Marta C. Lourenço

Contributions to the history of university museums and collections in Europe

The recent history of museums, from the sixteenth and seventeenth century wunderkammer to the present, is relatively welldocumented. In marked contrast, the pre-history of university museums remains largely unstudied. This is an important task: if the origin and singularity of university museums and collections remain unknown, their scientific and social roles will remain undervalued, their identity will remain in crisis and their heritage will be at risk. This paper aims to contribute to the knowledge of that history. Five historical landmarks that shaped the diversity and complexity of contemporary university museums and collections - the teaching collection, the teaching museum, the study collection, the research collection and the university museum - will be outlined, followed by some notes on developments during the twentieth century.

Investigating population structure of Sea Lamprey (Petromyzon marinus, L.) in Western Iberian Peninsula using morphological characters and heart fatty acid signature analyses.

This study hypothesizes the existence of three groups of sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus L. in Portugal (North/Central group, Tagus group, and Guadiana group), possibly promoted by seabed topography isolation during the oceanic phase of the life cycle. Within this context, our purpose was to analyze the existence of a stock structure on sea lamprey populations sampled in the major Portuguese river basins using both morphological characters and heart tissue fatty acid signature. In both cases, the multiple discriminant analysis revealed statistically significant differences among groups, and the overall corrected classification rate estimated from cross-validation procedure was particularly high for the cardiac muscle fatty acid profiles (i.e. 83.8%). Morphometric characters were much more useful than meristic ones to discriminate stocks, and the most important variables for group differentiation were eye length, second dorsal fin length and branchial length. Fatty acid analysis showed that all lampreys from the southern Guadiana group were correctly classified and not mixing with individuals from any other group, reflecting a typical heart fatty acid signature. Our results revealed that 89.5% and 72.2% of the individuals from the Tagus and North/Central groups, respectively, were also correctly classified, despite some degree of overlap between individuals from these groups. The fatty acids that contributed to the observed segregation were C16:0; C17:0; C18:1ω9; C20:3ω6 and C22:2ω6. Detected differences are probably related with environmental variables to which lampreys may have been exposed, which leaded to different patterns of gene expression. These results suggest the existence of three different sea lamprey stocks in Portugal, with implication in terms of management and conservation.

Royal cabinet of physics in Portugal and Brazil: An exploratory study

Little is known about the history of cabinets of natural philosophy, later known as cabinets of physics, in Portugal. Scientific instruments assembled by the Portuguese royal family for purposes of teaching, study and entertainment were thought to have been lost. A recent ‘discovery&rsqu

UMAC worldwide database

A web-based database has been developed in support of UMACs mission. The database aims at providing a global directory of university museums and collections to be used by UMAC, researchers, students and the general public worldwide. The advantage of the system is that museum professionals from all over the world are able to enter data and keep it up to date. At present, the database can be browsed by geographical index, type or subject. An additional Search allows a fall-text search. Further development of the database is planned. Introduction A web-based database in English has been developed for UM AC. The UMAC Worldwide Database aims at providing a global directory of university museums and collections for UMAC, researchers, students and the general public worldwide. The advantage of the system is that museum professionals throughout the world will be able to enter data and keep it up to date. The database incorporates two major existing databases of university museums and collections: UMAC/Macquarie Database, developed by Peter Stanbury, and the database of German universities and collections, developed by Cornelia Weber.

The University of Lisbon’s cultural heritage survey (2010–2011)

In this paper, a survey of the cultural heritage of the University of Lisbon (2010–2011) will be presented, with a focus on the methodological approach. Main results will be discussed, as well as future perspectives regarding management, preservation and access of the university’s scientific and artistic collections, and buildings of artistic, architectonic and historical significance.

The teaching astronomical observatory of the University of Lisbon (19th century): A virtual experience

The last teaching observatory of historical interest in Portugal, from the late 19th century, is one of the most charismatic buildings of the Museums of the University of Lisbon. After 100 years of intense use, the Observatory needs structural restoration before it can be fully returned to public fruition. Recently, a group of students from this University was engaged in the construction of virtual 3D models to recreate the Observatory building and collections. This paper describes the models constructed as a tool to be used for information dissemination among broader audiences.