Category: Live at the Museum

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17 Who’s afraid of the dark? | #NHM_Live

We step into the darkness with leading scientists from the Museum to explore some of nature’s most extreme sensory adaptations and have a close-up look at some sensational specimens.

Join David Urry and Museum ecologist Steph West, Senior Mammal Curator Louise Tomsett and Dr Robyn Grant, a physiology and behaviour expert from Manchester Metropolitan University. They will be talking about creatures that thrive at night.

We also meet Ken Greenway, Tower Hamlets’ resident ecologist, for a night-time walk in the cemetery on the lookout for some of the borough’s bats.

Want to get up close to some of the curious creatures featured? Find them in our Life in the Dark exhibition.

This recording was broadcast on 11 July 2018. If you enjoyed this podcast please subscribe, rate and review in iTunes. We will be live every month. Join us on 15 August and find out about modern day explorers and the depths to which they go to discover new frontiers.

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16 What lies beneath? | #NHM_Live

Come with us to the depths of the Museum basement this month for an exclusive peek at the Tank Room and meet some of the 22 million specimens stored in alcohol (or spirit), including a Greenland shark and Stanley the sturgeon.

Join Museum curators Oliver Crimmen, James Maclaine and Jeff Streicher to discover why we preserve some collections in spirit and how scientists are using them to study life on Earth.

 

Find out more about the oceans at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/oceans

This recording of #NHM_Live was broadcast on 13 June 2018. If you enjoyed this podcast please subscribe, rate and review in iTunes. We will be live every month. Join us on 11 July and find out about the animals that thrive in darkness.

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15 What’s the coolest dinosaur? | #NHM_Live

Join four Museum dinosaur experts as they each try to convince you that their favourite dinosaur is the best there ever was. It’s the ultimate dino face-off! What’s your pick for coolest dinosaur: the biggest, the quickest, the smartest, the fiercest? Or do you think a lesser-known species deserves a shot? Our scientists for this show were Susie Maidment, David Button, Paul Barrett and Tom Raven, and our host was Alastair Hendry.

Find out more about dinosaurs at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dinosaurs.html

This recording of #NHM_Live was broadcast on 16 May 2018. If you enjoyed this podcast please subscribe, rate and review in iTunes. We will be live every month. Join us on 13 June and learn about the creatures who live in the dark of the deep oceans.

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14 Who was Cheddar Man? | #NHM_Live

#NHM_Live returned for a brand-new series on 18 April. Watch the recording of the live show here.

Meet Museum scientists who studied Cheddar Man and who use DNA to learn about our ancient relatives. Prof Chris Stringer and Dr Selina Brace were in the studio to answer your questions.

 

Delve deeper and explore the story of Cheddar Man here: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/cheddar-man.  

If you enjoyed this podcast please subscribe, rate and review in iTunes. We will be live every month. Join us on 16 May when we will be talking about dinosaurs.

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13 The snakes of South Kensington | #NHM_Live

This week’s #NHM_Live featured the snakes of our collections in South Kensington, SW7. Joining host Alison Shean was Jeff Streicher, Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles, who showed off some of the serpent specimens and shared with us fascinating facts including what it is – exactly – that makes a snake a snake.

This was the final episode of #NHM_Live in this current series, but we will be back for a new series soon. In the meantime catch up with all the episodes and leave us review in iTunes. To hear more about our collections and the new episodes in the next series, be sure to follow @NHM_London on Twitter.

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12 The mighty megafauna | #NHM_Live

Joining host Alastair Hendry for the latest episode of #NHM_Live was Pip Brewer, Curator of Fossil Mammals, who showed off some of the fossil mammal specimens in the Museum’s collections and answered as many questions as she could about the largest land animals since the dinosaurs to pound the ground, including the American Mastodon, Mylodon and more.

If you enjoyed this podcast please rate and review us in iTunes. To hear more about our collections, follow @NHM_London on Twitter.

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11 Shark tales of the past and present | #NHM_Live

Sharks first evolved almost 200 million years before the dinosaurs and we’re still learning more about species past and present. Emma Bernard, Curator of Fossil Fish, joined Alistair Hendry to show off some of the Museum’s shark specimens, and to answer your questions. Find out just how huge a Megalodon tooth is, discover strange shark species and see some incredible fossil specimens including one where cartilaginous soft tissue has been preserved.

If you enjoyed this podcast please rate and review us in iTunes. To hear more about our fossil fish collection please follow @NHM_FossilFish on Twitter.

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10 Meet the spiders | #NHM_Live

Jan Beccaloni, Curator of Arachnida was with host David Urry to show you some spidery specimens. From their ‘scary movement’ and the impacts of climate change on the species being found in Britain through to the dancing of the peacock spiders, Jan was on hand to answer questions about the world of web slingers during the latest #NHM_Live.

Having discovered spiders are amazing, not terrifying, next week we’ll be bringing out the (really) big fish with Emma Bernard, Curator of Fossil Fish, so join us on Facebook or Twitter at 12.30 BST on Thu 10 Aug for our next episode of #NHM_Live.

If you are enjoying #NHM_Live, please  leave us a review on iTunes because it really helps others to find the podcast.

P.S. Follow @NHM_Arachnida on Twitter for more about spiders and other arachnids.

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09 Dippy about the whale | #NHM_Live

On 13 July 2017 the Museum unveiled Hope the blue whale, a spectacular 25-metre-long specimen suspended from the ceiling of the Museum’s central space, Hintze Hall.

Just after the BBC broadcast their Horizon documentary about the new installation, Dippy and the Whale, Richard Sabin, Principal Curator of Mammals, and Lorraine Cornish, Head of Conservation, joined host David Urry for a special #NHM_Live talking about the history, conservation and story behind Hope, direct from our new Whales: Beneath the surface exhibition.

If you are a resident of the UK and you missed Horizon: Dippy and the Whale, see it on BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08y3s55 until mid-August. If you are enjoying this #NHM_Live series please don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes.

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08 What have the flies ever done for us? | #NHM_Live

Fly expert Duncan Sivell and forensic entomologist Martin Hall were with host Camilla Tham discussing the many ways in which flies (and their maggots!) are important. From helping the police to identify time of death at a crime scene to pollinating many key crops – and even producing a Sardinian cheese – we’re more dependent on flies than you might imagine.

If you are enjoying this series, please leave us a review in iTunes as it really helps others find the feed. We will be back with more studio-based shows in August 2017 but over the next three weeks we’ll be bringing you a series of special events to celebrate the reopening of the Museum’s main space with its new displays, Hintze Hall. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more details.