Category Archives: Talks

CNHS talks in November

Thursday 9th November: A biodiverse city
6:45 p.m. in the David Attenborough Building and online
Guy Belcher, Biodiversity Officer for Cambridge City Council, will talk about the City’s Biodiversity Strategy.

Thursday 16th November: Fieldwork: A Dendrochronologist’s
perspective on Science, Life, and Adventure

7:30 p.m. online
Paul Krusic will speak on the challenges of finding trees that have not been disturbed by humans, from which a pristine record of environmental change is captured in the annual variations of tree growth. Where do such forests exist and what does it take to get there? These forests are where he does his research, from the Himalaya to the
Tropics, using dendrochronology to learn more about environmental history and how it relates to climate change.

Thursday 23rd November: The life of the Cam: In sickness and in health
6:45 p.m. in the David Attenborough Building and online
Stephen Tomkins, from the Cam Valley Forum, will talk about what he has learned from trying to help improve our local river. Over abstraction and other changes have been harmful – we have a very sick river: abused by our own un-natural history. Wetland wildlife has a huge capacity to bounce back from near extinction, but that requires much more of all of us to help it improve.

Thursday 30th November: How the Andes influence Earth’s climate
7:30 p.m. online
Morag Hunter will talk about the interaction between the uplift of the Andes and carbon dioxide budgets in the atmosphere. She will describe the geology and outline the chemical weathering of the rocks found in the Cañete Basin, western Peru.

Talk Thursday 19th

The talk on Thursday 19th October will be online. It will be given by Peter Exley of the RSPB and the title is People power for nature: the challenges and opportunities.

Peter Exley has worked for the RSPB, for over 25 years, on building peoples’ support for nature, from campaigns to communities. He is currently involved in making the charity’s 170 nature reserves more visitable. In this talk he will look at the barriers, issues and opportunities, and why understanding people is essential to saving nature, using examples of projects he has worked on, from saving seabirds on islands to creating new nature reserves in the Somerset Levels.

The talk will start at 7:30 p.m. promptly.

Those on the CNHS mailing lists will be sent details of the Zoom link, which is different each meeting. If you want to receive the link, sign up by emailing mailings@cnhs.org.uk

You will join the meeting in a waiting room and will be let in at 7:30pm.  Your video and audio will be off when you join.  You will be able to use chat or Q&A to ask questions at the end of the talk, or you can raise a virtual hand from “reactions”.  The event may be recorded and Society members who cannot join the event on Thursday will then be sent a link to allow them to hear it at their leisure.  If you are not a member this is a good reason to join. Membership details here.

Talk Thursday 12th

Dr Mark Collins will give the first talk in the CNHS autumn programme on Thursday 12th October at 6:45 p.m.

The speaker is the author of Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World and Chair of the Swallowtail and Birdwing Butterfly Trust. He will give an illustrated talk about the Trust’s conservation activities in Borneo, Bhutan, Fiji, Australia, Jamaica and elsewhere, news about an upcoming conference on the Apollo butterflies and their relatives worldwide, concluding with a detailed appraisal of the existential risks facing the British Swallowtail in the Norfolk Broads, and what options we have to keep the species safe.

This talk will be in person, in the David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

It will start at 6:45 p.m. Please arrive in good time or you may not be able to get into the building.

ALL WELCOME Members free; non-members £2

The talk on Thursday 19th October will be online at 7:30 p.m.

People power for nature: the challenges and the opportunities

Peter Exley has worked for the RSPB, for over 25 years, on building peoples’ support for nature, from campaigns to communities. He is currently involved in making the charity’s 170 nature reserves more visitable. In his talk he will look at the barriers, issues and opportunities, and why understanding people is essential to saving nature, using examples of projects he has worked on, from saving seabirds on islands to creating new nature reserves in the Somerset Levels.

Online via Zoom. Members will be emailed login details nearer the time.

To be added the mailing list for events: email mailings [at] cnhs.org.uk
To become a member: click here for details.

12th October: Swallowtails talk

The CNHS Autumn Programme opens on Thursday 12th October with a talk Swallowtails: Keeping them safe at home and abroad.

A British Swallowtail
photo © Mel Collins

The speaker, Dr Mark Collins, is the author of Threatened
Swallowtail Butterflies of the World
and Chair of the Swallowtail and Birdwing Butterfly Trust. He will give an illustrated talk about the Trust’s conservation activities in Borneo, Bhutan, Fiji, Australia, Jamaica and elsewhere, news about an upcoming conference on the Apollo butterflies and their relatives worldwide, concluding with a detailed appraisal of the existential risks facing the British Swallowtail in the Norfolk Broads, and what options we have to keep the species safe.

This talk will be in person, in the David Attenborough Building, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ

It will start at 6:45 p.m. Please arrive in good time or you may not be able to get into the building.

Members free; non-members £2
To be added the mailing list for events: email webmaster [at] cnhs.org.uk To become a member: click here for details.

