Mosses, liverworts and hornworts, collectively known as bryophytes, number to about 20,000 species worldwide. In the Philippines alone, 1,200 species have been reported, making the country one of the most species-rich in Southeast Asia and a haven for botanists and researchers. Those intending to collect these special plants for biodiversity inventories should be able to practice the appropriate ways in getting specimens from the field and processing the samples. In this article, we summarize the recommendations of James R. Shevock¹, Ivy Amor F. Lambio² and Benito Tan³, who wrote on "Collection and Preparation Techniques of Bryophyte Specimens in Biodiversity Inventories." The article appeared in the recently published report of the 2011 Hearst Philippines Biodiversity Expedition done by the US-based California Academy of Science.

In this age where digital is preferred to analog and automatic processes lord over those done manually, there is still a truly exceptional skill - a fusion of art and science -- which has found a special way in the heart of scientific research.

This specialty, called scientific illustration, has already been practiced for more than several hundred years but has been appreciated at first as a skill in the arts, rather than as an input/output to/of science.

Scientists from the University of the Philippines Los Baños have discovered a new plant species with an unusual lifestyle — it eats nickel for a living — accumulating up to 18,000 ppm of the metal in its leaves without itself being poisoned, says Professor Edwino Fernando, lead author of the report. Such an amount is a hundred to a thousand times higher than in most other plants. The study was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

Mario V. Navasero, Scientist I (DOST Scientific Career System), University Researcher II at the Crop Protection Cluster, College of Agriculture and Curator for Psylloids at the Museum of Natural History will be given the L.B. Uichanco Memorial Award for Outstanding Entomologist on May 9, 2014 during the 45th Anniversary and Annual Scientific Conference of the Pest Management Council of the Philippines, Inc. at the Mandarin Plaza Hotel, Cebu City.

The UPLB Museum of Natural History recently conducted the latest offering of its Summer Short Course on "Biodiversity for Beginners: Methods and Analysis for Biodiversity Field Surveys" from April 24 to May 1, 2014. The latest batch of graduates of the course included 13 BS Biology students from Adamson University accompanied by their teacher-companion, Dr. Ramon Luber, Chairman of the university's Biology Department. Five participants came from Catanduanes State College, Bicol University, Partido State University, Benguet State University and a private environmental consultancy group.

It was a few minutes past noon when my phone rang, the Director was calling. He told me that I was to join MNH Curator for birds Dr. Juan Carlos Gonzales to observe and document some birds in Batangas City with Vice-Chancellor Vicky Espaldon and we would have to leave before 2PM. I was not prepared at all, it was kind of a quick shot in the arm but fortunately I left a digital camera with a nearly exhausted battery at the office. I asked a former officemate to lend me a hard disk camera with a 1.7x telephoto lens so that I can also take videos.