Ilana Halperin: myth-making molluscs and cool corals

By Bryony Bond, Contemporary Art Consultant

Glasgow-based artist Ilana Halperin has been researching and developing ideas for a contemporary art exhibition inspired by National Museums Scotland’s collections. The exhibition, The Library, is open from 24 May-29 September 2013. Over the past few months, she’s been looking through National Museums Scotland’s collections, finding out about minerals, fossils, molluscs and rocks and uncovering some fascinating stories. In this series of blog posts, we share some of the fantastic things she’s found.

Artist Ilana Halperin has come across some incredible discoveries during her research at National Museums Scotland, but these have got to be some of the strangest. Who knew that snails were sculptors and molluscs were the real makers of the Golden Fleece?

“While at National Museums Scotland I’ve been branching out into other areas beyond geology and mineralogy: I’ve been spending time with corals and molluscs and the curators who look after those collections. I’ve been looking at some lovely things in those departments, such as carrier shells. As these molluscs grow their shells, they also pick up bits of rocks, coral or other shells and attach them to their own. So their shells become these crazy, fabulous sculptures.

Coral specimens in the National Museums Collection Centre.

Hexacorallia (coral).

Tubipora musica (organ pipe coral).

Xenophora conchyliophora (Atlantic carrier shell).

“I’ve also been looking at golden sea threads, which are rumoured to be the substance that the Golden Fleece was composed of. The threads are made by a particular bivalve to tether itself to a substrate, like an anchor. At various points these threads have been harvested and woven together. National Museums Scotland has a really beautiful pair of gloves and a matching scarf all woven from this thread!”

Gloves and scarf made from golden sea threads.

You can visit Ilana’s website here.

 

Ilana Halperin: the artist in the museum’s store

By Bryony Bond, Contemporary Art Consultant

Glasgow-based artist Ilana Halperin has been researching and developing ideas for a contemporary art exhibition inspired by National Museums Scotland’s collections. The exhibition, The Library, is open from 24 May-29 September 2013. Over the past few months, she’s been looking through National Museums Scotland’s collections, finding out about minerals, fossils, molluscs and rocks and uncovering some fascinating stories. In this series of blog posts, we share some of the fantastic things she’s found.

Born in New York, USA, in 1973, Ilana Halperin was fascinated by geology and museums at an early age.

“As a child, one of the main places that I went exploring and adventuring was the American Museum of Natural History, specifically the Harry Frank Guggenheim Hall of Minerals. In 1976 the Hall had just been redeveloped and reopened. It had been built to mimic the interior of a cave and all of the rocks and minerals were spot lit. So, even before I started carving stone there was an unadulterated, primary experience of being in this beautiful space where all these beautiful, incredible mysterious things were glittering in the dark.

“In the Hall you could explore and discover things, clamber over huge chunks of copper and jasper. The Hall was actually designed to make you want to climb all over it; the Museum wanted children and adults to interact with the geology. In an article I found about the reopening of the Hall, they even said they wanted people, ‘to touch these specimens, put their arms around them, fall in love with them.’ OK, very 1970s, but I guess you could say that I’m a case study for a success story. Because that incredible feeling of encountering these rocks and minerals, and having access to them like that, definitely had a huge impact on my development as a human being.”

In 1998 Ilana moved to Scotland to study at the Glasgow School of Art, and since then she’s gone on to make exhibitions in museums and galleries all over the world. While she’s working at National Museums Scotland, she’s also making a permanent display of geology for Shrewsbury Museum – not many artists get invited to do that! So why does Ilana like working with museums?

Ilana Halperin, installation view of STEINE, Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité, Berlin, Germany, 2012.

“I encounter ideas or objects I haven’t come across before, because every collection is completely different. You never know what you’re going to find out about, and what totally unexpected routes you might take. Certain objects, and conversations with the people who know about the collections, can open up a whole new world, or a completely new way of thinking about things.

“For example, at Manchester Museum I came across a cave cast, which was an object formed in a cave, and by a cave, over a period of one year. That object sparked off a whole new direction in my work, within my thinking about time and our relationship to geology. Then in Berlin, I was introduced to a collection of body stones, gall stones and kidney stones, and this was a huge revelation that the body could produce geology. I wasn’t aware of that until I was put into contact with that particular collection.”

Ilana Halperin, Physical Geology (new land mass/fast time), 2009, still from Super 8 film, 3 min 48 sec.