Autumn events

Field studies

The field studies in the Great Kneighton area,including Hobson’s Park and the Addenbrooke’s site, continue but there have been some changes to the dates. They now are:

September 24 – field studies, galls & lichens, 2pm
October 15 – field studies, fungi, 2pm
November 5 – field studies, bryophytes, 11am

Details of meeting places will be circulated to those on his mailing list by Jonathan Shanklin. To join the mailing list please email him via webmaster [at] cnhs.org.uk to be added to the list. He points out that Outlook has started to reject CNHS emails as spam for several members. If you are not receiving our weekly emails it is up to you to check with your service provider and adjust your settings.

In addition to the field studies, there is a Fungal Foray at the Botanic Gardens on October 14th.

Autumn talks

These will recommence with an in-person talk, in the David Attenborough Building, on October 12th. More details will be posted soon.

Talks will then be alternately on-line via Zoom and in person. The in-person talks are October 12th and 26th, and November 9th and 23rd.

A Seasonal Social is being planned for December 7th.

The future of historic landscapes: the limits to rewilding

The Museum of Cambridge are hosting a virtual talk by Tom Williamson of UEA.

The title of the talk is ‘The Future of Historic Landscapes: The Limits to Rewilding’ and it’s on Wednesday 22nd March 2023 at 7pm.

Tickets are ‘donate as you feel’, and all goes towards supporting the Museum.

The link is here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/551129411907

Museum of Cambridge 2-3 Castle Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, CB3 0AQ Tel: +44 (0) 1223 355159

www.museumofcambridge.org.uk

www.capturingcambridge.org

Forthcoming talks

Members will be emailed login details nearer the time. To be added the mailing list for events: email webmaster [at] cnhs.org.uk

Thursday 16th March at 7:30 p.m. on Zoom

Climate stories from yew trees

Tatiana Bebchuk will talk about her PhD project which is using tree rings in sub-fossil yew trees to reconstruct environmental and climate conditions in the past. She hopes this research will help to explain why yew trees disappeared from the records in south eastern England 4000 years ago.

Tatiana and sub-fossil yew trees

Thursday 23rd March at 7:30 p.m. on Zoom

Lost chalk streams of Cambridge and Newmarket

Kevin Hand will talk about chalk streams in Cambridge and Newmarket, where they are now, where they used to be and what may happen to them in the future.

Thursday 30th March at 7:30 on Zoom

Cool as a caterpillar

Esme Ashe-Jepson will talk about her research into how caterpillars cope with temperature change and why this, and related research by her colleagues, is important for butterfly conservation.

2nd March in Geography Department

The venue for the talk THIS THURSDAY 2nd March has reverted to the Large Lecture Theatre in the Department of Geography not as previously announced Kings College.

The talk, on MOTHS, will start promptly at 6:45 p.m. Please make sure to arrive on time as there will be no-one on the door to let you in once the talk starts.

Mimas tiliae photo © Matthew Gandy

Matthew Gandy, Professor of Geography will introduce some of the cultural and scientific aspects to moths ranging from themes such as mimicry and literary representations to recent concerns with light pollution and mass invertebrate decline.

More spring talks

The spring programme continues on Thursday 16th February with a talk by Joshua Pike: Reconstructing past abrupt climate change in Patagonia. In it, he will explore how annually laminated sediments and tephra (volcanic ash) have been used to understand how the former Patagonian Ice Sheet responded to abrupt changes in climate during the transition from the Last Glacial Maximum into the Holocene.

This talk will be online by Zoom at 7:30 p.m. The link will be circulated to those on the CNHS mailing list. For online talks, your video and audio will be off when you join in order to give maximum bandwidth to the speaker. At the end of the talk chat will be enabled to ask questions, or you can raise your virtual hand.

The talk may be recorded and if so, members who cannot join the event, or who wish to hear it again, will be sent a link to allow them to hear it at their leisure.

Change of venue

The talk on Thursday 2nd March, on Moths by Matthew Gandy, will now be in the Audit Room, the Old Lodge, Kings College CB2 1ST (not the Department of Geography). The talk is at 6:45 p.m. and please make sure you arrive in time as it may not be possible for late-comers to gain admission. Enter by the porters’ lodge in King’s Parade, the Old Lodge is just two minutes away, on the left of the great lawn.

Spring talks

The CNHS programme of talks this spring will start on Thursday 2nd February with a talk by Mike Maunder, which will take place at 6:45 pm in the Lecture Theatre in the Department of Geography on the Downing Site. The talk will also be available online for those unable to attend in person. The link will be emailed to those on the CNHS mailing list.

The talk is entitled 500 years of exhibiting biodiversity: from cabinets of curiosity to interpreting today’s extinction crisis. In it he will explore how today’s biodiversity exhibits (museums, aquaria, botanic gardens and zoos) have evolved over the last 500 years and how they are responding to fundamental challenge of the collapse of nature. The lecture is based on Mike’s previous work as a conservationist working with institutions exhibiting biodiversity and his research for a book on this topic. As a society we are still drawn to the exotic composition and super abundance of biodiversity exhibits, yet those exhibitions are in a constant evolution as their scientific, business, ethical and cultural context is in constant flux.

The Department of Geography is easily reached from Downing Place. Click here for a map (in a new window) of the Downing Site showing the location. Parking is not available on the Downing Site.

The talk on Thursday 2nd March will also be in person in the Department of Geography when Matthew Gandy will talk about moths. The other talks in February and March will be by Zoom at the later time of 7:30 p.m.