Sprinkled throughout Jena are many sites well-suited to help us consider scientific themes. On Tuesday afternoon, most of us visited the botanical garden with Jo-Ann. Begun in 1586 as a small medicinal garden, it later became a pleasure garden for the local duke. In 1794 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe turned the garden into a research center for the university, a role it continues to play today. We tried to observe how today's garden reflects its history--earlier preoccupations with morphology (the study of the structure and form of plants) and newer interests in plant ecology and human use of plants. On Thursday afternoon a smaller group visited the Phyletisches Museum, a small natural history museum that focuses upon the contributions of Jena's scientists to knowledge of various species and their development.

Photos from our botanical garden visit are courtesy of Matt.