Blogs

Ever noticed how so many microscopes seem to be called SX something or other? No? Maybe it's just the really sexy ones. Yes, I expect that's the technical reason for the SX moniker. According to the excellent website History of the Microscope, it is widely held that Dutch spectacle makers Hans & Zacharias Jansen (a father and son team) made the first optical microscope. But ask any biologist and they will tell you that it was the publication of Robert Hooke's Micrographia that made microscopy really sexy.

I started moth trapping for the first time this spring, and consequently am writing this with all the fervour of a new convert. For anyone unfamiliar with moth trapping, it involves simultaneously annoying your neighbours, your partner and your friends! Let me explain…

Like many UK naturalists at this time of year, last weekend I was busy playing my part as a volunteer - a citizen scientist if you like - monitoring the UK's biodiversity. I was square bashing - continuing an annual ritual of participation in the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and starting something new by surveying, for the first time, a square for the National Plant Monitoring Scheme (NPMS).

Despite the fact that OS mapping is paid for by the British tax payer, anyone wishing to use OS data prior to 2010 had to pay considerable fees for the privilege of doing so. That was generally held to be iniquitous and a serious barrier to innovation and economic growth. In recognition of this, the OS started to produce, in 2010, a range of mapping products which are free to use: OS OpenData. This blog post illustrates the OS OpenData products that are available, free of charge, to QGIS users.

How would you describe spiders? Of all the adjectives these fascinating creatures might inspire, ‘lovable’ is probably not up there in the top ten. Ask someone to describe a spider and you will more likely hear people say ‘scary’, ‘horrible’, ‘disgusting’ or ‘terrifying’. How wrong they are!

Last week it was my great pleasure to attend the 2105 conference of the National Forum for Biological Recording which was jointly organised with the British Ecological Society's Macroecology Special Interest Group. In a wide-raging and memorable conference, which succeeded in bridging the gap between the academic and natural history ends of the biological recording world, one of the most interesting things for me was a workshop (and associated poster and presentation) on using molecular tools for biological recording.

Last week I had the very great pleasure of visiting FSC Nettlecombe to sit in on a National Plant Monitoring Scheme (NPMS) training course. Firstly, Nettlecombe – what a place! The FSC centre at Nettlecombe is a beautiful Grade 1 listed 16th century manor house, nestled in a pretty Somerset valley, and it truly feels miles from anywhere. A brilliant place to forget about the rest of the world and concentrate on...a new, exciting, national citizen science plant monitoring scheme!

As someone who studies invertebrates, I often find myself turning to the bottle. Whilst I would not recommend alcohol as part of a general approach to problem solving, I wouldn't be without it for preserving specimens. The animals I'm particularly interested in - spiders, harvestmen and, latterly, earthworms and springtails - are rather soft-bodied you see, and the accoutrements beloved of the coleopterist and dipterist - pins, plastazote, gum, card and the like - are of limited value to me; instead I require a copious supply of alcohol (and lots of little tubes).