Now back in the swing of it after a laughter-packed night at London Zoo. The event last Thursday, called From stoned sloths to farting fish: comical tales from the animal kingdom featured myself, Lucy Cooke (broadcaster and author of The Unexpected Truth about Animals); Dani Rabaiotti (author of Does it Fart?) and Darren Naish, author and host of the Tetrapod Zoology podcast among a great deal else. Some lovely questions from the audience and I got to take the Duck Vagina VR model out of its box for a spin, so to speak, which always gives me great pleasure. Thanks to all who came and made it so special! And special thanks to Dani Rabaiotti for doing such a great job of organising everything
Just back from training up the latest batch of STEM Mentors for Cheltenham Science Festival's really fantastic FAMELAB ACADEMY programme. The project hooks secondary schools up with STEM professionals who help students deliver a series of 3-minute talks that aim to inspire, inform and wow audiences. This is the seventh year of the competition and it's a real pleasure to be involved giving training workshops and, at a later stage, mentor advice to the competitors in the later stages. This is one of a number of training workshops I offer for science festivals and science professionals. If you'd like to talk about potential training opportunities for your staff or project, please do give me a s
Our latest Android app is live and available through Google Play. It's called LIVING WITH FALSE-WIDOWS. We wanted to make a simple exhibit-like app that provides users with some simple information about the threat surrounding false-widow spiders in the UK. As you may know, newspapers have a flair for up-playing the threat these spiders pose. This unnecessary hysteria has caused more than 10 schools to temporarily close to date. In reality, these spiders are no more dangerous than a water boatman. In fact, false-widow spiders are rather solitary and keep themselves to themselves. In the app, users travel through a old, dusty shed, learning facts about these spiders, before being told about h
