With modern innovations, it is oftentimes easy to instinctively reach for an iPhone to Google a question and answer.  Technology may efficiently provide a reference; however, images and adjectives lack the tangibility, size, texture and true color of a glass model, which is something Professor Drew Harvell highlighted during this week’s Becker-Rose Cafe.  As a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Harvell studies coral resistance to disease and the impacts of climate change on coral reef ecosystems.  Aside from conducting fieldwork in the Mexican Yucatan, Florida Keys, Hawaii and Indonesia, Harvell works hands-on in the restoration process of The Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka Collection currently held at Mann Library.  Unlike vertebrates which can be stuffed and mounted, invertebrates must be preserved in alcohol, which inevitably leads to color loss and deformation.  Glass modeling, however, offers an unparalleled facet of learning about ecosystems in that when constructed well, glass provides the ideal detail, fragility and color to recreate marine forms.  Harvell’s discussion on glass work proceeded with a screening of David Brown’s film, Fragile Legacy, which explored the sustainability of marine ecosystems despite climate change.  A large factor behind the decline in oceanic biodiversity can be attributed to human pollution and damage.  Considering the inevitable evolution and the unfortunate extinction of some marine species, glass modeling allows for the stories, structures and development of ecosystems to be tracked and preserved overtime.  Ultimately, the sheer intricacy of glass structures captures the true beauty of marine life that a picture alone cannot portray and possesses the ability to unify a broad audience of artists to scientists over a shared interest in exploring a less familiar, but awe-inspiring underwater world.