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NatSCA Digital Digest

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

Jobs

Curator, Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL. It’s here! The job I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for. Just make sure you get your applications in by 3rd August 2015!

Interpretation Producer, Kew Gardens. Closing date: 5th July 2015.

Conservation and Documentation Manager, Bristol Museums, Archives and Galleries. Closing date: 19th July 2015.

See the job page of the NatSCA website for more exciting opportunities!

News

The deadline for submissions to the next issue of the Journal of Natural Science Collections is 15th July 2015. Get writing! Guidelines for authors are available online, and please send your submission and any queries to Jan Freedman (editor@natsca.org).

Around the Web

Donna Young of Liverpool Museums has been busy digitising Brendel plant models.

A look inside the collections of National Museums Scotland.

North America’s herbarium collections are under threat due to funding cuts. The article is also a nice piece of collections advocacy for herbaria.

New research from the American Museum of Natural History shows that the teeth of Smilodon fatalis grew rapdily, but took years to mature.

The rise and fall of the barbary lion. Could it help to save other species from beyond the grave?

 

NatSCA Digital Digest

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

Events

12th-14th October: Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities: Exploring new digital destinations for heritage and academia at The Imperial War Museum North, Manchester. Free conference exploring the use of digital, in museums environments.

22nd July: Digital vs. Analogue at Oxford University Museum of Natural History. One day conference looking at four themes: Tactile Engagement, Story Telling, Families and Schools, and Digital Displays.

8th September: Osteology Day at University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge. A one day hands-on workshop covering aspects of osteology such as bone cleaning, rearticulation, restoration, identification and preparation.

 

News

The Palaeontological Association is advertising for a new Executive Officer, after the sad news of Tim Palmer’s retirement. Closing date for applications is 21st August 2015.

Did you know that Dubai Aquarium in the UAE has the world’s largest single piece of acrylic. It is pretty hefty at an impressive 70 cm thick, but it is not always with the most reliable seals, as they found out in 2010…

 

Around the Web

What do you do with a dead fish? Check out this blog for a unique idea: Printing and Reanimating the Dead.

**JURASSIC WORLD IS OUT** And smashing Box Office records. Of course. This review is great, but if you haven’t seen the film yet (firstly- why not? and secondly…) it contains spoilers!

 

Got a submission for the blog or Digital Digest? Email us at blog@natsca.org

NatSCA Digital Digest

NatSCA polar bear

Jobs

Education Assistant – National Museum of Ireland – Natural History

Duration: Permanent

Closing date: 5th June 2015

To apply, click here

Conferences and Workshops

A few exciting talks are coming up at the Natural History Museum soon, which I thought would be worth highlighting for you. The first is the Annual A. R. Wallace Lecture which this year will take place on the 2nd June 16:30-17:30. The subject is ‘Wallace, Darwin, and Spiritualism: The Trial of the Spirit-Medium Henry Slade, 1876’. For more information, click here.

On the 24th July at 16:30, the SciFri Seminar series brings to you ‘The Greatest Living Naturalist- The Life and Conflicts of Professor Richard Owen’, in celebration of Richard Owen’s birthday. It will be in the Neil Chalmers Seminar Room. For more information, click here.

 

Exhibitions

The long awaited ‘Power of Poison’ exhibition has opened at the Old Truman Brewery in London. The website invites you to ‘discover the alluring, seductive and terrifying role of poison and how it affects our everyday lives through nature, myth, medicine and healing’ and of course, will contain spiders, snakes, and other lovelies. For more information, click here.

Content assembled by Emma-Louise Nicholls

NatSCA Digital Digest

Chameleon

Events

Now that the 2015 NatSCA Conference is over, the next conference for your diaries is Refloating the Ark: Connecting the public and scientists with natural history collections on 17th – 18th June at Manchester Museum. The full programme, abstracts, and booking information can be found here.

Developing Skills for Collection Managers – 28th May 2015, NHM. An afternoon seminar and workshop run by Nick Poole of the Collections Trust, providing tips on putting collection competency frameworks into practice and improving collections skills.

Jobs

Keeper, Science and Technology – National Museums Scotland. Applications close 31st May 2015.

Learning and Events Assistant – NHM, Tring. Applications close 31st May 2015.

As always, do keep an eye on the jobs page of the NatSCA website!

Around the Web

Watch the team at the Museum of Zoology, Cambridge decant their carnivore case in 2 minutes! Also check out this blog for a conservator’s-eye view of their current redevelopment project.

A good article about how the current financial crisis has left the natural history museum in Dublin in dire straits. A very sad story.

The International Institute for Species Exploration has released a list of the Top 10 New Species of 2015! The list is released on 23rd May each year, to coincide with the birthday of Carolus Linnaeus, the father of taxonomy. Happy birthday Linnaeus!

NatSCA Digital Digest

Gorilla skull on a black background

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

 

Jobs

Unusually, there are a few natural science jobs out there in the UK at the moment:

Curatorial Assistant (Human Remains and Repatriation) – Natural History Museum. Applications close 29th March.

Curator/Lecturer in Vertebrate Palaeontology – Cambridge University. Applications close 3rd April.

Several interesting posts at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, including an Assistant Curator (applications close 7th April).

And, just in case you haven’t already seen it:

Collections Manager (Life Collections) – Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Applications close 10th April.

Events

Simon Moore’s renowned fluid preservation course will next run on 1st – 4th June at the Horniman Museum & Gardens. The four-day course costs £300 (NatSCA members can apply for a bursary). See here for details and booking.

A fluid-preserved specimen in a jar is held up to the camera. Image: Russell Dornan

Learn the skills to care for fluid-preserved specimens (Image: Russell Dornan)

The Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH) has put out a call for speakers for their annual conference, to be held at Wakefield Museum on 31st July – 1st August.

The Museum Ethnographers Group (MEG) 2015 conference is entitled Nature and Culture in Museums, and will explore the relationship between natural science and ethnography. It takes place at the Powell-Cotton Museum on 20th – 21st April, and booking is open now!

In the Media

Today is Taxonomist Appreciation Day, a holiday devised by Dr Terry McGlynn, of California State University Dominguez Hills, to highlight the decline in taxonomic skills and the importance of museum collections.

These taxonomists definitely deserve some appreciation: A census of all known marine life by WoRMS (the World Register of Marine Species) has added many new species and removed 190,400 duplicates!

Darwin’s ‘strangest animals ever discovered’ finally find their place in the tree of life.

 

Got a submission for the blog or Digital Digest? Email us at blog@natsca.org!