$25M ‘historic' gift lets Carnegie Museum of Natural History upgrade its iconic dinosaur exhibit
A historic gift to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History will allow for renovations to a beloved exhibit.
The museum announced Wednesday they were given a $25 million gift from Daniel and Carole Kamin. It's the largest individual monetary donation to the museum since Andrew Carnegie founded the Cargenie Museums in 1895.
The couple last year provided a 'transformative' $65 million gift to the Carnegie Science Center — also the largest donation that museum has received since its creation.
RELATED COVERAGE >>> Carnegie Science Center to change name following $65M 'transformational gift'
'Twice in the past year, Dan and Carole Kamin have demonstrated their profound commitment to the work of our museums through transformational gifts totaling $90 million,' said Dr. Steven Knapp, President and CEO of Carnegie Museums. 'We are deeply grateful for their unparalleled endorsement of our museums' power to inspire and inform, and we are honored to be a part of their great legacy of generosity in the Pittsburgh region.'
A portion of the $25 million donation will be used to renovate the museum's Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibition between now and 2028. To honor the generous gift, the gallery where this exhibit is displayed will be renamed the Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Hall of Dinosaurs.
Some of the updates museum officials highlight to the nearly 20-year-old exhibit include immersive and interactive elements, in-gallery storytelling and an emphasis on accessibility.
'Carnegie Museum of Natural History stewards one of the most extraordinary dinosaur fossil collections in the world...' said museum director Gretchen Baker. 'Now, with Carole and Dan's generous support, we'll reimagine the gallery in which these iconic specimens are displayed, plus tens of thousands of additional square feet within the museum.'
The rest of the funds will be used to establish an endowment to support the museum's scientific mission.
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Medscape
04-06-2025
- Medscape
Social Withdrawal in Aging Tied to Shifts in Brain Networks
There is a natural decline in sociability as a result of aging influenced by brain changes, new research shows. 'Our study suggests that age-related changes in the functional wiring of the brain may impair certain abilities needed to maintain social relationships,' the study's lead study author Yuet Ruh Dan, Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School, told Medscape Medical News . The findings were published online on May 28 in PLOS One . Sociability Critical to Health Sociability, which is the capacity to communicate effectively, be socially assertive, and to manage emotions, is 'critical' for maintaining and promoting health, especially as we age, said Dan. Research has linked sociability to increased functional connectivity in and between intrinsic brain networks. Overall, the default mode network (DMN), ventral attention network, and limbic structures have been the most strongly correlated with sociability. The aging process also involves changes in intrinsic brain networks. Studies have shown that aging results in lower within-network connectivity, as well as greater between-network connectivity. For example, Dan noted that connectivity between the frontoparietal and DMNs decreases with age change that has been linked to poorer self-esteem and memory. Meanwhile, connectivity between the limbic and insular regions increases with age and has been shown to activate in situations involving social exclusion, she added. 'Intuitively, poorer self-esteem and an increased sensitivity to exclusion may be linked to a decreased ability to communicate with others and regulate our emotions,' she said. This study is among the first — if not thefirst — to directly examine the relationship between age-related changes in functional connectivity and sociability, Dan added. The study included 196 healthy participants aged 20-77 years (mean age, approximately 38 years), with 34.2% identifying as female, drawn from the Leipzig Study for Mind-Body-Emotion Interactions dataset. For the analysis, researchers grouped participants into 5-year age brackets (20-25, 25-30, etc.), Dan said. In addition, the researchers obtained resting-state functional MRI data. Participants completed the sociability subscale of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Short Form. This six-question subscale measures social awareness, emotional management, communication effectiveness, and participation in social situations. The questionnaire is scored on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 7 (completely agree), with higher scores indicating higher levels of sociability. Researchers also collected data using the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), which measures neuroticism, extraversion, openness to new experiences, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. They found a strong positive correlation between sociability and extraversion ( P < .001), highlighting a significant link between the two traits. Researchers conducted network-based analyses to identify patterns of resting-state functional connectivity, grouping the data into an age-positive network (APN), which showed a positive correlation with age, and an age-negative network (ANN), which showed a negative correlation. 