Ilana Halperin, Physical Geology (new land mass/fast time), 2009, still from Super 8 film, 3 min 48 sec.

You can visit Ilana’s website here.

 

Ask A Curator Day

By Elaine Macintyre, Digital Media Content Manager

On Wednesday 19 September 2012, museums across the globe took part in an online initiative designed to bring the techno-savvy folk of the Twitterverse into direct cyber-contact with that mysterious, dusty, holder of arcane lore, the Curator. Yes, for one day only, the curators emerge from their stores and labs and offices to share their incredible breadth of knowledge with the rest of the world.

Of course this is a ridiculous stereotype, but one that does tend to persist (particularly in prime time crime drama) so the more opportunities museums and galleries have to dispel these caricatures the better. And what better opportunity than Ask A Curator day?

Now in its third year, Ask A Curator day encourages anyone on Twitter with even a passing interest in museums and galleries to ask a curator a question. Tweeters can direct their questions to a specific participating museum (and this year there were over 500 institutions from 29 different countries taking part) or simply throw their inquiry out there using the #askacurator hashtag and see who responds.

Some ask lighthearted questions: ‘What’s your favourite smell in your museum?’ ‘What object in your collection makes you laugh?’ ‘Couldn’t you animate the Tyrannosaurus so that it bites random visitors?’ (At least I hope that was a lighthearted question…) Others pose more serious queries concerning funding, sponsorship and ethics.

This is the first year National Museums Scotland has taken part in Ask A Curator day and we had five willing volunteers on board, each with an allocated hourly slot.  First in the hot seat was Peter Davidson, Curator of Minerals and Meteorites. I can’t think of a much better way of kicking off the day than with a discussion of space debris, the Scottish gold rush (who knew?), the smell of meteorites (oily, apparently) and life on Mars (or, more likely, the moons of Jupiter).

The Martian meteorite, Peter’s favourite object in the collection.

In the afternoon, our Principal Curator of Vertebrate Biology Dr Andrew Kitchener took over, answering questions about our bird, mammal and taxidermy collections. His observation that the best thing about being a curator is ‘research & rediscovering old specimens you thought were lost in the collections’ was the most retweeted comment of the day – an example of such a found treasure being a Malayan tapir skull given by Sir Stanford Raffles (of the Singapore Raffles Hotel fame) to the Marchioness of Hastings, who donated it to the Museum in 1921.

This Aye-aye is one of Andrew’s favourite specimens, but also the one that gave him the biggest headache when creating the new Natural World galleries, as there were no reference photos available to get the position of its body correct. Thankfully, our friends at London Zoo came to the rescue!

Four o’clock was Science Hour, with Dr Tacye Phillipson, Curator of Science, Julie Orford, Assistant Curator of Science and @julieorford on Twitter and Ian Brown, Curator of Aviation, aka @radararchive. Here we again tackled the thorny problems of favourite smells (possibly the odour of aircraft tyres in the rubber room at the National Museum of Flight), least favourite objects (Julie’s is the Wylam Dilly, on open display in the Connect gallery: very large and incredibly fiddly to dust) and coveted objects (Tacye’s is the Festo SmartBird, a unique flight model based on the herring gull).

Aircraft tyres in the ‘rubber room’ at National Museum of Flight – mm!

The Wylam Dilly in the Connect gallery: bane of Julie’s life!

Oh, and a few museum secrets were revealed too: Harry Potter fans, did you know we have a Star of the Order of the Phoenix on display? Or that, lurking in the stores, is an instrument for communicating with the dead? Now you do…

Grand Cross Breast Star of the Order of the Phoenix, one of a group of orders, medals and badges awarded to Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin.

So all in all, a fun-filled, knowledge-filled (and cake-fuelled) day – but what did all this online engagement look like in cold hard stats? Here’s the science bit:

We acquired 37 new followers on Ask A Curator day, more than double our usual daily increase. We sent out a whopping 118 tweets (including replies and retweets) – way over our usual average of eight! – and all together our messages were retweeted 60 times (for comparison, the day before we had 15 retweets).

But the value of events like Ask A Curator doesn’t simply lie in numbers. ‘Do you think the way visitors are interacting with your collection has changed over the past 10 years?’ we were asked. Ask A Curator – in which hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people across the world shared questions, answers, opinions and jokes in 12,000+ tweets – surely shows how much things have moved on, how expertise and research is no longer the preserve of the academic few, but can be accessed by anyone with an interest, and digested alongside the latest updates from Stephen Fry and Rhianna.

