Full-funded (home or international) collaborative PhD studentship (Kew and Royal Holloway, University of London) available. Deadline 8 May.
Topic: ‘Just acquisitions? Law and ethics over time in Kew’s overseas plant collecting history’ #Skystorians
Still thinking a lot about AI & curatorial practice.
It strikes me that while I often get AI hallucinating nonsense that is demonstrably untrue, it never just says "I don't know"
Knowing - and admitting - the limits of our knowledge is such an important skill. Not just for curators - for everyone.
Gwen John: Strange Beauties at @amgueddfacymru.bsky.social is so worth a visit. Beautiful design with art text that pitches perfectly, and truly weird, captivating paintings. Well worth a trip to National Museum Cardiff for this one.
There are some tribbles in the Science Museum today.
Five minutes later: The Science Museum is being evacuated as it fills up with tribbles.
Five hours later: London declares a state of emergency
Five days later: Welcome to Planet Tribble
The issue seems to be that if a significant proportion of people adopt AI writing, then an individual’s performance will be measured in terms of efficiency rather than skill, which means that the latter will almost automatically place you behind the curb. Or at least there’s a higher risk of that!
Given that a big chunk of museums' authority comes from the expectation that texts/captions etc are written by experts, there's a real risk if AI undermines that.
It also worries me about skills for the future (which I know is definitely not limited to curatorship). Being able to write and edit for different contexts and to serve different audience is a learned and practiced skill. And we'll lose that skill if we start outsourcing it.
At the moment, on a small scale I think. But we can't know (for sure) who is using gen AI to edit labels or re-word conference talks without honest discussion.
But I think we will probably follow publishing/ journalism and need statements on AI use or human-made content in the near future.
A question for #Museum and #Curator Bluesky - who else is thinking a lot about the value/ danger of using AI in writing and editing for museums?
In exhibitions, galleries, talks, digital content, etc - I am finding myself staring into the distance worrying about it *a lot*.
A Pokémon Go loading screen featuring a Trainer and various Pokémon standing in front of a waterfall
PSA: there’s a new loading screen in Pokémon Go today 👇
Just got an email I have been dreading. The 10 Dahlias and other assorted bulbs I bought in the depths of winter just to feel something have been dispatched today.
I now need to find time to plant up a small flower farm.
Aaaaargh.
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!
A piece I wrote exploring some of the Welsh-made wonders in the Science Museum Group collections. Enjoy!
Ysgrifennais i am rhai o'r pethau gwneud yng Nghymru yn y casgliadau y Grŵp Amgueddfa Gwyddoniaeth. Mwynhewch!
#StDavidsDay #DyddGwylDewi
bit.ly/4cmhv9A
A phone on a desk with the website One More Catch displayed.
One More Catch isn't just a site - it's also a newsletter! Get a free guide to the week ahead in Pokémon Go every Monday, plus features on the world of Pokémon, direct to your inbox by joining our mailing list: www.onemorecatch.site/newsletter/
To celebrate One More Catch's launch, we asked the biggest Pokémon fans we know what they want to see from Gen 10, which is almost guaranteed to be revealed on Friday:
Some news - today I’m launching One More Catch, an independent publication covering Pokémon Go and the next generation of Pokémon games: @onemorecatch.site
*Finally* able to talk about the Star Trek @sciencemuseum.org.uk team-up we are organising for the 60th anniversary! Special events, world first film season, exclusive merch, props and costumes from the Paramount archives, and more! www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/star-trek-60
Copy of Globalising Welsh Studies: Decolonising history, heritage, society, and culture.
My new book treat arrived! Very excited by this one.
📢 Ri Freer Prize Fellowship📢
- 12-month fellowship for research on the history of science & technology, including heritage science.
- Aimed at doctoral candidates in an unfunded writing-up year.
- Get an £18,000 stipend & support to promote your research.
Apply by 31st March 2026:
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Oral history is a history built around people. It thrusts life into history itself and it widens its scope. It allows heroes not just from the leaders, but also from the unknown majority of the people. It encourages teachers and students to become fellow-workers. It brings history into, and out of, the community. It helps the less privileged, and especially the old, towards dignity and self-confidence. It makes for contact - and thence understanding - between social classes, and between generations, And to individual historians and others, with shared meanings, it can give asense of belonging to a place or in time. In short it makes for fuller human beings.
I've been reading about oral history today and as something I've built a lot of my work around, and something I'm intending to bring into my research, I just loved this paragraph by Paul Thompson that articulates some of how I feel about it.
'It makes for fuller human beings.' Lovely.
A vital piece of Cardiff History preserved at my Mum's house. RIP Capitol Centre food court, you were the best.
#CardiffHistory #WelshHistory
Super proud of this one - sometimes in museums we get to do the right thing & correct a historical wrong.
Honoured to have played a part in returning Preben Holger Larsen's remains to Denmark, and I hope sharing our methods helps other museums follow difficult research threads.
bit.ly/4iZXCpX
And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, was present at the end of the universe, having witnessed every black hole evaporate and every proton decay. Even so, Death would not come.
Excellent news: from January 2027, British students will once again be able to take part in the EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme.
This is something I have long campaigned for and is a huge win for London and our young people.
What do McLaren and the Concorde have in common? 🏎️✈️
The 2025 double-winning F1 team was also the first to put carbon fibre into race-car structures back in the ’60s, thanks to engineers who came straight from working on the supersonic plane.
Learn more: https://bit.ly/48pTlbR
Well this has spread quite far, which is wonderful.
Oprigtig tak/ Sincere thanks to colleagues @sciencemuseum.org.uk, @wellcomecollection.bsky.social and at #Mindelunden for their work on this repatriation and the article to share how we managed this.
Super proud of this one - sometimes in museums we get to do the right thing & correct a historical wrong.
Honoured to have played a part in returning Preben Holger Larsen's remains to Denmark, and I hope sharing our methods helps other museums follow difficult research threads.
bit.ly/4iZXCpX
