Dr Laura Gray Blair

I'm sure this little thing is the inspiration for the Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror IV School Bus Gremlin (1993) which I saw later aged about 8 and had nightmares about for years.

NEW DATASET - OUT NOW!

A massive 69,000 records added to the Railway Work, Life & Death project, covering English & Welsh railways, 1855-1929.

Download our free database from our website - & please spread the word!

#Railway200

Some last-minute spaces on this if you're looking for something to do this evening!

The event has been organised by artist & @royalcollegeofart.bsky.social PhD student Varvara Keidan Shavrova, who worked with us at the @sciencemuseum.org.uk on a placement with curator Doug Millard. Please sign up via the MS Forms link & share with others!

A close-up image of an artwork by Varvara Keidan Shavrova, named 'The Blade', produced in 2025. The piece is made of hand-tufted Axminster yarn, etched aluminium, and steel. It is in the shape of a fan blade, and the wool is grey, blue, and pink.

Join us at the Science Museum's Dana Research Centre (28 May, 5-7:30pm) to explore how art & science cross-pollinate, with a new artwork displayed and a panel discussion w. artists, curators & historians exploring interdisciplinary research and practice. forms.office.com/e/15zSBsYbxw

‘Orwellian’: planetary scientists outraged over deletion of research records Researchers say that a NASA-funded institute is over-interpreting Trump’s anti-DEI order.

Over the past several weeks, hundreds of meeting abstracts have quietly vanished from the websites of research conferences organized by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) in Houston, Texas

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

It's not a dog whistle.
It's an air raid siren.

Unrwa chief accuses Israel of weaponising aid to Gaza Philippe Lazzarini warns of a renewed hunger crisis unless aid and electricity supplies resume.

Israel's disgraceful blocking of vital humanitarian aid into Gaza is an abhorrent war crime that cannot be ignored.

We need immediate sanctions on Israel, including suspension of all arms sales to the genocidal Netanyahu regime.

An extract of the linked Museums Association article, reading: Holland said he felt that museums were currently going through a "process of reformation" comparable to that of the church. "What people are debating is the degree to which the founding principles of centuries before - how should we recalibrate them?", he said. "It's the equivalent of [asking] how many statues should we topple? How much whitewashing should we do?" "The reformation drew on aspects of the medieval church, but it was also conscious of, itself, overturning shibboleths, toppling icons, whitewashing where there had been paintings. And I think something similar is happening now."

I find this characterisation so troubling - to use “whitewashing” to discuss decolonisation work? Communities are asking for inclusion and acknowledgement of their histories which have been excluded. It’s work which adds, not subtracts or covers.

From: www.museumsassociation.org/museums-jour...

You know, it’s annoying to be refused service trying to buy wine from the supermarket because you have a baby face and no ID, but somehow being stopped from buying nighttime cold & flu tablets (after effectively crawling to the shops) feels worse

An image of Lizzie Rowe’s painting “Dysphoria”, owned by Laing Art Gallery. The painting is a self-portrait of trans artist Lizzie Rowe, who is shown in a white lace dress with her hair up in a pink bow, wearing a necklace of white beads. She is crouching in the centre of the frame, kneeling down on the wooden floor to pick up white beads which have broken from a necklace. The background is muted in colour. To the right is a record player with a record, a small television blaring bright light, and in the background an ironing board with a dress draped over, and the iron on the end of the board is smoking and on fire.

Watching The Repair Shop with my nan (her favourite programme). Thrilled to see Lizzie Rowe’s story shared by her brother, who brought in a lace dress which was pivotal in her art & exploration of gender identity (it also featured in the 2024 exhibition of her art ‘Lizzie Rowe: Life and Art’) 🏳️‍⚧️ 🎨

Climate scientists are investigating whether a 2-year temperature surge is a blip or means that global warming is accelerating.

Science Director @rogerhighfield.bsky.social asks is the Earth getting hotter, faster in a new blog: blog.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/is-the-earth...

📷 Source: C3S / ECMWF

CFP: Medicine, Slavery, & Race in the Atlantic World — Medicine and the Making of Race, 1440-1720

NEWS!!!

A CFP for our capstone conference, "Medicine, Slavery, and Race in the Atlantic World", King's College London, 15-17 May. A *stellar* roster of confirmed speakers. All expenses paid. Please share with anyone who may be interested.

