The UK’s oldest weightlifting gym is under threat. Can it be saved? The Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club has been open since 1926. We meet those fighting to keep the East End institution alive in the face of gentrification.

The UK’s oldest weightlifting gym is under threat. Can it weather gentrification?

www.huckmag.com/article/uk-o...

Nature and business are not at war As accusations fly that environmental groups are part of an

A @wclnews.bsky.social blog by @kitstoner.bsky.social from 2022. It is not helpful to create a fake war between nature and sustainable growth. www.wcl.org.uk/nature-and-b... 🦇 #bats are not the blockers to development.

Rare ladybird recorded in the New Forest is a UK first The Little Arboreal Ladybirds have made their way to the UK across the English Channel.

Some nice news…

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#FlowersonFriday The Lenten Rose (genus Helleborus and a member of the buttercup family) is discussed by RHS Fellow Maud Grieve in her 1931 'Modern Herbal'. She recounts a tale of a French sorcerer who powdered the plant and sprinkled it around to confer invisibility 🥷🏻 #Folklore 📸mine 22 March, 2025

Photo of legs and feet looking down at plants and a grave

Aerial map of the site we surveyed

First flowering plant* survey of the season. We recorded 100 plant species today! Not bad for 5 hours. 🌱 💚 🌳

*not a huge amount in flower yet, and a bitterly cold wind. Glad I took a flask!

#botany #botanising #survey #floweringplants

If you're in Northern Ireland, two chances to help record this lovely plant (and many others) in Co Down on 23 March, and Co Derry on 29/30 March. See bsbi.org/field-meetin... for details, and to book your place. @bsbibotany.bsky.social @jen-farrar-bsbi-ni.bsky.social @cedar-ni.bsky.social #dunes

Conservation concepts for undergraduates - YouTube Key concepts underpinning undergraduate ecology and conservation courses

Undergraduate studying ecology or conservation? Lecturer teaching these subjects? Here is a playlist of 27 three minute videos, each explaining a fundamental concept. Hope it is useful. Say if any gaps you would like filled youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Something rather beautiful about these little botanical illustrations within a 15th century herbal. Taken at a recent trip to the Wellcome Library (item MS574) 🌿

#FossilFriday A beautiful 'seed fern' from the opening spread of the plant chapter in 'Fossils. The Essential Guide'.

King of fruits - Works in Progress Ordinary yellow pineapples were once so precious they were rented for display at dinner parties, but centuries of innovation made them commonplace.

On pineapples and their role as "luxury" fruits in light of Del Monte's Pinkglow + Rubyglow varieties:

worksinprogress.co/issue/king-o...

Department for Education confirms launch of natural history GCSE Campaigners have been calling for the qualification for years but plan stalled despite a curriculum being drawn up

Slightly at odds with the government’s current wishes to hamper conservation efforts and build everywhere… but I’ll take the glimmers where I can find them.

Glow Up! New discovery of fluorescing lesser horseshoe bats… Glow Up! New discovery of fluorescing lesser horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus hipposideros) An exciting discovery has been published, showing that two European…

“An exciting discovery has been published, showing that two European horseshoe bats — the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) and the Blausis bat (Rhinolophus blasii) — can glow under UV light.”

Born #OnThisDay in 1750 was Caroline Herschel. Herschel was a comet finder, astronomer and pioneer. She discovered several comets and two moons of Uranus, and her observations helped shape astronomy. Find out more about her life and work: artsandculture.google.com/story/swWRW5...

#WomensHistoryMonth Celebrating the 226th birthday of photographic pioneer #AnnaAtkins by revisiting my 2024 blog for the @linneansociety.bsky.social. A rare photo of all three volumes of Photographs of British Algae, Cyanotype Impressions courtesy of Linnean Society.
www.linnean.org/news/2024/12...

‘All the birds returned’: How a Chinese project led the way in water and soil conservation The Loess plateau was the most eroded place on Earth until China took action and reversed decades of damage from grazing and farming It was one of China’s most ambitious environmental endeavours ever. The Loess plateau, an area spanning more than…

‘All the birds returned’: How a Chinese project led the way in water and soil conservation

Two bound notebooks on a table. The left notebook has a blue cover embossed with a an ornamental design. The right notebook is brown with an element of the same ornamental design embossed in large format on the front.