And just in case you’re still wondering whether curators are really up for this new-fangled interaction, I’ll leave you with a tweet from Julie:

‘Had a gr8 #askacurator hour wi @RadarArchive @elainemacintyre + Tacye @NtlMuseumsScot lots o laughs when can we do it again? ’

The cakes that fuelled Ask A Curator day at National Museums Scotland!

 

Spotlight on Evolution – Schools Podcasting Workshop

By Conor Hull, Community Engagement Officer

As part of our plethora of brand new schools workshops, a group of sixth year pupils tackled the extinction of the dinosaurs to craft their very own Science Podcast.

On 15 June nine sixth year pupils form North Berwick High School worked with a professional science communicator and our very own Dr Sarah Stewart to explore the theory of evolution in a dynamic multi-media workshop.  This pilot was for one of our many brand new fantastic workshops for schools, which will be launched as part of the revamped Museum’s school programme from September.

Cameron Robinson, from Hello Science, took the pupils through a training boot-camp on how to script, record, edit and produce their own mini radio programme or podcast.

They interviewed Assistant Curator of Paleobiology, Dr Sarah Stewart. Sarah is an expert on dinosaurs and presented the pupils with an interesting question:  Dinosaurs – Evolutionary Success or Dead End?

Dinosaurs - Dead End?

The young people took inspiration from Sarah’s short talk and some real life fossils from our collections and thought of an interesting angle for their own podcast. They then wrote and recorded an intro and outro, before interviewing the expert. And here are the results:

Podcast 1: Dinosaurs – more successful than you think!

Podcast 2: Dinosaurs in the Hot Seat

Podcast 3: Could birds have evolved from Dinosaurs?

The new T.rex cast at the National Museum of Scotland.

Fancy trying this with your class? This workshop will be available to pre-booked groups on the following dates at the National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street Edinburgh:

14 – 16 Nov and 22– 24 Nov 2011,

Senior Phase Pupils (S4-6)

£5 per pupil / max 15 per session.

For further details and booking see our website school pages, call 0131 247 4041 or email schools@nms.ac.uk.

 

Coleopterology to Couture Part 2: the creations take shape!

By Clare McIntyre, Department Administrator, Collections Management

Back in October, Fashion, Textile and Costume students from Edinburgh College of Art visited our entomology store at the collections centre, where they were encouraged to study, photograph and touch the insects.

Here’s a link to the original article.

Butterflies in the National Museums Collection Centre.

A few months on I’ve had the opportunity to see some of the finished art work and to chat about how the stunning designs developed from their initial inspiration.

The group that I visited were third year textiles students. Their project was to design a length of textile based on their observations.  In addition they were to team up with the fashion students to produce fabric for a full garment.  These designs had to be different, but complimentary and form a neat collection.

An example of the insect-inspired prints.

The lengths of textiles were exhibited at the college, as a display of stunning, shimmering, colourful fabrics which have been simply and elegantly hung and draped across mannequins.

The finished outfits from the student collaboration will be shown as part of a fashion show in May, but I was allowed a sneaky peek into the print studio to get an idea of what was being created.

Here are a few examples of the work along with some info and technical tips that the students described to me.

Claire Bryan with her design created using flocking.

Claire’s piece was based on the vein patterns and segments of butterfly wings.  She created it by painting flock sheet with coloured dyes.  The flock is added to the fabric by screen printing glue onto the silk in the shape of the design.  The glue is allowed to dry and then the flock is laid on top.  The whole thing is pressed in a heated press, then the flock sheet is peeled away, it will only stick to the glued area creating the pattern.  The use of the flock against the silk was based on the feel of the insects, as flock has a slightly rough, furry feel which is similar to some of the beetles and also represents the scaly quality of the butterfly wings.

Claire finished the piece with gold thread and hot fix crystals inspired by the jewel beetles from the collection.

Liucija Dervinyte and Nicola Lynch with their designs.

Liucija and Nicolas designs.

Nicola was influenced by the colours, the green, blues and blacks of the beetles.  The design was created using a technique called discharging. The white length of fabric was dyed with the rich jewel colours and then a bleach-like substance is applied which partially removes the dye, allowing the subtle pattern to be created.  At the bottom there is some dense beading reflecting the shapes and scaly qualities of the edges of the butterfly wings.

