We rejoin the Museum of Practical Geology in the final years of Victoria’s reign. Still cramped, and welcoming about 200 visitors a day through its notoriously gloomy entrance hall. Over in ‘Albertopolis’ the newer Museums are prospering. The Natural History and Science Museums are open with far more space available. The foundation stone for the … Continue reading
Tag Archives: fossils
The Unfortunate Tale of the Museum of Practical Geology Pt I.
Once upon a time, the great and good of the geological world had collected a large number of rocks, fossils, books and maps and needed somewhere to put them. But no matter how big you build a museum or library, it tends to run out of space. Collections grow to fill the space available for … Continue reading
Door nine: A fossil fish is for life, not just for Christmas*
A christmas present for the geologist who has everything…. Continue reading
Earth Science Week geowalks: London’s hidden history
Imperial College’s Matt Loader takes us on a tour of Piccadilly’s geological highlights… “I’ve been walking about London for the last thirty years, and I find something fresh in it every day” – Walter Besant, novelist. 1901. When I moved to London just over two years ago, I was immediately struck by the history of … Continue reading
The ‘cheetah of the Cretaceous’
It’s been a dinosaury week so far at the British Science Festival! Our event, ‘Dinosaurs, monsters and myths’ kicked off a huge amount of press coverage for Nanotyrannus, a disputed new species. Once thought to be a juvenile T. Rex, Nanotyrannus now appears to be confirmed, thanks to a beautiful new specimen which has been … Continue reading
Dinosaurs, monsters and myths
The first dinosaur to be named was Megalosaurus in 1824, but it took another 18 years for Sir Richard Owen, at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, to suggest re-grouping the handful of antidiluvian beasts so far discovered into a single tribe of giant reptiles. Since then, dinosaurs have established … Continue reading
Publishing maps: a cautionary tale
Visitors to the building may notice an addition to the Lower Library – a display about the fortunes and misfortunes of one the UK’s most famous geologists never to be a Fellow, William Smith. Smith’s most celebrated achievement, the first geological map of a complete country, now hangs in our entrance hall, but he didn’t … Continue reading
A tale of three meetings
The Geological Society’s meeting room has changed a lot in the last century. Until a refurb in the seventies, it looked very much how it had done for most of its life – raked rows of benches standing opposite each other, an impressive throne (which now sits forlornly in a corner outside my office) at … Continue reading
Murchison’s Peacetime Map of Siluria
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison spent much of the early 1830s stomping round Wales and the West Midlands immersed in an oceanic world of metre-long sea scorpions. A world which later gave rise to both leeches and creatures with backbones. Above the waters, plants began to grow on Avalonia. It was the dawn of the age of … Continue reading
Earth Science Week 2012 – Palaeocast
There’s a huge range of career options for Earth scientists, from academia to communications. All week, in honour of Earth Science Week, we’ve been featuring geologists who have taken their careers in more unusual directions. In our final blog, we look at one of the ways scientists can take their research out of the lab, … Continue reading
The Geological Society Blog 