Illustrated talks
June to August 1996

All talks will take place on Saturday at 14.00 at a venue to be announced on the day and will last for approximately 45 minutes. The talks are aimed at a family audience. The recommended minimum age is 8 years.

Events are free on admission to the Museum. The Museum reserves the right to alter or cancel any part of this programme without prior notice. Please note that some events are very popular and admission cannot be guaranteed.

Sat 8	Plants in space
Sat 29	Rainforest adventure

July

Sat 6	Crushed creatures of chalk
Sat 13	DNA and its role in conservation
Sat 27	Our mineral Earth

August

Sat 3	Life in the extremes
Sat 10	Dragons of the skies
Sat 17	Animal language
Sat 24	What really happened at Krakatoa?

Descriptions of talks

Plants in space
by Dr L. Elliot Shubert

Space may be the final frontier but without food and oxygen we can not explore very far. Growing plants on the Moon, or on Mars, could be the solution as Dr Elliot Shubert, formerly of NASA, will explain.

Talks at a glance

Rainforest adventure
by Janet Margerison-Knight

Counting insects to assess rainforest biodiversity is not an easy job, especially when you're in the middle of a extremely hot and sticky jungle!

Talks at a glance

Crushed creatures of chalk
by Dr Giles Miller

Join palaeontologist Dr Giles Miller to find out about the hundreds of tiny fossils which when squashed together, make up the structure of chalk.

Talks at a glance

DNA and its role in conservation
by James Harris

Mapping animal populations both in the wild and in captivity can be an extremely difficult job. Luckily the new technique of DNA sequencing makes it easier.

Talks at a glance

Our mineral Earth
by Dr Bob Symes

Join Dr Bob Symes for a whistle-stop tour around the world of minerals and learn how many of the mineral specimens on display in the new Earth Galleries are formed, mined and used.

Talks at a glance

Life in the extremes
by Dr William Purvis

Plants have successfully colonised some of the most hostile environments on Earth. To find out how they have adapted to the coldest mountain tops and hottest, driest deserts join botanist William Purvis.

Talks at a glance

Dragons of the skies
by Mike Howgate

Often wrongly described as flying dinosaurs, the reptilian pterosaurs dominated the skies 65 million years ago while the dinosaurs reigned on land. But how did they fly and why did they become extinct?

Talks at a glance

Animal language
by Joyce Pope

Animals usually communicate with each other by way of gesture, posture and scent. But some animals including whales and dogs can actually 'talk' as Joyce Pope will explain.

Talks at a glance

What really happened at Krakatoa?
by Dr Allan Woolley

The Krakatoa eruption of 1883 was one of the worst disasters in modern history, destroying an island and killing 30,000 people. But how do we know the sequence of events and how can we prepare for future eruptions?

Talks at a glance

Copyright (c) 1996 The Natural History Museum