National Museums Liverpool Blog - science

Here's our Planetarium demonstrator and resident star-gazer, John Moran, to tell us what to look out for in the night sky this month...

Composite wide angle camera image taken during the peak of 2010's Geminids.

Who needs X-Factor, I’m a Celebrity or Strictly Come Dancing when there is so much viewing pleasure in the night sky above you?

For starters there is the king of planets Jupiter, which you may have already seen but not realised. If you have noticed an unusually bright star directly above your head you have actually been looking at the gas giant with the great red spot. A pair of small binoculars is enough to see its four main moons orbiting either side of it. If you have access to a telescope you should be able to see the equatorial bands running through the planet.

The red planet Mars is currently fighting his way through the constellation of Leo the Lion - but my money is on the god of war! You’ll find Leo rising above the eastern horizon from around 10.30pm but as the weeks go by you should see Mars at a more reasonable time.

Now for the big one this month, the Geminids meteor shower. If we get clear skies on the 13th into the early hours of the 14th you may get to see one of the most abundant meteor showers of the year.

This year the Gibbous moon will reduce the number of shooting stars on offer but you still should bag a few dozen providing you’re away from bright lights or better still in the country. But don’t worry if you live in the city as I’ve seen plenty of meteors from my back garden and believe me I couldn’t be more in the city if I tried!

Nothing is certain with meteor showers, but as someone once said; "Meteor showers are like fishing; you go you enjoy the outdoors, and sometimes you catch a fish". So happy sky hunting this December and all the best for Christmas and New Year.

Here's our Education Demonstrator at the Aquarium, Clare Allen, to tell us about her favourite sea animal - the shark! We have some great shark-related activities coming up at World Museum, so read on to find out more...

Me and the rest of the aquarium team are busy gearing up for this years European Shark Week. We are particularly excited this year as we are screening the award-winning film 'Shark Water' as well as running some fantastic sharky activities. Every year we join up with The Shark Trust to put on activities for European Shark Week - find out about all our sharky fun this year on our 'Wonderful World' events page.

When people ask me what my favourite animal in the sea is I have to say the shark. They are truly amazing and charismatic animals, thought they are hugely misunderstood. They have been on this earth since before the dinosaurs and come in all shapes and sizes. My very favourite shark is the Whale Shark. Thought to grow over 20 meters in length it is the largest fish in the sea, but this gentle giant eats only plankton.

Loving sharks as I do, it makes me very sad to know that they are now struggling to survive with some species declining so much that only 5% remain. Around 100,000,000 sharks are killed every year mainly just for their fins, which are cut off and the dieing animal thrown back into the sea. This extremely cruel and wasteful process known as shark finning goes on to produce a delicacy called shark fin soup. Shark finning happens in this country as well as others, so this really is a local problem.
Unfortunately not everyone thinks of sharks the way I do so it is difficult to press to stop shark finning.

That is why during shark week we like to make a fuss about sharks and show people how wonderful and important they are to keep our seas healthy.

We will be running events from 15 - 23 October with our special guest Sean The Shark! These will include face painting, badge making and Sean's special show 'The Trouble With Sharks'. We'll also be making a giant underwater mural covered in sharks. 

There will be free tickets for exclusive screenings of the film Shark Water. This film is not only captivating, action packed and full of breathtaking underwater footage but has a truly inspirational message about shark conservation as well as a very charismatic presenter.

I can't wait and I hope you'll join me to celebrate my favourite animal, the shark.

Lucy Gardner, assistant curator at the UK Border Agency National Museum, has news of a how a simple document - which is going on display next week - marks a key moment in Einstein's history.

Albert Einstein during his stay in Oxford in 1933. © Senior Common Room, Christ Church, Oxford

A landing card that will go on show for the very first time next week is proof that one of the most famous names in history came to Britain seeking safe haven in 1933. Albert Einstein was forced to leave Germany when Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party gained power and began its brutal persecution of minority groups, including Jewish people. Einstein was already world famous for his discoveries in physics but the Nazi regime said he was an enemy of the state and made him an assassination target!