Two pages from a bound notebook with numerous small sketches of mushrooms and annotations around them.

Two coloured illustrations of mushrooms stuck into a notebook.

We don't currently know much about E A Clark and their work on mycology but, in our Archive collections, we hold these beautiful notebooks filled with illustrations, sketches, annotations and notes on various mushrooms 🍄✏️

The variety of drawings is fascinating!

Thank-you for sharing.

Excellent essay

Here's a great opportunity to work with our friends @plantlifeuk.bsky.social
Apply by 18 March!
plantlife.livevacancies.co.uk#/job/details...

The demographic drivers of cultural evolution in bird song Social learning can give rise to shared behavioral patterns that persist as culture within animal communities,1,2 such as bird and whale songs and cet…

New paper on the demographic drivers of cultural evolution in Great Tit song published today - epic work led by @nilomr.bsky.social with help from @andreaestandia.bsky.social Ella Cole & Sara Keen. Why did we do this, and what did we find? 🧵 follows: 1/n
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Interstices | The Hidden Histories of Women in Botany “Individual contributions are all too often forgotten, overshadowed, or never acknowledged; lost in the gaps among objects.” - Professor Stephen A. Harris, Druce Curator of Oxford University Herbaria. (Adapted from the foreword to Gem Toes-Crichton’s book.)” In this talk, Gem Toes-Crichton shares h

This #InternationalWomensDay, watch our fascinating talk from Gem Toes-Crichton on her visual research exploring pioneering women in botany.

She features Elizabeth Blackwell, Anna Atkins, and the 1994 winner of our Jill Smythies prize, Rosemary Wise.

Watch: www.youtube.com/watc...

#IWD2025

Graphic of bat silhouettes against a night sky full of stars. Text reads "April 16, 6-7pm. The Great Linnean Bat Hunt: A family bat walk."

🦇Calling all young #CitizenScientists! It is time for the Great Linnean Bat Hunt 🦇

Armed with #Bat detectors, torches, and some bat poo for good measure, learn more about these fantastic creatures hiding in the dark and how to identify them. Grab your tickets below:

www.eventbrite.co.uk...

“She has produced a real natural history book, attractive and interesting, which will be of much use to all students. “ Nature 1930."

A pristine copy of Life in Inland Waters by Kathleen Carpenter, pioneering freshwater ecologist #Wales @linneansociety.bsky.social
#worldbookday #historyofscience

Interstices | The Hidden Histories of Women in Botany Discover Gem Toes-Crichton's unique artist's book & the many ways art and science can engage people with plants, history, and photography.

Join us as we unearth hidden stories in botany...

On Wednesday 5 March, 12:30 - 13:15, @gemblina.bsky.social will give a free talk exploring the overlooked contributions of women in plant science through photography, illustration and rare archives.

Book your spot here: bit.ly/3QEeKEE

There’s a small but mesmerising dusk murmuration of starlings over the chimneys of south Cambridge right now.

First time I’ve seen a murmuration over the city; a hopeful sign that these birds—whose numbers have been crashing nationally; they’re now red-listed—might be having a good year.

Team Bat & Team Newt
vs
Team Destroy Nature

I know which team I'm on

Trump Administration Attack on the Endangered Species Act - Endangered Species Coalition The Trump Administration has finalized drastic regulatory changes to the Endangered Species Act. These regulations will bias listing decisions with unreliable economic analyses, make it more difficult...

The endangered species act is also under attack by the current administration.

www.endangered.org/trump-admini...

The Women Weavers of the Little Loomhouse How did three humble cabins in an old oak forest in Kentucky in 1898 evolve into a thriving textile arts community today?

The tale of the women of the Little Loomhouse is one of strength, connections, and perseverance.

Thousands of trees planted in Devon to start creation of Celtic rainforest More than 2,500 native trees have been planted to form a temperate rainforest in decades to come

Hope! ✨