Liulij’s design was influenced by the transparency of butterfly wings, and their structure.  Some butterflies use interference colouring, which shimmers in different shades of blue as it reflects the sky and camouflages them as they fly. This fed into the choice of colour and texture in the design.  The darker parts have been printed with pigment, which gives them a heavy, more starched quality that contrasts with the lightweight silky, pale blue parts of the design.

Katie Watson and Kristina Lane.

Katie and Kristinas designs.

Katie was interested in the structure of butterfly wings and how they connect. Her design changes perspective to work with draping of the fabric. The material was dip-dyed and has then been printed with a technique called colour discharge. This technique works in a similar way to hair dye, as it bleaches the base colour and adds a new shade, The colour reacts differently to the different types of dye already on the fabric, creating the variety of shades.

Christina used two techniques: foil, which is similar to flocking but using a metallic foil; and Shiburi, which is a Chinese-based technique similar to tie-dying.  The fabric is pleated and folded before being put in the dye, which means the material soaks up different quantities creating patterns with light and shade.  Christina’s method is unusual because the foil was applied first and the Shiburi second; it was then heat set which added all the texture and crinkling, representing the translucent veined quality of insect wings.

Jamie Bruce with his blue quilted design.

Jamie combined butterflies and space…  He said that when he saw some of the specimens they reminded him of pictures of space so he’s incorporated both into his design. The colours are inspired by the jewel beetles, and he then added quilting and embroidery to provide further structure and texture.  For his collaboration he’s working on a piece that uses flashes of very vibrant colour, which is similar to a butterfly using colour to warn of predators as a defence mechanism.

Coral Higgins with her textured pigment print.

Coral created this amazing design based on tiger moths by adding pigment to velvet.  Normally this would be something to be avoided at all costs as it makes the velvet clump and become rough, but it was perfect for this design as it mimicked the feel of some of the beetles in the collection.

This was an unusual project for the students as they all visited the Entomology store together as a group.  They said that the explanations and anecdotes of Richard Lyszkowski (the Assistant Curator of Entomology) , were as inspiring as seeing the real specimens.  I asked if their research could have been done using the internet or books, but they said it was important that they were able to see the size of the insects and to get the close up view through a microscope of the scales and to touch the specimens, as this really added an extra dimension to their work and their ideas.

Students at work in the studio preparing garments for the fashion show.

Students at work in the studio preparing garments for the fashion show.

Students at work in the studio preparing garments for the fashion show.

Lindy Richardson their tutor said that it’s also been different to have mixed art disciplines working together, and that the students have found it really beneficial.  They’ve had to compromise and adapt or try new techniques, which has pushed them creatively.  It’s also a more realistic taste of how the industry would work on projects.

I was extremely impressed by their work and really chuffed that we had been able to inspire them. I previously wondered if they could have been as inventive as nature and years of evolution, and I have to say they’re not far off!

I’m hoping to get the opportunity to attend the fashion show in May and see the final outfits, so watch this space…

Designs and fabrics for one of the final garments.

 

Coleopterology to Couture… or inspirational insects

By Clare McIntyre, Department Administrator, Collections Management

Recently, Costume, Fashion and Textiles students from Edinburgh College of Art have been visiting the Collections Centre to study our insect collections.

This has been a collaboration between Edinburgh Art College,  Scott Neil in Learning and Programmes, Richard Lyszkowski, the Assistant Curator of Entomology, and myself in Collections Management.

Twenty-seven budding Alexander McQueens have spent time swarming over the Entomology collections, with a further 19 still due to visit. The array of colours, shapes and patterns in the insect world are perfect for inspiring designs, especially when combined with Richard’s fascinating facts and anecdotes about insect behaviour.

Students photographing insects at the Collections Centre.

Sketching butterflies from our collection.

We have around two million specimens, from beautiful delicate butterflies to spider-hunting wasps. We’ve recently invested in improved storage for the collection with financial help from the Pelham Clinton fund, and it’s been great to use the new facilities to enable people to see one of the most spectacular collections in the museum.

Spider-hunting wasp.

I’ve helped to facilitate the sessions and have really enjoyed looking at the collection in greater detail. Richard has been brilliant at explaining the differences between species and the survival methods they use.

Sketching butterflies.

I’ve found myself fascinated by beetle wings. They operate on a hydraulic system, where the beetle pumps fluid into the veins of the wing to expand them ready for flight, then drains and intricately folds them up, to tuck into the protective wing casings. All this takes place in an instant, so this power of transformation could be applied to anything from carnival costumes to hi-tech tents and soft-top cars.

