23-Apr-1851: The death of a daughter On the death of Charles and Emma Darwin’s oldest daughter.

23-Apr: On the day in 1851, Charles and Emma Darwin’s oldest daughter, Annie, died. She was ten years old, and the apple of her father’s eye. Here’s the sad story…
#HistSci

A few curlew photos to mark #WorldCurlewDay

19-Apr-1882: The death of a hero After decades of mysterious ailments, and a short, final illness, Charles Darwin died at 4 o’clock in the afternoon of Wednesday 19th April 1882, at Down House, Downe, in Kent.

19-Apr: ☹️ On this day in 1882, Charles Darwin died, age 73. Here’s the sad story…
friendsofdarwin.com/articles/dar...
#HistSci

16-Apr-1834: Inspecting the Beagle’s bottom (‘a rather ticklish operation’) On 16th April 1834, HMS Beagle was beached on the banks of the Santa Cruz River to allow her keel to be inspected. The event resulted in one of the most iconic images of the famous ship. Here’s the st...

16-Apr: On this day in 1834, HMS Beagle was beached on the banks of the Santa Cruz River to allow her keel to be inspected. The event resulted in one of the most iconic images of the famous ship. Here's the story of the operation… friendsofdarwin.com/articles/bea...
#Histsci

Yes is winning on 58%

Mail is running a poll on whether the UK should rejoin the EU.

Takes seconds to vote and it's going hilariously well...

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Calderdale wind farm "will not stop Bronte tourism" Calderdale Energy Park hopes to build 34 turbines on moorland between Hebden Bridge and Haworth.

It's an SSSI nature sanctuary for endangered species on peat - there are thousands of better suited locations for onshore wind across the UK. A terrible idea. I want more wind farms but not by breaking laws to protect our most important nature habitat. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Book Review: ‘Life Between the Tides’ by Adam Nicolson In search of rockpools and other miracles.

New book review: ‘Life Between the Tides’ by Adam Nicolson (highly recommended)…

Book Review: ‘The Edge of Silence’ by Neil Ansell In search of the disappearing sounds of nature.

New book review: 'The Edge of Silence' by Neil Ansell (highly recommended)…

Title: Hunting for Easter eggs with Werner Herzog Panel one: Werner goes out looking for eggs saying “I despise this idiotic sanitized ritual, and yet I am unwilling to return home eggless” Panel two: Werner stands before an egg on the ground “The joy of discovery rings hollow against the monumental indifference of the universe” Panel three: Werner carries an egg “what, other than regret, can hatch from this empty chocolate vessel”

Happy Easter!

🚀 🌒

TFW you’re writing about Charles Darwin, and you type the words, “He also showed how…”, and you realise you need to read up a bit more on this, and, a week later, you’ve read and made copious notes on his book about the fertilisation of orchids, and you now feel ready to finish your damn sentence.

01-Apr-1832: Darwin falls for an old tradition April Fools’ Day aboard HMS Beagle, 1832.

01-Apr: (This is not a trick!) On this day in 1832, Charles Darwin fell for a pretty pathetic April Fools’ Day trick courtesy of his HMS Beagle shipmates…
#HistSci

Spring back; Fall forwards… Let official British Summertime commence! 🇬🇧 🌧️ ☔️

I think that’s right. It might be because Henslow became a rector in Suffolk and began dedicating much of his time to parochial matters. But he and Darwin certainly kept in touch. Sadly, Darwin didn’t visit Henslow at his deathbed, citing illness. I wish he’d made the effort.

Cambridge offers botany course that inspired Darwin after rare archive uncovered University’s botanic garden will use study materials created by John Stevens Henslow, the naturalist’s mentor, 200 years ago

Wonderful! Plant illustrations by Charles Darwin’s botanical mentor Rev. John Stevens Henslow (a thoroughly good egg) have been rediscovered in Cambridge. #histsci

I have the book, but haven't read it. I saw the box itself many years ago.

Daffodil

Currently working on a chapter about pollination—of primroses, orchids and foxgloves, rather than daffs, but daffs were closest to hand for the photo.

Just received a letter from my bank sent on 20 June 2025… Now that’s what I call snail mail!

Rebecca Solnit and the audacity of hope | The Observer The Beginning Comes After the End makes the case for the power of activism in a world defined by authoritarianism and climate disaster

observer.co.uk/culture/book...

In the Observer this Spring equinox: my review of Rebecca Solnit’s new book.

Oh, fab! It's Comic Relief Day. #irony

Typo, surely… Aren’t you supposed to be the Rambo of Maghull?

St Patrick’s Day On St Patrick’s connection with North Wales, and the debunking of a famous biogeographical myth.

New post…

Microscope images of Ryugu samples collected from the first and second touchdown sites of the Hayabusa2 mission, respectively. Credit: JAXA / JAMSTEC

The complete set of nucleobases found in terrestrial DNA and RNA — adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil — have been detected in samples returned from the asteroid Ryugu, according to research in Nature Astronomy. go.nature.com/3P9A9YN 🔭 🧪

I’m planning to re-read The Lunar Men soon.

Book review: ‘A Year with Gilbert White’ by Jenny Uglow A year in the life of the revered eighteenth-century country curate and naturalist Gilbert White.

Recent reading…

Book review: ‘The Future of Truth’ by Werner Herzog What we mean when we talk of ‘truth’ and how to cope in our post-truth era.

Recent reading…

None of us does. You can’t improve your past… but it has at least passed. Onward!

Putting postcards in a UK postbox.

I’ve been reading at random a few of my old letters to a friend. A weird experience: stuff I’d forgotten; stuff I have no recollection of; stuff that made me cringe.

Identity is weird: I was the person who wrote all those letters, but the person who wrote them isn’t me.

06-Mar-1860: Darwin on how to read ‘On the Origin of Species’ On 6th March 1860, Charles Darwin advised a scientist he correctly believed to be sceptical of his views how to go about reading ‘On the Origin of Species’.

06-Mar: On this day in 1860, Charles Darwin advised a scientist he correctly believed to be sceptical of his views how to go about reading ‘On the Origin of Species’…
#HistSci