Do you have a rock collection gathering dust in the back of your closet? How about a butterfly “collection” that never grew beyond one or two specimens? Gathering objects from nature might seem like kids’ stuff, but author and lifelong collector Gordon Grice says there’s plenty of reasons for kids and adults to keep up the collecting habit. For one, he says, it can make you a keener observer—and caretaker—of nature.
Grice joins Ira Flatow to share tips for building your own cabinet of curiosities, including how to pin insects and how to identify that animal skull you found in your backyard. Plus, Field Museum geologist Jim Holstein talks about the museum’s annual “Identification Day,” where amateur collectors can bring in finds for experts to analyze. But beware! Jim says your meteorite might just turn out to be a meteor-wrong.