Beetles from our collection.

My other favourite insect innovation involves lycaenid butterflies – they include our hairstreak butterflies. The floaty tail pieces on their wings means that when they land on plants and fold their wings back, their rear-end mimics the shape of the antenna on their head, tricking any predators into attacking the wrong end.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the creations that the art students develop as a result of their visit. But I do wonder if the human imagination will prove as creative as natural selection…

 

Museum curators learn about alcohol!

By Sankurie Pye and Fiona Ware, Curators of Invertebrate Biology

Window on the World, our amazing new display that will reach from the ground floor to the top of the Grand Gallery in the redeveloped National Museum of Scotland, will showcase a wonderful array of objects from our collections and will give visitors a taste of what can be seen in our new exhibitions. This display will include sea pens, worms, crabs, snails, octopuses, sea urchins, frogs, lizards and fish, which are preserved in alcohol and sealed in glass jars.

An octopus preserved in fluid.

Specimens preserved in jars.

Preparing the specimens and jars for exhibition has presented an interesting challenge. The process involved an initial evaluation, breaking some very stubborn old seals without breaking the original jars and lids, cleaning the glass and repairing and respiriting the specimens before finally resealing the jars. The quality of the seal is particularly important because anticipated temperature fluctuations in the display cases will cause pressure changes within the jars, which in turn may cause imperfect gelatine seals to fail and the specimens to dry out.

Natural history specimens have been stored in preserving fluids since the mid 17th century and gelatine has been used to seal glass lids to the jars since the 19th century. This method is still used today, with good gelatine seals lasting for more than 20 years.

We participated in a four-day training course at University of St Andrews’ Bell Pettigrew Museum to update and improve our skills in the fluid preservation of specimens. Practical sessions included cutting and grinding new glass lids, mounting specimens on backing plates, identifying the preservative used in historical preserved specimens and making glass needles to repair specimens. Each specimen and glass jar had its own unique challenge, and we look forward to puuting our new skills to use in our own collections.

Cutting new lids from a sheet of glass.

Sealing a jar with gelatine.

 

The Blaschka models

October’s Object of the Month on our website features the beautiful Blaschka models, delicate glass representations of sea creatures and other invertebrates created by master craftsmen Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka. Here curator Geoff Swinney talks about the appeal of the models.

By Geoff Swinney, Research Curator, National Museums Scotland

I have long been fascinated and intrigued by these glass models. For me, these models are from a different world. They were made in a time when photography was in its infancy, and the aquarium was an expensive new invention. In such a world how could people be shown the smaller animals which live in the seas? Sure, there were engravings in scientific books, but Leopold Blaschka devised a way of bringing these pictures ‘to life’ in 3D.

Glass model of Anthea cereus by Leopold Blaschka, National Museums Scotland

I find it fascinating to think that opportunities to see the living animals close up and in detail were so rare that even Blaschka himself had to work from scientific illustrations. These he translated from mere two dimensional pictures into lifelike models.

Glass was an ideal medium for capturing the delicacy and beauty of these invertebrate animals. His training as a jeweller enabled him to craft the glass into exquisite representations of how the animals would look when alive.

• Are the models works of art?
• Are they examples of superb craftsmanship?
• Or are they merely exquisitely-made teaching aids?

For me such questions are pointless. The models, quite simply, are things of beauty, made with great skill and ingenuity. They lie at an intersection of art, natural science and technology. I am delighted, therefore, that when the refurbished Victorian portion of the National Museum of Scotland opens next summer, the models will feature in the Window on the World section of the Grand Gallery. There they are not associated with any particular section of the collections: they are neither art nor science. In this setting, the models may be enjoyed in a variety of ways and can tell a variety of different intersecting stories drawn from both art and science.

Actinia chiococca

Aureliana augusta

Corynactis viridis

Helix pomatia

Limax maximum

Sagartia rosea

The Blaschka models epitomise National Museums Scotland’s declared aim to be a place ‘Where the arts and sciences intermingle: a space where the full spectrum of human creativity and invention, across cultural boundaries and through time, can be seen alongside the wonder and diversity of the natural world.’

 

Bat walk No.3

A guest post by John Hawell of the Clyde Bat Group

24 August 2010. The nights are gradually drawing in and we start tonight’s bat walk a wee bit earlier, at 8:30pm. There is a strong and chilly wind blowing from the south-west and the cloud cover is almost complete  - but it’s bright, following a pleasant sunny afternoon, and dry.

