#SciFri: Visiting the Botanical Garden of the Jagiellonian University
The Botanical Garden of the Jagiellonian University is an unusual institution to review because it is simultaneously a historic garden, scientific collection, educational resource, conservation facility, cultural landscape and public attraction. Founded in 1783, it is the oldest botanical garden…
#SciFri: Sealife Adventure – A Review of Essex’s Unusual Zooquarium
On Southend-on-Sea’s Eastern Esplanade, just a short distance from the famous pier and the bright lights of Adventure Island, is an attraction that occupies an unusual position between aquarium, zoo, educational centre and family entertainment venue. Sealife Adventure describes itself…
#SciFri: An exhibition review of Jurassic Oceans – Monsters of the Deep
There is something inherently appealing about an exhibition devoted to the prehistoric oceans. Dinosaurs may dominate popular perceptions of the Mesozoic, but the seas of the Jurassic and Cretaceous worlds contained an equally extraordinary cast of evolutionary experiments: dolphin-shaped ichthyosaurs,…
#SciFri: A Body of Knowledge at the Royal College of Physicians
As you may have seen from the recently #MuseumMonday post, I visited the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Museum, which is located in in Regent’s Park. While I was there, I visited the temporary exhibition A Body of Knowledge which…
#SciFri: When frogs were used as pregnancy tests
Long before lateral flow pregnancy tests became a routine purchase in pharmacies or supermarkets, confirming a pregnancy was a slow, uncertain, and often expensive process. During the early twentieth century, physicians relied on indirect signs and symptoms or laboratory tests…
#SciFri: Kew Gardens – A Comprehensive Review and History of Britain’s Botanical Treasure
I have previously written on the wonders of Kew Gardens, but since then I have learnt a lot more about this amazing attraction, so I thought I’d try to do it justice this time. In my mind, there are few…
#SciFri: Wild Health – People, Nature & One Health
The health of people, animals and the natural world is inseparable. The quality of the environments in which we live, the health of wildlife and domestic animals, the spread of infectious diseases, the pollutants we release into the environment and…
#SciFri: Titanosaur at Peterborough Cathedral
When you think of dinosaurs, the last place that comes to mind is probably a cathedral (unless you’re thinking along the lines of the Natural History Museum). However, earlier in the spring of 2026, one of the most extraordinary exhibitions…
#SciFri: The Art of Deception at the Whipple Museum
There is something wonderfully appropriate about the fact that the Whipple Museum of the History of Science should mount an exhibition about deception. Scientific instruments are objects upon which trust depends. A telescope must provide a reliable image; a balance…
#SciFri: Homo sapiens – Classifying the Human Animal
The classification of the human species has occupied philosophers, physicians, theologians, and naturalists for thousands of years. Long before the emergence of modern biology, human beings sought to understand what humanity was, how humans differed from animals, and whether differences…
