, premiered at the Academy on November 9. Narrated by Diego Luna, viewers zoom through the cosmos to see how growing, dying, and colliding stars seed the Universe with the building blocks of life.