Memories of snow #MMClimateControl

Do you love snow as much as I do? Share the joy with us using #MMClimateControl

I just love the incredible sense of transformation when the first flakes start falling and the world around us looks utterly different!

We are gathering memories of snow as part of the build up to:

Climate Control, A long British summer of exhibitions and events, May – October 2016.

Not only is snow amazing, but it could be a good indicator of how our climate is changing. Do you remember more snow when you were a kid? Were you around in the particularly snowy years of 1947 or 1963? Share your memories with us and get involved!

The program is part of European City of Science, developed with Manchester University’s Tyndall Centre and Manchester: A Certain Future.

Follow #MMClimateControl to get involved

Climate Control, A long British Summer of exhibitions and events #MMClimateControl

We hear about climate change on the news and in the newspapers. How the ice caps are melting and how it is happening now. What can we do about climate change, individually and collectively? Is it too late? Is there any point trying? What do people want to do?

Climate change is happening all around us, but this isn’t the time to ignore it, it’s the time to get really creative. What thoughts or ideas do you have? What do you already do in your day to day life, and what might you think about doing?

Manchester Museum will be staging a series of exhibitions and events for visitors to explore climate change from May-September 2016. There will be opportunities to share your thoughts and ideas, to think about what a different future might look like, and what each of us might want to do to help make that a reality.  Look out for amazing Polar Bears and other Arctic wildlife, Peppered Moths, tropical frogs, opportunities to rebuild a model Manchester and a wide range of events and activities for all ages and interests

The program is part of European City of Science, developed with Manchester University’s Tyndall Centre and Manchester: A Certain Future.

Follow #MMClimateControl to get involved

Great New Citizen Science project to record our fossils

We have a fantastic new Citizen Science project to record our fossils called Reading Nature’s Library!

The idea is to put lots of photographs of our collection online so that anyone can help us record the information. It’s really easy to do and helps make the collection available to everyone. So please have a go! There is a leader board and you can share your images with friends and family. Some are more tricky to read than others, so we have included a help option via social media.

This project has been put together by a brilliant MSc student from the School of Computer Science Rob Dunne. We have a team of volunteers who are working really hard to photograph our fossils and we hope to put other collections online very shortly.

Reading Nature’s Library is part of our new hands on collections gallery The Study which opens in September.

Snow spiders, shrimps and migration of Ice Age animals

Easter Island statue comes to Manchester – beautiful basalt!

Last Friday, we were delighted to welcome an Easter Island statue to Manchester Museum as part of our Making Monuments on Rapa Nui exhibition which opens on the 1st of April. The statue is on loan from the British Museum.

It’s a giant piece of beautiful basalt. Here’s Bryan Sitch, our Curator of Archaeology talking about its arrival:

Loving Jake’s Dinopaedia

I wanted to share a lovely Dinosaur  Encyclopaedia  one of our visitors Jake Harty has made. Well done Jake!

Jake has clearly spent load of time putting this together and it contains some great pictures.

Walney Island Deer comes to Manchester Museum

 

 

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Fantastic new on-line geology course!

I’m delighted to announce the launch of Manchester University’s brand new free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).

Our Earth: Its Climate, History, and Processes

Much of it is based here at the museum and uses loads of our collection. It’s a great taster for what it’s like to come to The University of Manchester to study geology and what we have to offer here at The Museum.

I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think.

Migration of people and minerals to Manchester Christmas Market

Our return to Thingvallir

We returned to the magical Thingvallir UNESCO World Heritage Site yesterday with some amazing early images of Iceland from our collection.