Category: Arts blog

Explore the humble beginnings of the citizen science movement From classifying the cosmos to tracking British bees, citizen science has captivated the imagination of the British public; online platforms such as Zooniverse have over 1 million participants. But, you might be surprised to hear that this isn’t a new thing. Long before the internet put data at…

Institute of Art and Ideas video debate. According to Richard Dawkins ‘Science is poetic, ought to be poetic and has much to learn from poets’. Can poetry really contribute to the progress of science or is the poet’s eye ‘in fine frenzy rolling’ no more than an imaginative flourish? Mathematician and game theorist Ken Binmore,…

Sunday 28 September, 2pm Double the Stars, a historical novel based on the life and adventures of astronomer Caroline Herschel, written by Kelley Swain (poet and former BSLS Secretary), will be being launched in the Octagon Room of Flamsteed House at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London! All welcome – click here for details.

As part of this year’s Oxford Open Doors programme, BSLS Chair John Holmes will be giving a talk explaining how the Pre-Raphaelites became involved in the design of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in the 1850s, and how the Museum itself encapsulates in stone, iron, and glass its own scientific conception of the truth…

Location: Progress Theatre, the Mount, off Christchurch Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 5HL  (www.progresstheatre.co.uk) marketing@progresstheatre.co.uk Performance dates: September 8th to 13th, 7.30pm (doors at 7pm) **Please note there will be a gala reception on the final night, where ticket-holders will enjoy a wine and canapé reception, followed by a Conversation with the playwright Juliet Aykroyd, –…

Progress Theatre in Reading are staging Juliet Aykroyd’s play Darwin and Fitzroy in September. They are auditioning on Sunday 18th May for the lead roles. If you fancy playing the Beagle’s captain or his most famous shipmate, click here for more information.    

On Thursday evening BSLS Chair John Holmes will be discussing the decorative art of the nineteenth-century Irish stone-carvers James and John O’Shea at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History with the contemporary artist Sean Lynch, whose show A blow by blow account of stonecarving in Oxford inspired by the O’Sheas and their work has…

Kelley Swain, poet and one-time BSLS secretary, will be holding a public launch for Opera di Cera from 7 p.m. on 8th April 2014 at The Horseshoe, Clerkenwell Close, London. This new verse drama tells the extraordinary story behind the creation of the world-famous ‘anatomical Venus’ waxwork in 18th-century Florence. To read more about this fascinating and…

My recent Guardian blog post on Mary Wollstonecraft and natural history might be of interest to BSLS members. Sharon Ruston (Lancaster University)