London, England
grrlscientist | February 27, 2010tags: comedy, humor, funny, fucking hilarious, birds, streaming video
This particular exhibit is a living art piece made up of 40 zebra finches jamming on electric guitars and cymbals at the Barbican, in London. The artist, Boursier-Mougenot creates a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other musical instruments. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape.
This video is cute, because it shows a female zebra finch, building a nest on the…
grrlscientist | June 4, 2009Last year, thanks to you, my loyal beloved readers, I was able to attend the Science Online conference held in London, England, where I was a speaker. This conference is being held again this year -- and I hope to be there! Proposed topics include blogging and microblogging, online communities, open access and open data, new teaching and research tools, author identifiers and measuring the impact of research. Science Online 2009 London is scheduled for 22 August at the Royal Institute of Great Britain, thanks to the generous support of Nature Network, Mendeley Research Networks and The Royal…
grrlscientist | October 23, 2008tags: London England, London Zoo, sciblog, zoological gardens, travel
Entrance, London Zoo.
Image: GrrlScientist, 2 September 2008 [larger view].
After a leisurely morning walk through part of London's Regents Park, Bob O'Hara and I then spent the rest of the day at the London Zoo.
The London Zoo is quite proud of their environmentally-friendly facilities, and they have a sign near the main entrance that describes their water conservation project;
Sign near zoo entrance describing the zoo's water conservation project.
London Zoo.
Image: GrrlScientist, 2 September 2008 [larger view…
grrlscientist | October 22, 2008tags: London England, London's Regents Park, sciblog, performing arts, travel
Water Fountain in London's Regents Park.
Image: GrrlScientist, 2 September 2008 [larger view].
The next morning, it was cool and cloudy -- a nice break from the heat and humidity of the previous few days. So my friend and colleague, Bob O'Hara and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll through London's Regents Park on our way to the London Zoo.
We spent the early morning hours at a McDonald's near the hostel where we were staying, drinking coffee and using their free wifi to check email and publish essays on our blogs.…
grrlscientist | October 21, 2008tags: London England, London's Globe Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, performing arts, travel
A duel of the drummers at London's Globe Theatre.
Image: GrrlScientist, 1 September 2008 [larger view].
The day after Nature's European ScienceBlogging Conference had concluded, I set out to photograph the city with my friend and colleague, Bob O'Hara, and then to attend a play at the Globe Shakespeare Theatre. This photoessay details our Globe Theatre experience.
After roaming around London, taking photographs and drinking beers at a variety of historical pubs, Bob and I walked across…
grrlscientist | October 20, 2008tags: London England, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, Dickens, photoessay, travel
Entrance to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, one of the oldest pubs in London.
There is a sign to the right of the entrance that names all the kings and
queens who reigned during this pub's existence.
Image: GrrlScientist, 1 September 2008 [larger view].
The day after Nature's European ScienceBlogging Conference had ended (I am still working on those photoessays and blog entries), I set out with my friend and colleague, Bob O'Hara, to photograph London and then to attend a play at the Globe Shakespeare Theatre. This…
grrlscientist | September 14, 2008tags: Sandwalk, Down House, Darwin, nature, photography, London, England, Bromley, England
Part of The Sandwalk, which is located on the periphery of a large parcel of land that is occupied by Darwin's Down House and associated grounds comprised of flower gardens, food plant gardens, and a greenhouse. I liked the mysterious look of this portion of the Sandwalk, so I photographed it to share with you.
Image: GrrlScientist 31 August 2008 [larger view].
Sunday, the day after the Nature Network Science Blog conference was over, Mike, Mo and I caught a train to Bromley, England, where we…
grrlscientist | September 13, 2008tags: Sandwalk, Down House, Darwin, nature, photography, London, England, Bromley, England, sciblog
A gate in a brick wall next to the greenhouse behind Darwin's Down House, where Darwin conducted a lot of his botany experiments.
Image: GrrlScientist 31 August 2008 [larger view].
Sunday, the day after the Nature Network Science Blog conference was over, Mike, Mo and I caught a train to Bromley, England, where we toured Darwin's Down House and Gardens and walked along the famous Sandwalk that Darwin once walked. This is part three of my photoessay series about Down House, where I focus on…
grrlscientist | September 12, 2008tags: Sandwalk, Down House, Darwin, nature, photography, London, England, Bromley, England, Professor Steve Steve
Darwin's "weed garden" experiment, located near the pathway next to Down House, near the Gardens.
Image: GrrlScientist 31 August 2008 [larger view].
Sunday, the day after the Nature Network Science Blog conference was over, Mike, Mo and I caught a train to Bromley, England, where we toured Darwin's Down House and Gardens and walked along the famous Sandwalk that Darwin once walked. This is part two of my photoessay series about Down House, where I focus on the Gardens behind…
grrlscientist | September 11, 2008tags: Sandwalk, Darwin's Down House, nature, photography, London, England, Bromley, England
Light Shining into a Tangled Bank.
