biology

Karen Osborn

Karen Osborn is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Karen Osborn rather than just read about it. In short: Karen Joyce Osborn (born January 29, 1974) is a marine scientist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History Invertebrate Zoology department. She is known for her work in marine biology specializing in mid-water invertebrates.

Key takeaways

Karen Osborn belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Karen Osborn to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Karen Osborn from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Karen Joyce Osborn (born January 29, 1974) is a marine scientist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History Invertebrate Zoology department. She is known for her work in marine biology specializing in mid-water invertebrates.

Early life and education During her time in high school, Osborn was interested in biology. She did not know what she wanted to study in college, but she knew she wanted to study something related to biology. At Andrews University Osborn was interested in biology and took a year long introductory course into the subject to find out what topic she was most interested in. She took a year off from college to teach in Micronesia. During her time in Micronesia she scuba dived often and became fascinated with the amount of diversity that existed in the coral reefs. She decided to study invertebrates like the ones she saw there. When she returned to college she graduated with a BS in Zoology and a minor in Chemistry. In 1999 she received her masters of science in biology from Western Washington University. For two years following this she worked at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute as a research technician. This is when she began to be interested in the midwater. In 2007 she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Ph.D. in Integrative Biology. She completed her post doc at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

Career and research In 2011, she became an Associate Curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in the invertebrate zoology department. Now at the National Museum of Natural History she focuses her research on marine invertebrates living in the mid water level of the ocean. She is interested in how these invertebrates have adapted to living in this environment. She enjoys incorporating art into her work and has helped train many people to make scientific illustrations. She helped create the National Museum of Natural History's exhibit called Life in One Cubic Foot, which explored the biodiversity that could be found in one cubic foot anywhere in the world, and other exhibits. She also helps organize polychaete day at the museum, an event to teach the public about polychaetes and their living environments.

Select publications KJ Osborn, GW Rouse, SK Goffredi, BH Robison. 2007. Description and Relationships of Chaetopterus pugaporcinus, an Unusual Pelagic Polychaete (Annelida, Chaetopteridae). The Biological Bulletin 212 (1), 40-54. KJ Osborn, LA Kuhnz, IG Priede, M Urata, AV Gebruk, ND Holland. 2011. Diversification of acorn worms (Hemichordata, Enteropneusta) revealed in the deep sea. Proc. R. Soc. B, rspb20111916. KJ Osborn, SHD Haddock, F Pleijel, LP Madin, GW Rouse. 2009. Deep-sea, swimming worms with luminescent “bombs”. Science 325 (5943), 964-964. KJ Osborn. 2009. Relationships within the Munnopsidae (Crustacea, Isopoda, Asellota) based on three genes. Zoologica Scripta 38 (6), 617-635. IG Priede, KJ Osborn, AV Gebruk, D Jones, D Shale, A Rogacheva, ND Holland. 2012. Observations on torquaratorid acorn worms (Hemichordata, Enteropneusta) from the North Atlantic with descriptions of a new genus and three new species. Invertebrate Biology 131 (3), 244-257. RS Kaufmann, BH Robison, RE Sherlock, KR Reisenbichler, KJ Osborn. 2011. Composition and structure of macrozooplankton and micronekton communities in the vicinity of free-drifting Antarctic icebergs. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 58 (11-12), 1469-1484. KJ Osborn, GW Rouse. 2011. Phylogenetics of Acrocirridae and Flabelligeridae (Cirratuliformia, Annelida). Zoologica Scripta 40 (2), 204-219. AG Collins, B Bentlage, GI Matsumoto, SHD Haddock, KJ Osborn, B Schierwater. 2006. Solution to the phylogenetic enigma of Tetraplatia, a worm-shaped cnidarian. Biology letters 2 (1), 120-124. KJ Osborn, GW Rouse. 2008. Multiple origins of pelagicism within Flabelligeridae (Annelida). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 49 (2008) 386–392. RE Sherlock, KR Reisenbichler, SL Bush, KJ Osborn, BH Robison. 2011. Near-field zooplankton, ice-face biota and proximal hydrography of free-drifting Antarctic icebergs. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 58 (11-12), 1457-1468.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Karen Osborn

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Karen Osborn claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Karen Osborn before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Karen Osborn ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Karen Osborn

In research: Karen Osborn appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Karen Osborn in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Karen Osborn is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1974 births, 21st-century American non-fiction writers, 21st-century American scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Karen Osborn outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Karen Osborn” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Karen Osborn in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Karen Osborn means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Karen Osborn out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Karen Osborn in simple terms?

Why does Karen Osborn matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Karen Osborn?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Karen Osborn.