Your weekly round-up of news and events happening in the world of natural sciences

Jobs

Research Assistant, Vertebrate Palaeontology – University of Birmingham. 12 month post researching 375 million years of the diversification of life on land!

Curator of Microlepidoptera – NHM, London. A great opportunity for any fans of minimoths!

Curator of Natural Sciences and Collections Access Manager – Tullie House Museum. Still a couple of days to apply for these two. The deadline is 10th August.

As always, see out jobs page for more opportunities.

Events

‘Digitisation’ seems to be the keyword for September…

NBN Crowdsourcing Data Capture Summit. The National Biodiversity Network is holding a one-day meeting on digitising specimen data through crowdsourcing, at Manchester Museum on 25th September.

iDigBio Vertebrate Digitization Interest Group will be holding a 4-part webinar series entitled The Value of Digitizing Vertebrate Collections. They will be held on Tuesdays in September at 3 – 4 p.m. EDT (7 – 8 pm GMT).

All webinars are 3-4 p.m. EDT and accessible at https://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/vertdigitization. Here is the schedule:
September 8: The Value of Digitizing Mammal Collections, Cody Thompson, University of Michigan
September 15: The Value of Digitizing Fish Collections, Andy Bentley, University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and President of SPNCH
September 22: The Value of Digitizing Herpetology Collections, Chris Phillips, Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois
September 29: The Value of Digitizing Bird Collections, Carla Cicero, UC Berkeley and Lead PI for Vertnet

Around the Web

Time to re-curate those canid specimens? Genetic evidence indicates that the African golden jackal is a distinct species from the European golden jackal, and is actually much more closely related to wolves! And new genomic research has clarified the status of Eastern wolves and other North American canids.

‘But I’m still a fox, right?’

Working with the Public: How an Unusual Museum Enquiry Turned into Travels Through Time and Space. A great example of how engaging with enquiries can lead to fascinating insights into the past.

…And Finally

A request: We would love you to get involved in the NatSCA blog! It’s been rather quiet of late. I know you’re all probably off enjoying yourselves on holiday, but if you happen to visit a museum or an interesting exhibition while you’re away, why not review it for us? We’d love to hear tales of your adventures! And don’t forget, if you’re working on any projects or specimens that you think other people would be interested in, then the blog is the perfect place to share! Email submissions to: blog@natsca.org