National Museums Liverpool is 40! The World Museum has a special exhibition, which opened today, of 40 objects from the stores, chosen by curators and staff to represent the collections. Well worth a visit! My faves included Fido the Lion, casts of the Formby footprints and a dazzleship ferry model.

The Tupi language is one of the great languages of scientific nomenclature. Names for several genera (Ananas, Anhinga, Ara, Genipa, Inga, Jacaranda, Tamandua, Tayassu etc.) come from Tupi, as do dozens of specific epithets, and even the name of one of the 88 modern constellations:

THE RUNAWAY NUNS HAVE BEEN GIVEN PERMISSION TO STAY FROM THE ACTUAL VATICAN! Honestly, ✨icons✨.

Riddles of the Sphinx by Meagan Cleveland🏛️🌿✨ (commissioned work)

Free Online seminar tomorrow: 🌿 “Edible Wild Plants: From Medieval Manuscripts to Modern Sustainability” By Eleonora Matarrese (she’s known as La Cuoca Selvatica" = the wild Cook") & is a leading expert in Ethnobotany and Germanic Philology” 🔗 Register here: www.tickettailor.com/events/entan...

Science has never been neutral. That's clear from its history. Institutions, patrons, & practitioners of science had agendas and prejudices that shaped what they studied, how, and how they interpreted their findings. Those legacies persist, especially when denied. That's History of Science 101. 🗃 1/

I describe it as such as a historian of disability because I want to remind scientists and the world that the history of science IS the history of eugenics, scientific racism and medical racism, and more. I’m not comforting them with the idea that it was a ‘pseudoscience.’ This is your history.

Oh the joy of the rail replacement bus. Feeling a panic attack coming on. Thankful for noise cancelling headphones

A very interesting read. Considering enrolment has increased in Classics, but declined in History, the decision of my university to close Ancient History(we haven't had Classics for several decades)might land us in interesting waters in the coming years. www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/03/21/w...

The cuts. They cuts are never-ending. And they're cutting away what it means to be a university.

"consultation" has become void of meaning in #UKHE. If you're not actually engaging with the content it isn't really input, it's just a number in an inbox. Like this slide exactly shows. Absurd how @universityofessex.bsky.social thinks this is justifying not damning.

After going on huge building spending sprees in the last 10-15yrs, the UK HE sector is now flogging off and mothbolling parts of its estate. This sometimes include architecturally significant buildings. www.nottinghampost.com/news/notting...

After going on huge building spending sprees in the last 10-15yrs, the UK HE sector is now flogging off and mothbolling parts of its estate. This sometimes include architecturally significant buildings. www.nottinghampost.com/news/notting...

We have an incredible new PhD placement opportunity to help support the development and curation of our major exhibition on the Norman Conquest, opening in October 2027. Learn more and apply through the link below! www.bl.uk/services/res...

The legendary Anna Pavlova performing The Dying Swan in 1905. #Ballet

#ReliefWednesday - Sassanid relief in Naqsh-e Rostam, near Persepolis (Iran), depicting the investiture of Narseh, the seventh king of the Sassanid Empire (c. AD 293–303). Narseh, Shapur I's youngest son, had ruled the eastern provinces and was called “Great King of Armenia” before becoming shah.

Today is Primidi the 21st of Ventôse in the year 234. Ventôse is the month of wind. Today we celebrate mandrake.#JacobinDay More information on mandrake

Lovely to be able to share this 18th-century bound herbarium for a workshop on botany and the book, funded by the Isaac Newton Trust and Trinity College, Cambridge. We’ve also digitised the volumes, so everyone can take a look! cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-...

"Wild-sea Holley by ye passage as you goe from portsmouth into Cornwall" collected by William Paine, 1737, from @cuherb.bsky.social. Now, this is in fact from Plymouth, and in modern parlance it is Eryngium campestre @jillwhitelock.bsky.social @timpurches.bsky.social 1/3

The #tombstone of an imperial guard for #EpigraphyTuesday tells us quite a lot about the changing composition of the #Roman #empire in the C2 CE, and provides another splendid example of #Antonine #epigraphy. This slab was used as a paver for the church of S. Caterina dei Funari. #AncientBluesky 🏺

This is a very interesting read!

My article on a vase with a kalos-inscription for Hephaistos has just been published, open access! In the article, I present a vase that's been largely ignored, but which gives us a new way to think about Hephaistos and his importance in 5th century BCE Athens. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Lost page of the Archimedes Palimpsest identified in Blois, central France. phys.org/news/2026-03...

Last week, I've been 'aligned' in our reorganised Humanities School. While there was no surprise (I'll be in History, Archaeology, Heritage), I'm desperately sad at the dissolution of our department of Ancient History and Religion. It's been an honour to be its head. I wish I could have done more.