We are extremely privileged to have acquired this historic document which brings to life the very real danger that people faced with the rise of the Nazis in Europe. It marks the journey that Einstein took when he left mainland Europe on 26 May 1933 and came to Dover, England. At this point he was forced to accept that he would never return home to Berlin.

The card will be on temporary display from 10 May alongside details of the dramatic story of why Einstein was compelled to escape and what he went on to do.

Immigration officers at the border serve to protect our country and manage the flow of people inwards and outwards. If you look closely at the display you will be able to see the immigration officer's stamp which allowed Einstein to pass into Britain."

This blog is by Bethan Mackenzie, a PR student and volunteer at National Museums Liverpool.

The Inside DNA exhibition at World Museum is an intellectual treat. Walking into the exhibition I am greeted by human skeletons showing off how far we have come. Our nearest surviving relative to humans is the chimpanzee, very cute!

Walking around the gallery there are loads of things to explore. The exhibition is very hands on, there are plenty of touch screens to delve deeper inside DNA and visual activities for literal explanations. One activity, where I had to answer a series of eight questions about eye colour and knuckle hair, told me “Out of 299383 people, you are only the 152nd like you.” This is always nice to know. 

I loved the genome explorer, the results of Human Genome Project where they successfully made sense of the DNA sequence. It was able to tell you which chromosomes where responsible for genetic traits, including behaviour and diseases. I consider myself a bit of a talker therefore I was very grateful to chromosome seven which is the genetic link to our language development and speech.

Even how we react to horror films can be down to our genes! Chromosome 22 is home to a gene called COMT which can influence how we react to extremes of anxiety and stress. All this information fascinated me; I can now blame all my flaws to my genes, total result.

I spent a lot of time in the “courtroom” discovering how studying DNA can help to solve crimes. I now feel prepared for jury service. There is also the opportunity to experience how DNA is collected at the scene; it’s a unique system which I have never seen in a museum before, great fun.

The Inside DNA exhibition (which is open until 8 May 2011) has exceptional, interesting facts, activities and games for all ages. It is very informative and fun. Definitely recommended.

Bethan Mackenzie (PR student and volunteer at National Museums Liverpool).

Have you ever wondered what could be eating our museum collections?
 
Although this might seem like a strange question, all kinds of organic materials such as leather, paper, wood and even textiles provide a feast for a variety of troublesome insects!  At the National Conservation Centre we have a range of high-powered microscopes which allow us to look up close at many of these beastly bugs. 
 
Insects such as the clothes moth, seen in the image below, lay their eggs on natural fibres such as wool.  When the clothes moth’s eggs hatch into larvae, they feed upon the wool fibres and can cause tremendous damage.  Many other insects would also happily munch or bore their way through all kinds of museum objects if left to their own devices!
 
Why not come down to the Clore Natural History Centre in World Museum next Tuesday 15th March, 2.15pm-4.15pm to find out more.  Two of National Museums Liverpool’s conservators will be presenting a series of microscope images and specimens of the curious creepy crawlies that munch on museum objects. Will you be able to guess which bugs do the damage?

An image of a Clothes Moth taken with our Scanning Electron Microscope

Now that I have completed the first quarter of my ICON and Heritage Lottery Funded internship in Objects Conservation and Public Engagement at the National Conservation Centre, I thought I’d share with you one of my favourite bits so far! 

Last October I started conserving a nineteenth century ceramic Wall Sconce.  “Wall Sconce?”  I hear you cry?  . . . A wall sconce is usually a bracket, or in this case a decorative ceramic plate with candle holders, which would have once been fixed to a wall to provide indoor lighting.  They must have been a very useful item before the invention of the electric light-bulb.  I have to say that when I first saw the Sconce, covered with bright and colourful floral designs, it certainly wasn’t to my taste!  But nevertheless my duty of care and curiosity quickly dismissed my initial dislike of the sickly design, and with the help of the Ceramics and Glass Conservator at the National Conservation Centre I began proposing a conservation treatment plan.  The plan was to carefully clean away thick black surface dirt which covered the ceramic surface and also to create a removable plaster fill, to complete a large v-shaped chip which was missing from one of the Sconce’s candle holders. 

