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To these ends the Museum has initiated its "Biological Diversity in Tropical Latin America" program under which, in cooperation with biologists in the host countries, the Museum has established biosphere reserves in Bolivia and Peru. Under these arrangements, the Museum's staff have been conducting field research which is site-specific (as contrasted with the taxon-orientation of the traditional systematists) and provided workshop training for Bolivian and Peruvian scientists who will be brought to Washington for additional museum training. While it is anticipated that the Museum will build upon these models for additional research sites throughout Latin America, the Museum is also beginning to look into establishing similar reserves in Southeast Asia.

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The two new research initiatives in biological diversity and molecular systematics reflect both dynamic growth in scientific efforts at the National Museum of Natural History and the changing emphases of the larger research community in which the Museum plays an important role. Like scientific institutions world-wide, museums of natural history have undergone a major revolution since World War II, with much of the change taking place in the last several decades. Powered by technological breakthroughs that have resulted in new techniques and applications, including computers that can analyze vast amounts of data, scientific staff engage in quite different kinds of research today than was possible even twenty years ago. In addition, scholars in natural history museums have become more involved in research with direct application to some of the earth's basic problems, such as the conservation of habitats or species threatened with extinction.

The Museum's traditional strength has always been in systematics -- the study of the evolutionary relationships among organisms. This will continue to be a major effort of the Museum as its scientists discover, describe, and investigate the lives of animals and plants, study patterns of evolutionary histories, and employ these insights to analyze the processes that control and regulate the world's ecosystems. What is new is the interdisciplinary nature of some of the research, and the new approaches and techniques used. Both new initiatives, one in biological diversity, the other in molecular systematics, aim at a deeper understanding of the biological history and diversity of the planet. While one program focuses on inventorying the huge number of still unknown species in the tropics, the second initiative delves into the evolutionary relationships among organisms through a study of their molecular structure.