Pour lutter contre le drame des grossesses non désirées, Marie-Andrée Lagroua Weill-Hallé créa l’association à l’origine du Planning familial. La chercheuse Bibia Pavard nous éclaire sur cette initiative fondatrice des droits des femmes.

This appalling fat cat wants to shut the door on all my mature students, many of whom left school after GCSE and give up a lot to go to university. I can tell him that they’re the hungriest for education and far from being unable to graduate, they regularly get the highest grades. Hateful man.

My forthcoming book! www.routledge.com/Selling-Phar...

The declyne of readinge ys caused by manye thinges. A huge cause ys a systematic & decades-long devaluinge of literature at all levels of educacioun. We kan not put instrumentalitye above meaninge and still thrive. Fundinge the humanityes ys key to a just societye of well-informed citizens.

Nice blog post on Caspar Commelin’s 'Praeludia Botanica' (1703) and Maria Sibylla Merian’s 'Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium' (1705), by Verity Burton, a BA Art History student doing a placement at @thejohnrylands.bsky.social #histstm rylandscollections.com/2026/03/04/d...

Le père de Marc Bloch donnant un cours d’histoire romaine à la Sorbonne vers 1910. On remarque les trois jeunes femmes dans l’assistance fort studieuse pré-ordis portables. (On adore l’idée qu’un éditeur de cartes postales se dise que c’est un bon sujet, à quand un revival)

Whoop. So delighted that this is now out. "Beauty that glows: Tho-Radia and radioactive cosmetics" I started working on Tho Radia in 2012 but this is the first time I have written about the company in depth which is ridiculous. Might have to do some more now as there is still a lot to say ....

Happy St David's Day from the English Gardens.

🌼 Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!🌼Happy St. David's Day!🌼 Daffodils have been a national symbol of Wales since the 19th century. This bookplate of daffodils is from ‘Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges and Ferns of Great Britain’ by the botanical illustrator Anne Pratt (1806-1893).

'Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at the University of Edinburgh are to begin strike action following management's plans for £140 million in cuts and up to 1,800 job losses.' 1/2

Exciting week: visit to Cambridge with PhDs on secondment at Cardiff on Monday-Tuesday to see a.o. great manuscripts; Dr @clareparry.bsky.social viva on Wednseday!!!; conference in Geneva on ancient embryology Thursday and yestersay. And today some visiting of Geneva.

25% research time in practice means: you'll be lucky to have half a day in weeks that are not during the semester for your own redearch. PhD supervision often counts as research - not teaching (or its own category). Our workloads are also often 150% of what they are (before the next levelling down)

It’s worse than it looks too. Cuts to admin staff have massively increased admin workload across the board and they are considering including PGR supervision as research time = taking it off the workload. Meanwhile university valued research = desperately chasing funding but no buyout after success.

Overhearing convo between two dads whose youngest kids are about to start uni. They rejoice at soon being free. The personal tutor in me laughs hollow at their entitled approach to parenting.

: Half of UK universities face a deficit next year. Up to 50 could close. That is a sector in crisis. Simply blaming a tuition fee freeze and nudging fees up with inflation is not a plan. Where is the long-term strategy for higher education? #Universities #HigherEducation

The Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine invites applications for research fellowships in their eponymous topics. For more details see: www.chstm.org/fellowships #histmed #histstm

Interesting to see the reaction of people working in academia to this. Surely, this was entirely predictable, and students can't be blamed for behaving exactly how they have been encouraged to behave for years. 1/ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Is it time, again, to ask my perennial question "hey academics are you reconsidering research trips and conferences in the US now" (answer: no, because everyone has already decided that either it doesn't apply to them and doesn't matter, or answered 'hell no' from the start).

I see the University of York is offering a fixed-term post in public history for the same salary (£37k) I earned for a fixed-term post in public history, also in Yorkshire, in 2012. Had the rate risen with inflation it would now be £53k.

Unbelievable. Closure of Archaeology at the Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin. Sign the petition: weact.campact.de/petitions/sc...

University of Basel: University lectureship for Latin language and literature (60%) jobs.unibas.ch/offene-stell...

hello I would like to make it illegal, in grant application software, for parts of the application to only become visible when you add data, so that you can finish a whole draft application and upload it before discovering there are SECRET EXTRA SECTIONS that you had NO WAY OF KNOWING ABOUT FFS.

Shout out for the learned societies keeping a beady eye on the state of the disciplines that university senior managers are so swiftly dismantling. Keep an eye on the state of UK university Geography with the help of the @rgs.org 's new report, published this week.

So I just found out that a cheeky term for a teacher in the Regency period was “Haberdasher of Pronouns.” I love the image of someone selling pronouns like buttons. Do we need to bring this back?

'Reading, writing and learning a language or two can lower your risk of dementia by almost 40%, according to a study that suggests millions of people could prevent or delay the condition.' 1/2

that’s it, i’ve finally taken my best photo of all time 😅 (this chubster is an unapologetic beggar so don’t feel bad for him) 🧪🌍 #bird #birb