#SciFri: Vanishing Viper Conference 2025
The adder (Vipera berus) is Britain’s only native venomous snake, which is having a bit of a tough time and suffers from a major image problem in the public media. Populations are patchy and concentrated in a mosaic of heathlands,…
#MuseumMonday: The Crab Museum
Regular readers of this blog and my #MuseumMonday feature will know that I love natural history. When visiting all the museums that I do, you tend to see the same information being presented in a very similar way. This can…
#SciFri: Fossil Hunting at Abbey Wood for Shark’s Teeth
I’m no stranger to going fossil hunting on the coast, I know many of you have read my posts about the Essex and Kent coats. However, what about in the middle of London? I was fortunate enough to be invited…
#StevesLibrary: Entangled Life
To try to reduce my fungi-blindness from a conservation perspective, I recently read Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake. As someone that has studied pathogenic fungi for a number…
#MuseumMonday: Recollections of the Olduvai Gorge Museum
I was lucky enough to visit Tanzania in 2014 as part of my undergraduate studies. One of the many places I was fortunate enough to visit was the Olduvai Gorge Museum. A quick geography lesson: Olduvai Gorge (often spelled ‘Oldupai’)…
#MuseumMonday: Visiting Prittlewell Priory
One place a remember going to regularly as a child was to Priory Park in Southend-on-Sea. As the name suggests, this is home to Prittlewell Priory, which is a remarkable Grade I listed medieval site, with origins dating back to around…
#MuseumMonday: Visiting the Lyme Regis Museum
While in Lyme Regis recently for the 2025 Fossil Festival, I stopped by the local museum as it was free to enter that weekend (adult tickets are usually £8.95). The Lyme Regis Museum offers a compelling journey through earth’s deep…
#MuseumMonday: The River at the Natural History Museum
I was fortunate enough last summer to visit the Natural History Museum, while a temporary exhibition by Jana Winderen and Tony Myatt titled the The River was installed in the Jerwood Gallery. It was billed as being a mesmerising journey…
#SciFri: Reflecting on the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival 2025
The Lyme Regis Fossil Festival was first held in 2005, and conceived by local enthusiasts alongside Dr Paul Davis of the Natural History Museum and the Lyme Regis Development Trust. Originally intended as a one-off celebration of the Jurassic Coast’s…
#MuseumMonday: Dartford Borough Museum
I recently found myself in Dartford and took the time to visit the Dartford Borough Museum, in order to kill some time but also to learn more about the significance of the local area and its natural history (who could…
