Love 😍 them or hate 😡 them – emoji are a universal picture language understood by all. They just magically appeared on our devices one day, right? In fact, the first emoji were designed in 1999 but that’s a whole other (very interesting) story. As more and more emoji inserted themselves into daily life, people began to lament – why don’t they have a ‘#insertwhateveremojiyouwishforhere? … Continue reading Spawning the new coral emoji
This blog post is part of an ongoing series titled Connecting with Collections. The series offers readers a peek inside the collections at Museum of Tropical Queensland, highlighting objects and their stories. What springs to mind when you think of museums? How about words like old, ancient, artefact or taxidermy? That’s not surprising. Museums have a long history of collecting and displaying ‘curiosities’ just like … Continue reading Contemporary collecting: Recording history as it happens
A good news story from the devastation caused by the bush fires – the only known native stand of the world-famous Wollemi Pines has been saved by firefighters. Queensland Museum Palaeobotanist Dr Andrew Rozefelds wishes to acknowledge the work done by the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service and NSW Rural Fire Service for responding effectively to help save this unique plant community. … Continue reading World-famous Wollemi Pines have been saved by firefighters
Written by Alethea Beetson, Indigenous Engagement Coordinator, Queensland Museum and Imelda Miller Curator, Cultures and Histories, Queensland Museum
All year Digi Youth Arts unsettle artists and mentors have been engaging, discovering, interacting, activating, calling out, evaluating, commenting, questioning and creating new artworks inside and outside Queensland Museum. As artists in residence, Digi Youth Arts have been focused on producing new works across six art forms – street art, theater, film, dance, visual art and music. This year alone, artists from four of these art forms have showcased new works developed in collaboration with industry mentors.
Happy International Women’s Day! In the lead up to 8 March 2015, Queensland Science have been busy celebrating International Women’s Day by shining the spotlight on women in science on their Facebook & Twitter pages and via the #womeninscience & #makeithappen hashtags. During the week a number of Queensland Museum scientists put their hand up to provide an insight into what inspired them to pursue a career in science and offer a few words of encouragement for all the young women and girls out there enthusiastic about science.
Continue reading “Women in Science, Queensland Museum”
By Maryanne Venables
On Saturday 23 August, National Science Week may have been winding down, but here at Queensland Museum, we were cranking up!
Twenty one students from years 7-9 participated in a workshop called the Make your Museum student challenge. This (mutual) learning experience was generated in partnership with Queensland Academies as part of their Young Scholars program.
Continue reading “Meet the Museum Teams of Tomorrow – Everyday Einstein student challenge”
The Queensland Museum Network has hundreds of dedicated volunteers working across its four campuses. And with so many it’s difficult to single out an individual, when the work of so many helps keep the Museum operating.
Written by: Dr Barbara Baehr, Research Scientist, Terrestrial Environments (Arachnida)
Minute goblin spiders with orange armour are widely distributed but hidden! Goblin spiders have a worldwide distribution but are most common in the tropics and subtropics. Goblin spiders are mega diverse however most of the species are short range endemics living in habitats ranging from forests to deserts. The name Goblin spiders was chosen only a few years ago because of their grotesque body shape. Most of the Goblin spiders are orange colored with an armored body.
Continue reading “71 new Australian Goblin spider species named by QM researcher”
Written by: Dr John Hooper, Head, Natural Environments
New species of life forms, ranging from bacteria even up to mammals, continue to be discovered across the world on a daily basis. This includes species that make up our Great Barrier Reef (GBR), one of seven natural wonders of the world. So while we may have a reasonably good idea about the numbers and different types (species) of corals and fishes that build and live in the GBR ecosystem, we know very little about the many, probably hundreds of thousands of other species living amongst them – even some very large species, but most very small.
Continue reading “Understanding the diversity of the Great Barrier Reef – and why it’s important”
Written by: Dr Robert Raven, Head, Terrestrial Environments
In September I travelled with a team of scientists to Cape York to search for and collect Thick-legged Eastern Coastal Tarantulas, more commonly known as Whistling Tarantulas.
Continue reading “Collecting and studying tarantulas in Far North Queensland”
Written by: Alex Richards, Digital Marketing Coordinator
Our Collection Imager Geoff Thompson recently won several awards at the Australian Institute of Medical and Biological Illustrators (AIMBI) Awards 2013 and we’re very happy to be able to share some of his work with you here! Continue reading “Award-winning images of specimens from the collection”
The Queensland Museum Network Blog 