A view through a thicket of trees as seen from the Sandwalk near Darwin's Down House in Bromley, England.
Image: GrrlScientist 31 August 2008 [larger view].
The last paragraph in Darwin's On The Origin of Species;
It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately…
grrlscientist | September 11, 2008tags: Sandwalk, Down House, Darwin, nature, photography, London, England, Bromley, England
Darwin's Down House near Bromley, England, a short train ride away from London. This view of the house was snapped from the gardens in back of the house. If you look closely, you can see part of the cafe (under the blue umbrellas) to the right of the crooked tree in this picture.
I am really proud of this photograph, by the way.
Image: GrrlScientist 31 August 2008 [larger view].
Sunday, the day after the Nature Network Science Blog conference had concluded, Mike, Mo and I caught a train to Bromley,…
grrlscientist | September 10, 2008tags: London England, Harry Potter film sites London, Harry Potter, photography, photoessay
This is the snake cage at the London Zoo that was in a scene from the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. In the film, this cage held a Burmese boa constrictor. In real life, this cage holds a black mamba.
Image: GrrlScientist 4 September 2008 [larger view].
This is the third, and last, part of my Harry Potter film sites of London photoessays. As my featured image for this photoessay, I used this image of the London Zoo that was used in a scene in the first Harry Potter…
grrlscientist | September 9, 2008tags: London England, Harry Potter film sites London, Harry Potter, photography, photoessay
Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross in London, England.
This is not the original platform used in the film, which is between platforms 4 and 5 at Kings Cross, but it is a cute little tourist memorial to the film.
Image: GrrlScientist 4 September 2008 [larger view].
This is the second part of my Harry Potter film sites of London photoessays. I started this photoessay with an image that you all should be able to recognize without any trouble at all -- platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross tube station --…
grrlscientist | September 8, 2008tags: London England, science-themed pubs, Nature Network Science conference
You might recall that I went on a science-theme based pub crawl Friday before the Nature Network Conference was held. We went to four different pubs, starting with the Jeremy Bentham, the Museum Tavern, the Ben Crouch Tavern and the John Snow. Here is a podcast by The Mr. Science Show where the author of that blog interviews Matt Brown about the medical and science-based themes for the pubs that we went to in London [roughly 20 minutes long]. Several other people appear on this podcast, including Mike Dunford, Frank…
grrlscientist | September 7, 2008
Front door to London's Piccadilly Backpackers.
Image: GrrlScientist 6 September 2008 [larger view].
For those of you coming to London who might be searching for a cheap and livable place to crash, there is a hostel in Piccadilly Circus called Piccadilly Backpackers. That's where I am staying (in a coed dorm -- even though they advertize female-only dorms, they don't follow that in my experience). I think this is a great hostel: affordable, quiet, no/little theft, safe and impressively clean.
A typical dorm room in the Piccadilly Backpackers hostel (this was my room, which was an eight-…
grrlscientist | September 6, 2008My gratitude to you, my readers, is inexpressible for sending me to London for the Nature Network Science blog conference. This was an amazing gift and I was so thrilled to meet so many amazing scientists who write so eloquently about their craft, their careers, and their personal lives for the purpose of educating and enlightening the public. This experience was exciting and inspirational and it meant more than I can ever say to be able to talk openly about blog writing with scientists. Throughout the next week or so, I plan to transcribe my notes from the presentations for you to read, and…
grrlscientist | September 6, 2008
Professor Steve Steve sleeps on the bar, shitfaced.
Image GrrlScientist 29 August 2008 [larger view].
Free advice for men: this is bad behavior when spending time with a single female, especially if she has to carry your mouldering carcass home with her.
grrlscientist | September 6, 2008I found a decent pub in London that provides free wifi and a wall outlet so I can plug in my laptop and stay until they shoo me out when the pubs close! Can you hear me screaming in ecstacy? Of course, it had to be my last night here, just before I have to get up early so I can make my flight to the States tomorrow. Can you believe my luck? Actually, I am not sure if this is good or bad luck, but the fact that they have decent ale in addition to wifi and access to an outlet is pure joy for me. For those of you coming to London who might be searching for something similar, here's precisely…
grrlscientist | September 6, 2008tags: London England, Harry Potter film sites London, Harry Potter, photography, photoessay
Classic telephone box in London. These are an endangered species.
Telephone boxes appear throughout the Harry Potter films, particularly as an entrance into the Ministry of Magic in the fifth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. When the telephone in the box is dialed (62442, the word M-A-G-I-C).
Image: GrrlScientist 4 September 2008 [larger view].
I am disappointed with the slowness and instability of the wifi connection I am using to post this and other entries, so I…
grrlscientist | September 6, 2008
YIKES! I am arriving home tomorrow early afternoon, in the middle of a dying hurricane. If my flight manages to land without problems (unlikely), I still have to rely on the train to get home and NYC subways tend to flood when the rain gets heavy, as is predicted for Sunday, especially the subway line I need to ride home. The thought that I might end up trapped at the airport or worse, on a stopped train underground is not comforting.