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NatSCA Digital Digest- January

Colorado potato beetle, Chalupský 2004, Image in public domain

Colorado potato beetle. Chalupský 2004, Image in public domain

It’s the first NatSCA Digital Digest of the New Year, a time when everyone feels new, fresh, and fully motivated to read everything and do everything… yippee!

 

What’s New to Read?

In the prettiest blog I’ve ever seen, the science education whizzes at ARKive bring you ‘The Magical, Mystical World of Bioluminescence!‘.

In a beautifully written article called Hidden Sea Dragons: Discovering new species of ichthyosaurs in museum collections, guest writer to Earth Archives Dean Lomax writes about recent Ichthyosaur discoveries that are bringing him fame and fortune. Maybe just fame, there are no fortunes to be had in palaeontology… but fame is good enough for us. Continue reading →

NatSCA Digital Digest

 

A mounted skeleton of a fruitbat leers at the camera

Welcome to the March edition of the Digital Digest! Without further ado…

News

Booking is open for the 2016 NatSCA Conference and AGM, ‘The Nature of Collections – How museums inspire our connection to the natural world‘, which will be held at the Derby Museum & Art Gallery and The Silk Mill on 21 – 22 April.

We have invited papers and posters looking at how museums have inspired and shaped the relationship of visitors and users of the collections to the natural world:

  • Projects between wildlife/environmental organisations/parks and museums.
  • The training & developing of naturalist skills using collections.
  • Artists projects connecting collections/gallery to outside spaces.
  • Looking at the relationship between natural history societies, their collections & museums.
  • Exhibition examples linking preserved specimens and our environment.

The Early Bird deadline is TODAY (Thursday 10 March), so get booking and save money!

If you’re not yet a NatSCA member, now is a great time to join – you can purchase membership and get the member’s conference rate for the same cost as a non-member ticket! See our membership page to join.

If you are a member, email the NatSCA Membership Secretary (membership@natsca.org) for your booking discount code.

Jobs

Geologist, Scarborough Museums Trust. A great opportunity for any rock and fossil enthusiasts! Application deadline: Friday 8 April.

Research and Data Coordinator in Science Policy (CITES), Kew. One of a selection of interesting posts currently on offer at Kew, the application deadline for this post is Wednesday 16 March.

Around the Web

A taxidermy warehouse in London was broken into on Tuesday this week, and 18 specimens were stolen. The Met police are appealing for information: http://news.met.police.uk/news/help-needed-to-trace-stolen-stuffed-animals-154850

DNA from museum specimens confirms a new species of forest thrush.

Why was the pink-headed duck’s head pink? Museum specimens reveal the secrets of this extinct species.

NatSCA Digital Digest

natsca

Jobs and Traineeships

If, like many, your world will never be the same again once Dippy the Diplodocus retires from his position adorning the entrance hall to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, you can at least help secure him a happy future by going for the job of Corporate Partnerships Manager- Dippy the Dinosaur on Tour at the NHM. The deadline is the 25th January so there’s still time to affect the life of this semi-retired much loved icon.

If digital engagement is more your thing then the University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) are currently looking for a Digital Engagement Specialist. The deadline for this post is also the 25th January, with interviews on the 8th February.

Events and Exhibitions

The London Transport Museum is holding an interesting half day symposium on 7th March 2016 called Contemporary Collecting. The symposium is free and includes an evening reception at the Museum. There are six areas of focus listed on the website, ranging from risks of collecting to acquisitions that ‘are inherently, and/or overtly, political’. Sounds exciting!

Around the Web

The project of digitising the Charles Lyell Fossil Collections is well underway at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The blog (link above) is a fun and interesting read but more importantly, if you have any Charles Lyell specimens in your collection, Sarah Joomun and Eliza Howlett at the OUMNH would love to hear from you.

 

NatSCA Digital Digest

Firstly and most importantly…

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

Secondly, everything else…

Jobs and Traineeships

With the period known as the ‘run up to Christmas’ well underway it is slim pickings for new vacancies in natural history. However a number of posts still open in areas such as Norwich, Aberdeen and Sheffield, that have been previously advertised through NatSCA, can still be found here. Deadlines for applications begin early January so perhaps write yours out before you start to suffer from excess-turkey-consumption lethargy.

Events and Exhibitions

Fans of natural history have a great reason to visit the British Museum at the moment thanks to a new temporary exhibition called Scanning Sobek: Mummy of the crocodile god. Open until the 21st February, the exhibition is just inside the main door and is completely free. It couldn’t be easier!

If you are in or able to get to Berlin any time soon, the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever found is now on display at the Museum für Naturkunde in a special exhibition called Tristan: Berlin bares teeth. Tristan has only been baring his teeth to the public since 17th December 2015 and I for one am going to visit him asap.

Around the Web

There’s a rather festive Underwhelming fossil fish of the month blog, complete with santa hat and palaeofied lyrics to a well known Christmas favourite, over on the Grant Museum of Zoology blog.

Now I’m going to go to sleep (yes I know it’s only 11am) so that Christmas comes sooner. That’s how time works.

!!MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

NatSCA Digital Digest

Greater one horned rhino (C) E-L Nicholls

Greater one horned rhino (C) E-L Nicholls

Jobs and Traineeships

Post Doctoral Research Assistant- Origin of Land Plants, at the Natural History Museum. Applications for this externally funded two year project close on 7th December 2015.

Education Assistant; Bookings Administrator and Family Programming Officer, at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The position is for 3 years and deadline for applications is 12pm on 16th December.

Events and Exhibitions

Call for papers for the April 2016 conference Objectively Speaking at the British Museum. The conference is set to explore four main themes:

  1. How can museums connect collections with classroom and academic teaching?
  2. How can objects facilitate creative teaching practice?
  3. What is the impact and opportunity of digital technology for object based teaching?

The deadline for proposals is 12pm on 15th January 2016.

A day conference on 11th December called Conservation Matters in Wales – ‘Conservators in Action’ is taking place at the National Museum Wales, in Cardiff. It will include presentations, short tours, and drinks in the pub afterwards (optional!)

Around the Web

Got literary inspiration to find or time to kill? Check out 100 Best Museum and Curator Blogs.

Rachel Petts graces the PalaeoManchester blog with beautiful sharks teeth (I’m not biased) (that might be a lie) as she introduces us to a collection of Eocene Chondrichthyan fossils, found in the UK, and recently donated to Manchester Museum. Hooray!