London England

Last 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…
tags: 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…
tags: 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.…
tags: 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…
tags: 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…
tags: 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…
tags: 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…
tags: 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…
tags: 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…
tags: 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…
tags: 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 --…
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-…
My 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…
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.
I 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…
tags: 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…
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.
Hi Science Girl, you've probably received tons of emails from other geologists, but your mystery object is an ammonite fossil, a nautiloid sea creature which lived between the Silurian/Devonian (ca. 400 million years ago) and became extinct with the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous (65 Ma). Definitely one of the more spectacular fossils! Nice photos and content on your site by the way. Cheers, Jacques Geologist
tags: Blue-crowned Lorikeet, Vini australis, parrots, birds, images The Blue-crowned Lorikeet, Vini australis, is a parrot found throughout the Samoa and Tonga islands and Lau archipelago. This individual was photographed in the Blackburn Pavilion, a large indoor tropical aviary at the London Zoo in England. Image: GrrlScientist 3 September 2008 [larger view]. I wanted to share this image of an adult blue-crowned lory that I photographed at the London Zoo a couple days ago. More zoo bird images are coming as soon as I have a stable wifi connection.
tags: Natural History Museum, London, England, mystery object, travel Mystery object at the Natural History Museum in London, England. Image: GrrlScientist 3 September 2008 [larger view]. When racing through the Natural History Museum in London, I photographed this object and forgot to photograph the plaque that provided information about it. Besides showing this to you because it is beautiful and because I want to pique your interest in seeing the huge number of Natural History Museum images I will be posting soon, I would also be pleased if you could give me and my other readers more…