iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Hannah Cornish

Laura Porro @laurabporro.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Just a normal day at work with @tannisdavidson.bsky.social and the team from @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social getting thigns for our @royalsociety.org #SummerScience exihibition to the Royal Society...

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Grant Museum of Zoology @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Join us in wishing Sir David Attenborough a Happy 100th Birthday! 🎉 An inspiration to us all and the world’s greatest science communicator, here he is in the Grant Museum in 2014 filming ‘Attenborough’s Fabulous Frogs’. 🐸

Image of Sir David Attenborough seated behind a trolley examining amphibian specimens in UCL’s Grant Museum of Zoology.

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Grant Museum of Zoology @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Wishing a Happy 200th Birthday to @zslofficial.bsky.social! Our orangutan taxidermy specimen lived at London zoo from 1913-1917 and was later donated to @ucl.ac.uk. Today we welcomed students and ZSL staff for a special UCL + ZSL bicentenary drawing workshop celebrating our two institutions.

Taxidermy orangutan specimen looking fluffy and fine in a museum case.

UCL Slade and Biosciences students learning drawing techniques bringing back the ‘studio of animal art’ spirit of interdisciplinary practice in teaching. They are clustered around a table full of zoological specimens.

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Grant Museum of Zoology @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Anyone for a pint of chameleon? Best way to stabilise our freeze-dried specimen for CT scanning. And what a surprise to see that she has eggs! @laurabporro.bsky.social @ucl-c4ia.bsky.social

X-ray image of a chameleon in a plastic pint cup during CT scanning. Chameleon is facing downward and a clutch of eggs are visible in abdomen.

X-ray image (ventral view) of a chameleon specimen in a plastic pint cup. Chameleon is facing downward and eggs can be seen in abdomen.

Image of chameleon specimen in plastic pint cup (with acid-free tissue packed around it) in CT scanner. The curly tail is visible out of the top of the cup.

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Tannis Davidson @tannisdavidson.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

We are so pleased that World of Wasps has made the shortlist! A huge interdisciplinary team effort with @waspwoman.bsky.social @cintiaoi.bsky.social @idrisadams.bsky.social from @uclcber.bsky.social, Datascape Realities, @leaveylab.bsky.social @eloygl.bsky.social from @ucl-c4ia.bsky.social!

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Dolly Jørgensen @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

Are you an early career researcher (from undergrad student to finished PhD within 2 years) working on the history of natural history? Submissions now open for the SHNH William T. Stearn Student Essay Prize 2026. Closing date is 31 July 2026. shnh.org.uk/awards-honou...

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Grant Museum of Zoology @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

We have lift off! The new mount for our hyrax study skin not only elevates it for pest prevention but gives it the super hero pose appropriate for this unintentionally aerodynamic specimen.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Not quite. Image shows an elongate stuffed skin of a hyrax on perspex mount on table. The legs stretch out from the body in a pose reminiscent of Superman.

Image of museum display case with various specimens including the newly mounted hyrax study skin. A hyrax skull is in the foreground and a wombat model and skeleton is in the background. It appears that the wombats are riding on top of the hyrax but we can assure you they are not.

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Grant Museum of Zoology @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

See this year's @ucl.ac.uk zoology student presentations and find out what they have discovered about their mystery museum specimens. Drop in between 2pm - 5pm on 5 December.

Specimens in a display case at the Grant Museum of Zoology.

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Grant Museum of Zoology @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

What’s missing from natural history collections? Maria Dragoi, @ucl.ac.uk Museum Studies alumna and current PhD candidate, discusses her research into our entomology collection and the importance of interpreting collections through a decolonial lens. www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-coll...

Maria Dragoi stood in the Micrarium at the Grant Museum of Zoology.

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Tannis Davidson @tannisdavidson.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

If you ever wondered how to photograph a gorilla skeleton without a studio …

Hannah Cornish and Alice Holloway holding up a black drape behind UCL Grant Museum’s male gorilla skeleton ‘Hugo’ for some quick photos. They are smiling but their arms are screaming.

