CLEVELAND — A Cleveland Museum of Natural History researcher has found a way to help people across the world learn more about our planet. 

What You Need To Know

  • Dr. Nicole Gunter is the associate curator of invertebrate zoology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History

  • Gunter created a new software plug-in that allows planetarium domes to display biodiversity data

  • She accomplished this with the help of a National Science Foundation grant and computer company Evans & Sutherland

Inside the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, you can find Dr. Nicole Gunter talking about one of the poopiest insects on the planet: The dung beetle. 

“They're just such fascinating creatures. What I think is really neat is they have this unique biology where they raise their young in literally a bowl of poop, and while most people think that’s really gross, it’s really an incredible evolutionary trait. So because it’s in a bowl of dung, it has all of the food as well as all of the safety it needs to survive to adulthood,” explained Gunter.  

That sense of curiosity for the associate curator of invertebrate zoology started at a young age. 

“I was just that kid that was allowed to play outside and my mom, she’s a reference librarian, so we always had a lot of field guides around," she said.

The Australian-born scientist has worked in several countries researching and educating, but inside this Cleveland Planetarium Dome, she’s watching a vision of hers come to life. 

“The first time I saw the species that I work with in the dome, it was absolutely magical. This idea that I could take people into the field with me in this immersive environment, projected onto this planetarium dome, it was almost as if I was in these field sights.” 

With the help of a National Science Foundation grant and computer company Evans & Sutherland, Gunter created a new software plug-in that allows planetarium domes to display biodiversity data. 

Gunter showed Spectrum News the migration path of the monarch butterfly. 

“So anyone that has this planetarium software can now generate their files essentially in a matter of seconds, whereas if you were doing this on a normal computer, you would need someone who understands the type of data and how to handle a really crazy spreadsheet that might have millions of records across across 135 different columns," she explained.

Gunter hopes this tool can not only help current scientists across the world, but also inspire the next generation. 

“That potential reach is incredible, and who knows what kid can be sitting in that planetarium, gazing up onto the planet, that might just decide that this is what they want to do, too," she said.