We have a small group assembled tonight, just three adults and three children. After the usual introduction we set off. A fox dashes across the road behind us   ~   just a fleeting glimpse. We then hear our first bat at 8:58pm, a soprano pipistrelle. It takes a while before we see it. Only when the bat flies clear of the tree canopy and against the light sky does it comes into view. Soon there are others flitting about.

Red fox from Skandinavisk Dyrepark, Denmark by Malene Thyssen.

Pipistrelles are our smallest and most common species of bat in the UK. In fact we have two species of common pipistrelles that until just a few years ago were considered to be a single species. Bat detectors alerted bat workers to the realisation that some bats were echo-locating at about 45 kHz, while others were echo-locating at about 55 kHz. Further research revealed that the bats looked different - those calling at about 45 kHz had black faces and because of their resemblance to bandits, now tend to be called bandit pipistrelles! The others, because they ‘sing’ at a higher level, are commonly called soprano pipistrelles.

Further research revealed that these two species don’t just look different, and have distinguishably different calls, they behave differently as well. Sometimes the two species are encountered in the same general area but normally one would expect to encounter either one or the other, depending what type of habitat you find them in.

Common pipistrelle by Hugh Clark / Bat Conservation Trust.

Of course, it is impossible to hear these echo-location calls without the aid of a bat detector. The electronic bat detector brings these calls down to a level that the human ear can appreciate. The high frequency calls emitted by the bat are bounced back off any objects in their path. Their brains compute the echoing sound and form it into an audio image of their surroundings. In this way bats can move about freely, and catch their food, even in total darkness.

Despite using high frequency calls, much higher pitched than human beings would ever be able to hear, bats do also make calls that we can hear  – and they have eyes too! Anybody that has stood near a bat maternity roost at dusk on a summer evening will hear bats twittering and chirping in their excitement to leave the roost as soon as it is dark enough. But once bats are airborne, their high frequency echo-location system kicks in and they become silent to our ears, unless we use an electronic bat detector: then their secret world is suddenly revealed to us.

From 9:05pm onwards there are loads of bats about. The bat detectors are busy and the two young boys in particular are excited by the sight and sound of so many bats whizzing about in the twilight.

We encounter another swarm of feeding bats in the farmhouse garden. This is great. From a distance we investigate a bat roost in an old tree but we don’t see any bats emerge  - they are probably all out and whizzing about by now. We hear feeding buzzes through the detectors. The bats are feeding  - on midges!

Common snail (Helix aspersa) by the champ on Flickr.

It is time to move on. As we leave the garden, in the torchlight we spot a large garden snail being closely followed by a large leopard slug. The boys have never seen such things before and they are fascinated.

Leopard slug or Limax maximum part of Blaschka models at National Museum of Scotland.

The full moon is rising higher into the sky as we make our way back through the farm to our starting point. We hear an occasional bat as we proceed but most of them are behind us now, still feeding in the vicinity of the large trees and old buildings. One of the black farm cats joins us now and seems very pleased to see us. We finally finish tonight’s walk at 9:45pm.

 

Race a crocodile and see like a bat!

By Lyndsey Clark, Interactive Displays Manager

This week our visitors have been racing crocodiles and using echolocation to hunt like a bat in order to help us test two of the interactives under development for the Royal Museum Project.

Animal Sprint is a software interactive powered with an exercise bike which will allow visitors to race against a series of animals and perhaps be surprised at how fast some of them can move over land. You might expect the cheetah to have an unfair advantage but how do you think you would do against the crocodile or the hippo?

Testing with a stand-in bike while the real bike is being built.

Meanwhile, in the Supersenses section of the Animal Senses gallery, the challenge is how to design an interactive that will allow visitors to use a ‘sense’ that humans don’t have! Bats use echolocation to ‘see’ world around them. The bat generates a high pitched sound which bounces back from obstacles depending on how close the obstacle is. The bat’s brain takes this information and builds a picture in their mind which they use for navigation and hunting.

The software we are working on allows visitors to record a sound which they then ‘emit’ using a button as they fly around a virtual world with a joystick trying to catch moths. It sounds complicated, but the question is, is it too complicated? Around twenty families tried this activity last week and our summer intern Anna Downie is currently working her way through the feedback to see if the concept is working or what changes we might need to make.