Almost two decades ago I took my, then tiny, children to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. They were small enough that riding the stone lions by the gates was of more interest than the actual lions in the African Savannah exhibit. They completely missed a tiny island of empty concrete cages. Zoos of the early 1900s contained little more than rows of such cages (Woodland Park was founded in 1899). Tiny, barred, sterile rooms that were prison cells for short-lived, crazed animals. Now the Seattle zoo is a leader in immersion exhibits where animals have much more space, plants are abundant, visitors feel like they are in the habitat, and animals can choose to be out of sight if they want. Very few animals are dying young these days and the stress behavior that was par for the course a century ago is now rare. 

As Florence Williams pointed out at the NHMU Keynote Lecture on Feb. 25th, animals deprived of their regular habitat freak out. The same is true for humans. Which leads us to the inescapable conclusion that nature is not a luxury, it is a need. Florence was deprived of her regular habitat many years ago when she moved from Colorado to Washington DC. Easy, daily access to wilderness trails was replaced with an asphalt jungle. Views of nature swapped for buildings. And a noise level that was off the charts compared to her Colorado home (low-level jet fly over every 90 seconds for starters). She said it was like a stress bomb had gone off in her brain. 

More than 75% of Americans live in cities. Were they all nature deprived (and somewhat crazed as a result)? If yes, what could be done about it? Thus was born (after heaps of hard work), The Nature Fix: Why nature makes us happier, healthier, and more creative. The Nature Fix visits a whole host of scientists in the quest to understand our brain’s reaction to the great outdoors. Close to home is David Strayer, a University of Utah professor of cognition and neural science who noticed that he was forever getting his best ideas on river trips.

David’s 'Cognition in the Wild' class requires students to present their research papers around the campfire and they always do better than in the classroom. Why would that be? Part of prevailing theory maintains that we are simply more relaxed in the great outdoors. More specifically (and more to David’s liking) Attention Restoration Theory looks at the differences in baseline brain activity when we are outside versus indoors where our frontal cortex predominates. Outdoors our sensory brain ramps up and the frontal cortex ramps down enough to rejuvenate. Take a deliberate break in the natural world and your brain gets the perfect respite. (Learn more in the Nature All Around Us exhibit.)

Closely related to Attention Restoration Theory is the science of awe. When we encounter something larger than ourselves (and notice!) the ruminating part of our brain stops and the part responsible for forming connections dominates. We feel physically smaller, but more connected after experiencing awe. We are more empathetic. This can only be a good thing. Great, we have all kinds of empirical evidence that getting outside is good for us. Test subjects invariably feel better after their time in nature. It should be really easy to incorporate regular nature experiences into our routines, right? Turns out, humans suffer from a spectacular forecasting error when it comes to nature exposure. We perpetually undervalue the results of getting outside and how we will feel about it.

Looks like, evolutionarily, we never needed a push to get outside and now that we have reworked our environment to almost completely exclude the great outdoors, we could really use that nudge. Knowing that we are wired to undervalue exposure to nature and wired to really, really need it will have to suffice.

All the more reason why every neighborhood, wealthy or not, should have easy access to green space. Even an interview with the incomparable Shankar Vedantam could not possibly cover Florence William’s entire book in the allotted hour. I’ve already ordered a copy of The Nature Fix and downloaded more Hidden Brain podcasts. If you’ll excuse me, my brain needs a nature fix. I’ll be in the garden.

The question “what do you want to do when you grow up?” seldom prompts a response that includes transcribing field notes from the 1800’s. On a whim, Alyson decided to complete a high school job shadow assignment at the State Historical Museum of Iowa. She spent the day following a conservator around the bowels of the museum and loving it. Adventures in archaeology and museum study at the University of Iowa, an internship in paleontology, and graduate studies at the University of Kansas followed. All interspersed with organization and digitization jobs and projects. Particularly relevant to the world of museums is Alyson’s thesis which investigated the intersection of art and science in public spaces. Specifically, that art which is called upon to ‘fill the gaps’ in scientific understanding, to extrapolate in the name of communication.

Alyson prefers Utah snow to the Kansas variety. She’s currently reading ‘The Glass Universe’ by Dava Sobel (excellent so far) and can usually be found with more than one book in her commuter bag. Since arriving in June 2019 Alyson has fallen for the Utah mountains, the hiking, and the local food scene (which shows good taste). Welcome Alyson!

Ways to get involved with NHMU’s digitization projects: You can help transcribe field-notes from NHMU’s collections online. Time spent on these online projects will be added to your annual volunteer service record at the end of each year. Anyone interested in volunteering with Alyson and her team can contact Nichelle O’Saurus or Alyson Wilkins.