#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.
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.
Is it really an insult to be called a Neanderthal? Our human origins expert, Chris Stringer, talked to Alison Shean about Homo neanderthalensis and their relationship with Homo sapiens while answering questions from the live audience throughout the broadcast. How did they live? What did they eat? To what extent did they interact with modern humans?
Subscribe to our podcast of #NHM_Live on iTunes or join us live every Thursday this summer to ask your own questions directly of our scientists. Find out more about the timings and dates of each broadcast by following the Museum on Facebook or Twitter.
In our final look back at series 1 of #NHM_Live, David Urry speaks to Natasha Almeida about the multitude of meteorites we have in the Museum’s collections.
We’ll be back with a new series of #NHM_Live broadcasts from 15 June 2017, so follow us on Facebook or Twitter to find out when each episode of series 2 will be on air.
A little over a month ago, the Museum applied for planning permission to continue with an ambitious transformation of its outdoor spaces. Drs John Tweddle, Paul Kenrick and Sandy Knapp of the Museum’s Science Group provide the background to the project and clarify its impact on the Wildlife Garden.
This week marks 21 years since the establishment of the Museum’s Wildlife Garden – a wonderfully green and diverse space tucked away in the western corner of our South Kensington grounds. Since then these habitats have been actively managed and have matured into their current condition.
Vibrant and verdant colours in the Wildlife Garden at the west end of the Museum
The anniversary gives us a moment to reflect on how the Museum and its partners are contributing to inspiring people to look more closely at wildlife around them – something that’s a hugely important part of our jobs – and to look forward to how we can make even more of this in the future.
The stunning 25 metre long skeleton of a blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) currently suspended in the Museum’s Mammals and blue whale gallery since 1934 is to be taken down in January 2016. After an extensive period of cleaning and conservation it will then be re-suspended from the ceiling of the Hintze Hall in the summer of 2017.
Head-on view the blue whale skeleton prior to scaffolding being put in place.The scaffolding in place around the blue whale skeleton, with the model of the blue whale below.
Following months of careful consideration the blue whale skeleton has been chosen to take centre stage at the Museum, to give an immediate introduction that illustrates our research into the rich biodiversity of life on Earth and a sustainable future, as well as the origins and evolution of that life.
Moving a blue whale around is quite literally an enormous project which involves many specialists including curators, project managers, scaffolders, structural engineers, specimen handlers, and mount makers, to name but a few. Central to this project are the conservators who will be ensuring the skeleton is given the due care and attention it needs.
So exactly how do you work on a large specimen suspended over 6 metres above the ground with many other specimens and models surrounding it? That’s the story we aim to tell in our upcoming posts in our new Conservators blog.