'Essentially, we found that with increased age, there is a group of functional brain networks that become more interconnected and a group that becomes less interconnected,' said Dan. The subcortical-parietal connectivity and the within-limbic connectivity were the most negatively correlated in the ANN, while limbic-insular connectivity was the strongest positive correlation within the APN. Within the positive connectivity network, ventral attention-somatomotor connectivity had the strongest correlation with age. Frontoparietal-DMN connectivity was the most negatively correlated with age. Decreased Connectivity, Sociability Both ANN and APN may contribute to decreased sociability, but it's not yet clear which plays the more dominant role, Dan said. However, she and her colleagues have some theories. They propose that reduced connectivity between the frontoparietal and DMN regions may be linked to impaired cognition and lower self-esteem, 'thereby resulting in impaired social assertiveness, emotional regulation skills, and reduced sociability.' Decreased connectivity of these regions could be linked to decreased sociability through impaired executive processing, they noted. The study illustrates that as we age, 'it may not be just a lack of social contact opportunities that prevents us from forming and maintaining relationships but also an inherent change in the brain's functional wiring,' Dan said. A mediation analysis showed the effect of age on sociability was fully mediated via both APN and AAN. 'Generally, these statistical results meant that the networks that become more connected, for example APN, as well as less connected, for example, ANN, with age can explain decreased sociability seen across the lifespan,' said Dan. Dan emphasized that sociability is just one factor related to loneliness — and one that is relatively easy to measure — whereas loneliness itself is a far more complex and deeply subjective experience. 'Intuitively, people with lower sociability scores may be more likely to be lonely, as they may find it harder to maintain relationships. In this sense, increased sociability may be a risk factor for increased loneliness with age.' Dan said she hopes these preliminary findings will spur more longitudinal research into these relationships and help inform efforts to support healthy aging. She noted the importance of physicians recognizing that declining sociability may be a natural part of aging. 'Greater emphasis should be placed on community-based health promotion efforts,' she said. The investigators did not analyze NEO-FFI personality trait variables, so 'we can't draw any conclusions about whether they were related to changes in brain connectivity or sociability,' Dan said. She also noted that the sample was heavily skewed toward younger participants, which may limit the reliability of the findings for older adults. Additionally, grouping subjects into 5-year age bins may have introduced 'noise' into the statistical models. Other limitations included an all-European study sample, and collection of sociability data exclusively via self-report, which may be less reliable than more objective measures like social network size. Interpret With Caution Commenting for Medscape Medical News , Dirk Scheele, PhD, professor of social neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, German, said the paper addresses a 'relevant' topic. 'The general question of how social interactions and the desire for social engagement change with age is undoubtedly important, particularly given strong evidence that the risk of social isolation and loneliness increases with advancing age,' he said. However, the underlying neural mechanisms remain 'surprisingly unclear,' he said. 'For example, no study to date has directly compared the neural substrates of loneliness or social isolation between younger and older adults.' Although the study 'has the potential to inspire novel research questions,' its findings should be interpreted with 'considerable caution' due to several limitations, he said. 'Most notably, it's an entirely exploratory study without preregistration, and its cross-sectional design prevents conclusions about causal relationships,' he added. Scheele also noted the 'sociability' construct was derived from a subscale of a questionnaire and 'encompasses multiple facets, such as emotion regulation and social awareness, that may belinked to distinct neural mechanisms.'
