University of Leicester Open Journals
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Pluto bioenergetics
No full textThis study explores the potential for microbial life on Pluto's surface by comparing estimated energy requirements of Earth's E. coli with Pluto's surface irradiance. The analysis suggests that, given a source of complex organic compounds, Pluto's energy flux may be sufficient to generate and sustain microbial life, challenging assumptions about Pluto's habitability based solely on its relatively limited energy flux.
A scientific analysis of Dragon Ball’s Fusion Dance
No full textThe fusion dance is one of the most powerful techniques in the Dragon Ball series, created by Akira Toriyama. This paper will explore biological and chemical principles that could explain how the fusion dance functions as well as its limitations. (In memory of Akira Toriyama (1955-2024))
Under Pressure: Investigating the adaptations of deep-sea organisms found on Earth, and how they could be applied to other planets
No full textParts of the deep sea are almost an enigma to us as humans as we’ve only been able to reach small fractions of it. The high-pressure depths make it very dangerous for humans to encounter this journey but we know that there are organisms that are able to withstand this pressure. In this article, I will be acknowledging a few adaptations of organisms that are able to survive at pressures more than 10,000 psi and applying these to planets found in our solar system that also have high pressures
Objects of Politics: The Appropriation of Earth Science Collections in Prussia during the Long Nineteenth Century
No full textResearch into the history of collections can shed light not only on the epistemic, but also the political and economic dimensions of the objects that museums collect. This article explores these dimensions through the study of acquisitions in the mineralogical collections of the Natural History Museum Berlin. During the nineteenth century, appropriation processes were increasingly shaped by economic arguments and political perspectives. After the German Empire became a colonial power in the 1880s, rocks and minerals from Africa, particularly Namibia and Tanzania, were seized. Ultimately, contemporary museums must take responsibility for their past collecting practices because their collections are built upon those practices
Examining the Colonial Legacies of the Hunterian’s Mineralogical and Petrological Collection: New Perspectives on Geoscience Collections
No full textThe origin of the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery’s mineralogical and petrological collection can be traced back to Sir William Hunter’s bequest of his collections to the University of Glasgow upon his death in 1783. Examination of the collection’s colonial legacies is only in its nascent stages, reflecting that the scrutiny of colonial legacies is still in its infancy in geoscience museums. Here I review the history of the collection, its composition and usage, and I put those factors into the broader perspective of museums’ colonial legacies.
Among the issues I consider are the extent to which the collection contains international specimens and the extent to which these objects are accessed by their source nations. Also explored are the biases which exist in the limited provenance ascribed to objects in the collection and how certain individuals or types of information may be excluded from documentation. The purpose of these investigations is to consider whether the collection continues to contribute to colonial legacies of the museum sector.
After an examination of these aspects of the collection, new ways of working for geoscience collections are proposed, including standards for gathering data; expanding the collection’s reach to more users; and repatriating objects. These initial measures can change the power imbalances apparent in the Hunterian collection and the geosciences more broadly
Memory’s Seams: Scarcity and Preciousness in Earth Pigments
No full textA naturally occurring carbon-based ‘mineral black’ mined from ancient flood seams in North Devon, England, Bideford black embodies the contradictions of modernity, and how it is felt at social and bodily scales. During the Second World War, the material was mined for its coal-like properties to conceal tanks and ships, while its intense color and oily texture coated eyelashes in Max Factor’s first commercial mascara until it was replaced by blacker polymers—an ambivalent form of synthetic mimicry and that displaces mining by way of plastics. More recently, artists and community stakeholders working in Devon have reanimated the natural pigment as an important piece of biocultural heritage. This object biography tells the story of Bideford black and its parallel transformations of extraction, from the exploitation of a finite resource to its displacement by synthetics, whose ‘toxic progenies’ (Davis 2022) make different kinds of claims on the future
Spacing: Following negotiations in the process of exhibition dismantling
No full textThis paper is concerned with an Actor-Network Theory approach to museum space. It builds upon qualitative research at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, a museum and educational building in Norwich, England. Following the people who work with the building in the process of dismantling an exhibition, I examine the negotiations that emerge when a problem occurs with the handling of a specific artwork. Drawing on the concept of spacing by Bruno Latour, this paper highlights the multiplicity and complexity inherent in museum practices. I argue that space is not contained inside the building but is done with the building, exhibition objects, handling instructions, surfaces, and people. Analyzing this process of spacing, then, the work towardsand negotiation of stability and flux, of homogeneity and heterogeneity inherent to museum spaces become visible which allows for a rich and nuanced understanding of the relationship between people and physical stuff
Fighting the Machine: Co-constructing Team Based Evaluation for Non-Formal Learning.
No full textMuseum educators increasingly face demands to evaluate the ‘value’ of non-formal learning (NF-L). This paper offers a unique international and multi-educator perspective on how informants from Portugal, Italy and the United Kingdom navigated these demands. Analysis of interview data highlighted that, although working in three different countries, most of these educators had experienced evaluation as accountability (and disciplinary) focused; employing methodologies inappropriate for evaluating NF-L and rarely team based. Drawing on a composite theoretical framework, these data led to co-constructing the Team Based Evaluation (TBE) model. Two case studies map how TBE was enacted and recommendations concerning organizational change are made. The paper concludes that, whilst set within the museum education space, TBE can be applied across evaluation contexts and micro and macro scales. Locally, TBE can mediate rich evidence and develop team working practices. Nationally and internationally, it can contribute to resetting evaluation from an accountability and disciplinary ‘machine’ to a dialogic, democratic and developmental activity
Book Review: Hannah Turner, Cataloguing Culture: Legacies of Colonialism in Museum Documentation
No full textExhibition Review: Beyond Folding Screens 2, The Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea, 26 January 2023 - 30 April 2023
No full textThe exhibition, Beyoug Folding Screens 2, which ran from January to April 2023 at the Amorepacific Museum of Art in South Korea, is analysed with a focus on the shift in perspective in presenting traditional historical art in museums. The review illustrates how a historical object can be presented in diverse ways, each telling a unique story, while also actively engaging visitors in the exhibition.