🗃️ #EarlyModern

An image of the galleries of the Science Museum in London. There is a large open atrium which shows three floors of galleries filled with objects and displays. The building interior is mostly painted white and has metal beams running across the top with skylights above.

An image of an engraved ‘trade card’ for Thomas Tuttell, a surveyor and mathematical instrument-maker, dating from around 1695-1702. The card shows many engravings of instruments.

After a bit over a year I’m back teaching 🥳 convening ‘Curating Science and Technology’ for UCL & teaching alongside some lovely Science Museum colleagues. First class yesterday & I was admiring this engraved trade card for Thomas Tuttell c. 1695-1702 on display in Science City (SMG 1934-123)

Transatlantic slavery’s role in shaping Manchester to be explored in exhibition Joint project between Guardian and city’s Science and Industry Museum will open in early 2027 The role transatlantic enslavement played in shaping Manchester is at the heart of a new exhibition developed in partnership by the Guardian and the city’s…

Transatlantic slavery’s role in shaping Manchester to be explored in exhibition

You too!

An image of a projector screen with a photograph of a black and yellow carriage, part of the Science Museum Group collection. The projector is stood in a large photo studio with black walls, with two photographers presenting to a group of students viewed from behind.

Josh, a photographer wearing blue jeans and a cream jumper with a triangle pattern, stands behind a large stationary tripod in front of a photo set up. On a table is an object, surrounded by a lighting setup.

First day back at the collections store today & got to spend it with SMG photographers Andy & Josh plus fantastic students & tutors from Boomsatsuma, exploring the collection and learning about how we take very beautiful photos of our objects. (Object redacted as it’s yet to be revealed…!)

A serendipitous day since it was also my first day back on site since having a stress fracture in my foot. Feeling lucky to work with a wonderful collection AND lovely interesting people ✨

View of objects in one of the NCC’s research rooms

View of the NCC storage hall

My long awaited visit to the NCC finally arrived today and it was so worth it!

I got to work with some incredible objects, supported by very helpful collections access and conservation teams, and ended with a fab tour of the incredible new storage hall thanks to @lauragrayblair.bsky.social

I’ve all but stopped using Facebook but I might become a super-user just to comment “This is not real” on all of the absolutely terrible AI photos which people seem totally unable to identify as AI.

Always on duty when it comes to museums!!

Apparently in Japan, your first dream of the year sets out your luck for the following year. I dreamed about the Filofax I’ve ordered myself (extremely on-brand for me) so my 2025 is looking swell

We also had a somewhat one-sided conversation about WW1 medicine and venereal disease (!) whilst I was partially passed out. To be fair, these are conversation topics I’d ~at other points~ be thrilled to discuss!

Shout out to the doctor who decided that *during a cervical biopsy* was the right time to ask me about museums “going woke” [making tiktoks]

I’ve reached the ‘my bones are cold no matter what I do’ state about a month earlier than usual, send help

Hawking Building review – the Science Museum’s giant new shed of the weird and wonderful On an old RAF airfield, a no-frills metal barn has been built to house the reserve collections of the London museum and its associates, with 300,000 objects ranging from a 1960s nuclear missile to Ste...

Pretty pleased with this review of the Hawking Building - also getting a review of a storage facility AT ALL feels like an achievement. Cheers @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

‘Photographs did not do it justice’: King Louis XV’s magnificent rhino is star of new London exhibition After wowing the court of Versailles over 200 years ago, the jet-black beast is back in the spotlight at the Science Museum

I spoke to Vanessa Thorpe at The Observer ( @theguardian.com ) about Louis XV's stuffed rhinoceros which is on display in all his chonky brilliance in 'Versailles: Science and Splendour' in the Science Museum @sciencemuseumldn.bsky.social - opens Dec 12th:
www.theguardian.com/science/2024...

I’ve got to say, seeing senior historians uncritically sharing material from accounts with AI profile pictures & zero sources, with less analytic thought than we’d expect from first year undergraduates, is quickly erasing the little faith I had left.

YouTube video by Science Museum Versailles: Science and Splendour | Official Trailer

Versailles: Science and Splendour youtu.be/mWlMT1GPmOg?...
I've been on gallery installing this for the last few weeks, you are going to love it:
🦏 Louis XV’s legendary rhinoceros
⏱️ The watch designed for Marie Antoinette
✨ Incredible objects and human stories from midwifery to seafaring
🧪🏛️👑🇫🇷🎇

Right, where are the book history folks?! I need to talk to someone about early 20th century Irish typefaces!!