Of parasites, dinosaurs, and other model animals

Museum of Natural History Public Talks

Elaine Charwat has been on a journey into the attic storerooms behind the scenes of the Museum to discover 19th-century wax models of parasites. Join doctoral researcher Elaine Charwat on a journey into the attic storerooms behind the scenes of Oxford University Museum of Natural History to discover 19th century wax models of parasites and hear about parasites models in science past and present. Meet Mark Carnall, Zoology Collections Manager at the OUMNH, who talks about the differences between models and the thousands of specimens he looks after, and Dr Péter Molnár, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto, who offers important insights into current research using mathematical models. Different types of models and replicas are everywhere in the museum, and they tell us much about the organisms they represent or reconstruct, but even more about processes in research and science. Made to communicate and produce data, these larger-than-life objects are as fascinating as their subjects! Elaine Charwat is a Arts and Humanities Research Council doctoral researcher and this podcast was produced as part of her research programme.