National Museum of Scotland visit

Hello everyone, not done a post in a little while as I’ve been really busy with things for the new Nature’s Library gallery which will open in spring next year. Exciting stuff! As part of the research for the new displays I’m visiting a few museums to see what they’ve been up to recently. I [...]

The Fossils Gallery and collection

The attraction of magnetic minerals!

Hi, my name is Hetti and I am a volunteer in Earth Sciences at Manchester Museum. I help to catalogue some of the rocks, minerals and fossils within the collection and I have recently come across some very interesting magnetic minerals. There are many different naturally occurring magnetic minerals and all of them have different [...]

Beautiful new calcite crystal

I’m delighted to announce the museum has just acquired a beautiful new calcite crystal. The crystal was very kindly donated after the owner had retired from his optics business. The rhomboherda shaped calcite crystal is exceptionally clear. High grade calcite such as this was used in weapon sights during the Second World War. This specimen [...]

Stunning embriodery inspired by Manchester minerals

Over the last couple of months, Lisa Salama has been working on the museum’s mineral collection to get inspiration for her embroidery degree work at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has produced some really beautiful work, much of it inspired by unusual textures found in nature. I particularly like the details of bead work. This is [...]

Museum of Mystery launched!

The Manchester Museum has launched a fantastic new website called: The interactive website helps you answer some of the most important questions on earth such as: Why do animals and plants need each other? What happened to the dinosaurs? What helps species survive? I know I am biased, but obviously the best bit is the [...]

New Living Worlds Gallery open!

I’m delighted to say the Living Worlds Gallery here at The Manchester Museum is now open to the public! We had an amazing launch party last night with Deadly 60′s Steve Backshall on hand to help open the gallery. We have tried to do something very different in the new gallery, which hopefully you will [...]

New Earth & Solar System blog

There’s a brand new blog set up by the Earth & Solar System researchers here at Manchester University. This is a great place to see some of the interesting things they are doing.

Glow in the dark minerals!

Hi, my name’s Lisa, and I’m a volunteer in Earth Sciences here at the Manchester Museum. I’m currently studying for my doctorate degree at the University of Manchester, investigating the chemistry of volcanic rocks from exotic locations around the world! When I’m not studying, I help out at the museum, taking part in the Big [...]

Diamonds

I thought I’d bring a bit of bling for my first post of 2011. Happy new year everyone! Just before Christmas I came across  some presentation boxes  in the mineral store which had the name De Beers on the top. As you might imaging I was quite excited! Unfortunately, they are not real diamonds, but [...]