As well as undertaking the nerve-racking task of removing the grubby sooty substance from the Sconce’s incredibly delicate decorations and making wax moulds for the plaster fill, I also had time for a bit of analysis.  I could see just by looking at it, that the Sconce had many different parts that were being held together by nails and screws and so I made it my mission to find out more. 

X-ray of Wall Sconce showing internal structure

Using the digital x-ray machine at the National Conservation Centre I was able to investigate further, with fascinating results.  As seen in the image below I think you’ll agree that the gaudy wall sconce that I started treating last October, had a few rather more interesting secrets hidden on the inside.
You will be able to see the Wall Sconce on display in the new Museum of Liverpool which opens this Summer.

I popped along to the last session with my trusty Rubik's cube, which conservator David Crombie x-rayed from a couple of different angles in order to reveal the clever way that the pieces are held together but can still be moved round into all sorts of colourful combinations.

While I was there lots of other visitors brought toys, watches, games and even a couple of shoes into the lab to be x-rayed. You can see what these objects look like inside and out in our X-rayed toys set on Flickr. The set also includes photos showing the x-ray machine itself, the digital x-ray plate that stores changes in energy from the x-ray process, and the reader that uses a laser to convert these changes in energy into a digital image.

Of course David and the other conservators don't just use this equipment to examine toys, as it all serves a serious purpose in their work at National Museums Liverpool. X-ray images are just one of the methods that conservators use to examine objects in the collection without damaging them. A good example is this painting of 'St Michael and the Dragon' from the Lady Lever Art Gallery. An x-ray of the painting revealed lots of information about the panel it was painted on, including an unexpected former use.

So what secrets lie beneath the surface of your toys? Bring them to the lab tomorrow to find out.

Our Name the Meerkat competition is now closed and the team at World Museum have chosen a winner! We had some great names suggested - Florence, Meercartney, Scrunchie - but the name that really stood out as being the team's favourite was Yoko, suggested by Charlotte Kenny, who came to World Museum on Saturday 7 August with her family to collect her prizes. Congratulations Charlotte!

Competition winner Charlotte with Yoko and her family at World Museum

Charlotte won a goody bag of meerkat treats, presented to her by Stephen Rowlands from Tropical Inc, the owners of Yoko and lots of other exotic animals who visit World Museum. Check out the other names suggested on the World Museum Facebook page.

If you love wildlife there are lots of Wild Wild World events on at World Museum as part of the International Year of Biodiversity, and the fab exhibition Plantastic! is on until 5 September - find out about the amazing world of plants whatever the weather outside!

X-ray of a set of Russian dolls

We’re inviting children of all ages to bring along a favourite toy, and we’ve already booked in a Transformer, a toy calculator, a pair of Ben 10 walkie-talkies, and a Pixel Chicks game, alongside the Rubik’s cube. Watch this space for a gallery of unusual X-ray images - and you can see some toys that we've already x-rayed on Flickr.

The X-ray your toy event will be taking place 12.30-3.30pm on Friday 30 July, in the Reveal gallery at the National Conservation Centre. If you miss this, there’s another chance at the same time on Wednesday 25 August. Full details of all our events and activities are on the website.

Last week I spent an afternoon filming with the BBC Inside Out North West team, working on a programme being aired on BBC One this evening.

The Robert-Lege Tide Prediction Machine (1908). Part of National Museums Liverpool's collection of objects from Bidston Observatory.

The programme is part of A History of the World project, formed out of a unique partnership between the BBC, the British Museum and 350 museums and institutions across the country.

For this particular programme, presenter Andy Johnson heads to the Wirral in search of Bidston Observatory’s Tide Prediction Machine, and our very own expert and curator of earth science Alan Bowden, was interviewed for the piece about National Museums Liverpool’s own collection of objects acquired from Bidston Observatory.

Tune into BBC One tonight at 7:30pm to unearth the history of Bidston’s Tide Prediction Machine, and learn of its place in the history of the North West region and its global connections.

You can also visit the Space and Time gallery at World Museum to learn more about our Bidston Observatory collection, and see some of the objects on display, and make sure you keep our blog and website for updates on A History of the World.