Wendy Taylor Dung Beetles at Murray Edwards College

I’m currently attending the 145th European Study Group with Industry, this year’s UK version being held at Cambridge University (if anyone is interested I’m in the group looking at monitoring the flow of chemicals from crop treatment in groundwater). I’m being put up in some lovely accommodation at Murray Edwards College, and every morning have the delight of the following…

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Microsculpture: The Insect Portraits Of Levon Biss

  The Oxford Natural History Museum is a wonderful gem of a building (not least because of the amazing Pitt Rivers museum tucked away at the back, with every corner, shelf and drawer stuffed with antiquity) and amongst the dinosaur bones and dodos there’s often a temporary exhibition which at the moment is the outstanding photography of Levon Biss. It’s…

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Metal Earth Stag Beetle

Another toy for my office! This metal model of a stag beetle comes flatpacked, as with a previous one, but is a lot more fiddly to put together. End product though turns out to be worth the extra effort. I also have an unmade tarantula sitting on my bookshelf, but given that the legs are the most frustrating and fiddly…

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The New Batch

After the (natural) death of the last of the adult stick insects in the cage the new generation are now being nurtured in the jars ready for transfer back into the cage when big enough. Despite having a missing leg, Stumpy actually ended up being one of the longest surviving! The eldest two have already gone through a couple of molts and…

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