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Tannis Davidson @tannisdavidson.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

So the answer to the question ‘how many people does it take to hang a python skeleton’ is five.

African rock python skeleton articulated around a branch and temporarily suspended between coat racks. Which is the best use of coat racks ever.

Emilia Kingham holding branch with python skeleton before mounting in newly refurbished case. Alice Holloway crunching the numbers in distance.

Alice Holloway, Cyrus Shroff and Hannah Cornish ease python skeleton into case for positioning.

She’s up! Python skeleton hanging in case at UCL’s Grant Museum of Zoology.

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Tannis Davidson @tannisdavidson.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

One of the benefits of decanting thousands of specimens for casework and redisplay is that you have the opportunity to deep dive into their histories and records. Just connected the archival dots of this pink fairy armadillo and it is an original @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social specimen from 1828!

Taxidermy pink fairy armadillo specimen on black base with decanted Grant Museum specimens on tables in the background.

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Hannah Cornish @hannahcornish.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Why is @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social closed for two weeks? We are refitting some cases, so right now, it looks like this. Trust me, it's more organised than it appears! I'm enjoying sharing a desk with my lion skeleton coworker

An office with a lion skeleton on one of the desks and large jars of fish specimens on another

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Seirian Sumner @waspwoman.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Huge thanks to @tannisdavidson.bsky.social and team for making the impossible dream come true: THE WORLD'S FIRST ART-SCIENCE WASP EXHIBITION! www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-coll... ...from wasp researchers behind #WorldOfWasps @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social... @cintiaoi.bsky.social @idrisadams.bsky.social

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Grant Museum of Zoology @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

See the life of wasps as master architects, pest controllers and pollinators. Discover the delightfully relatable social goings-on inside our virtual nest at our upcoming exhibition from 25 June. www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-coll... #GMZWasps

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Hannah Cornish @hannahcornish.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

It's finally here, the totebag to end all totebags from @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social

A beige totebag with a black and white image of a jar full of moles on it. In the background is the Micrarium, a glowing alcove with walls made of microscope slides

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Hannah Cornish @hannahcornish.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Don't miss what is almost certainly the world's first museum exhibition all about wasps, opening on 25th June. The Grant Museum will be buzzing 🐝

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Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

A lot of #museums are removing human remains from display if they don't have explicit consent from the person. They're often replaced with casts sourced commercially, but @hannahcornish.bsky.social at #NatSCA2025 pointed out that often these casts are made from remains that also don't have consent.

Hannah Cornish stood at a lectern with her title slide behind her. It reads:
"Making an exhibition of ourselves: displaying and not displaying human remains in the Grant Museum" and shows images of two museum displays

A PowerPoint slide reading "But then..." showing a comemrcially available plastic cast skull being unpacked from a cardboard box.

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Hannah Cornish @hannahcornish.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

How do you move a 3 metre long, 150 year old dugong skeleton? The @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social dugong (known as Dougal or Derek to its friends) has been taken off display to be re-mounted by conservator Nigel Larkin. It will be back in the new year looking better than ever.

Three smiling people carry the ribcage of a large animal on the pavement outside the Grant Museum, while a fourth checks for traffic.

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Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

When it comes to certain parts of anatomy, #museums have been deliberately teaching people the wrong thing. Most #mammals have a bone in their penis but natural history museums usually remove them from display, as I told @iflscience.com (& wrote in #NaturesMemory): www.iflscience.com/where-have-a...

iflscience.com

The Surprising (And Very Unscientific) Reason Why Penis Bones Are So Rare In Natural History Museums

#NotAllMuseums (but a lot of them) seem have to banished the penis bone. Why?

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Hannah Cornish @hannahcornish.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

I thought my first post on Bluesky should be something positive and motivational

Cross stitch embroidery of beetles and the words: But I am very poorly today and very stupid and hate everybody and everything. C Darwin to C Lyell 1861

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