Tag Archives: Manchester Museum

Poison dart frog

Tuesday 18th November 2025, 3.05pm (day 5,199)

Poison dart frog, 18/11/25

This little feller is, at most, two inches long but what does he care? In the wild these kinds of frog accumulate enough poison in their skin to kill a dozen people. But apparently they acquire it by eating certain types of ant and other insects, and when fed a different diet in captivity, the toxicity is lost. Maybe he doesn’t know. If he did, would he care? (Taken in the Manchester Museum’s vivarium, where saw some of his cousins before, in 2014.)

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Proteins priced individually

Wednesday 18th October 2017, 10.20am (day 2,246)

Café Muse, 18/10/17

“Hi. I’d like the chicken caesar salad, a potato salad, and a plate of glutamine synthetase, please.”

“Certainly madam. That’ll be £3.50 for the two salads, and we have a special on glutamine synthetase today at just £2.50 for a plate. Unless you’d prefer an orotidylate decarboxylase wrap, at just £1.95?”

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Outside the Manchester Museum

Tuesday 10th October 2017, 4.15pm (day 2,238)

Manchester museum, 10/10/17

Today, 10th October 2017, is the 26th anniversary of my coming to Yorkshire to stay for a short while, and never leaving. But here’s a picture from my workplace in Lancashire: a better attempt than the rather boring shot from last week I think.

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Ex-mammoth

Monday 18th January 2016, 9.25am (day 1,607)

Mammoth, 18/1/16

I bet you didn’t pass one of these on the way to your morning meeting. Mine happened to be in the Manchester Museum (last seen on here as the home of the vivid tropical frogs) — so I did.

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On the Manchester Museum roof

Tuesday 3rd June 2014, 10.15am (day 1,013)

Museum roof, 3/6/14

Are there bees up on the museum roof (as viewed this morning from my meeting in the adjacent Arthur Lewis Building)? Or have the tropical frogs escaped? What is the builder carrying in the orange swag bag? Inquiring minds want to know.

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Golden Mantellas, Manchester Museum

Sunday 23rd February 2014, 11.30am (day 913)

Frogs in vivarium, 23/2/14

Had to go into Manchester today. Once the errand was done, Joe and I passed some time in the Manchester Museum, which is on the university campus but which I have managed never to properly explore in the 8 years I have worked there. It’s a good natural history and anthropological museum, in fact. These frogs are native to Madagascar and critically endangered in the wild. They’re toxic, though not extremely so.

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