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Yahoo
Quantiphi Unveils Phi Labs Research and Development Hub, Accelerating Breakthroughs in Generative AI, Life Sciences, Digital Twins
MARLBOROUGH, Mass., May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Quantiphi, an AI-first digital engineering company, today unveiled Phi Labs by Quantiphi, the formal identity of Quantiphi's long-standing Research and Development (R&D) hub, addressing real-world business challenges through breakthrough AI solutions. Quantiphi's Research and Development has been at the forefront of innovation in Generative AI, Life Sciences and Digital Twins since 2018, with a patent portfolio that underscores its commitment to future-proofing its technology. Now known as Phi Labs by Quantiphi, the R&D hub's pioneering work has been featured in leading forums like Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) and the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). "Phi Labs embodies Quantiphi's vision to redefine AI's business impact," Quantiphi Global R&D Head Dagnachew (Dan) Birru said. "By integrating cutting-edge research with practical applications, we enable our clients to navigate the evolving AI landscape with confidence." Phi Labs' key achievements include: Technology and IP Transfers: More than 15 transfers leading to accelerators and product launches like baioniq, Dociphi and Codeaira Innovative Milestones: Projects ranging from Speech-to-Text for Finance, 3D-GANs for seismic imaging and advanced healthcare diagnostics, achieving up to a 90 percent reduction in processing time Recent Developments: From 2021 to 2024, Quantiphi filed 50-plus patents—including 30-plus by Phi Labs, secured multiple technology transfers and earned accolades through academic collaborations and publications, including being featured in the Financial Times. Phi Labs by Quantiphi focuses on: Generative AI: Advanced reasoning, agentic workflows, efficient models and intelligent document processing Life Sciences: Small molecule synthesis, genomics, protein engineering and pharmacovigilance Digital Twins: Operations optimization, digital twin agents, engineering simulation and climate risk modeling Quantum Computing: Quantum machine learning, hybrid quantum-classical systems "Unlike labs driven by theory, our approach embeds innovation into enterprise environments directly, while upholding Responsible AI standards," Birru said. "Our engineering-driven team pairs deep research with industry expertise, ensuring every solution delivers tangible business impact." About Quantiphi:Quantiphi is an award-winning AI-first digital engineering company driven by the desire to reimagine and realize transformational opportunities at the heart of business. Since its inception in 2013, Quantiphi has solved the toughest and most complex business problems by combining deep industry experience, disciplined cloud and data engineering practices, and cutting-edge artificial intelligence research to achieve accelerated and quantifiable business results. Learn more at and follow us on LinkedIn, X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram and YouTube. Media Contact:H. Newsroom View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Quantiphi Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CBS News
09-05-2025
- CBS News
Kites for Kids event at Carnegie Science Center helping lift up community children in need
Children of all ages will be able to see a lot more color and activities with the Kites for Kids event at the Carnegie Science Center. A space at the museum will be transformed into something special and is all about helping kids just be kids. Learning and having fun go hand in hand at the Carnegie Science Center with exhibits, technology, and of course, science -- but there are kites, too. "The kites here are a fun, childhood activity and a symbol of a chance to soar and be lifted up," said Scott Hollander, Executive Director of KidsVoice. "All five floors, you can see the different kites as you make your way up," said Megan McKenzie, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the Carnegie Science Center. With kites big or small, in all colors and designs, made by children in the Allegheny County foster care system, Kites for Kids is an event for at-risk children to anonymously have fun here. "Many of them have never been to the Science Center," Hollander said. KidsVoice is a non-profit that helps abused or neglected children get the social services they need and Kites for Kids is their biggest event of the year. "Thousands of our clients are able to come and see the community supporting them and seeing the Kites for Kids logo means that people believe in them," Hollander said. Hollander says local support and partnerships have kept the Kites for Kids event running for years. "We have a lot of support from UPMC for different programs that we do," Hollander said. "They're also a sponsor of the event." And despite the challenges the children are facing in their personal lives, when they're at the Science Center, they're not thinking about what they're missing or what's going to happen tomorrow, they're just happy they get to be a kid. "They're coming for fun," McKenzie said. "It's science through play, just having fun, learning something new, but truly having a great time and that's what we're excited to be the backdrop for." Kites for Kids is happening Saturday from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Carnegie Science Center.
