Natalie Cooper
LightNews LightNews
banner
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Natalie Cooper
@nhcooper123.bsky.social
4.4K followers 1.1K following 530 posts
Scientist @ Natural History Museum London. Senior Editor Methods Ecology & Evolution. Biodiversity, macroecology/evolution, R, PCMs, comedy, theatre, books, fun animal facts. she/her https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6w4ihPqk5_LOTuw-VhlaqEn1CctPqWGB
Posts Replies Media Videos
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Great two days of BES data/code hack-a-thon. 111 people (in person + online) collating data and chatting about open science. Big take homes so far: people ❤️ open science; data/code archiving means different things to different people; we can make some simple improvements with big impacts!
A room full of people working on laptops
September 30, 2025 at 1:57 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
A very lovely evening with Eric Idle at the Albert Hall surrounded by emotional men in their 70s! Now I really need a rewatch of “the life of Brian”…
View of theatre stalls with a large screen on stage that reads “always look on the bright side of life LIVE!”
September 27, 2025 at 9:33 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Got so excited by @joshlukedavis.com remora clutch bag I forgot to post the pictures of my lovely “worm” friends!
Close up of the tube of a honeycomb worm made up of tiny grains of sand Jar containing alcohol and a colony of Sabellaria alveolata in their tubes made of sand grains View into the jar containing Gorgononorhyncus repens. The worm is in a tube within the jar. It has its proboscis sticking out looking like a mess of hair. Beautiful handwriting on a jar reading Gorgononorhyncus repens. The lid is painted red showing it is the holotype.
September 16, 2025 at 8:07 AM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Monkeys in space! Or more accurately in boxes.
Squirrel monkey specimen facing towards the camera with its arms outstretched looking like superman flying. Stretched out squirrel monkey specimen in a box. Two patches commemorating Gordo (old reliable) and Able and Miss Baker
August 26, 2025 at 2:17 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Here’s the actual fossil too! This was so exciting to have out of the collections. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
A slab on grey rock on which is a slightly darker outline of something that looks like a shrimp (the fossil). There is a finger for scale. Close up of the fossil that looks like a shrimp
August 13, 2025 at 10:12 AM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Exciting times for the fish lovers* in my household. *me
Board game box for the game Finspan. It features a flying fish on a turquoise background
July 28, 2025 at 9:23 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
I always think of this example… but I also don’t know the term!
Image of a tweet by Alex Blechman, 8th Nov 2021. It says “Sci fi author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale. Tech Company: At long last we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don’t Create the Torment Nexus.”
July 27, 2025 at 10:37 AM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Close up of a green tree, lots of leaves and a few grey branches within. On one branch sits a quetzal (bird) with iridescent green back and head, bright red underparts, bright yellow/orange bill, and two long (as long as the body) green feathers hanging down past the tail.
July 3, 2025 at 6:53 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
We’ve also done giraffes and sperm whales!
A line of whale skulls propped up on their ends in a long row as far as the eye can see. An assortment of giraffe heads, ossicones and one leg. Giraffes are light beige with darker brown spots and blotches.
May 29, 2025 at 2:41 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
The video might give a better idea of how big this lady is!
May 29, 2025 at 2:38 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Doing some filming today at our offsite stores. How do you measure an anaconda? With people lying on the floor of course!
Three people lying on the floor head to toe. Closest to the front is a person looking at the camera. A very large snake head with a museum label attached.
May 29, 2025 at 2:36 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Are you looking for a distraction? Do you love natural history and museum specimens? Join @joshlukedavis.com and I for "The 'Perfect' Specimen" - an irreverent look at the natural world through via some of the @nhm-london.bsky.social's 80 million specimens, and increasingly random adjectives...
Blurred background is a colour photograph of two people (on the left one in checked red/blue/white shirt and glasses, on the right one in blue shirt with blue glasses) looking at specimens in jars on shelves. In the foreground in focus is a large old fashioned looking specimen jar with an unidentifiable specimen within it. Over this the title of the podcast 'The "Perfect" Specimen is written in white text. In the top left hand corner the Natural History Museum logo appears in white.
May 21, 2025 at 10:04 AM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
This mushroom in an apocalyptic landscape made me think of @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social ‘s Ambergis
Ink drawing with a large mushroom in the foreground. Mostly brown and white with a bit of red on the stem which hides a ghostly image of a face. The background is a dark gloomy apocalyptic feeling scene of fields and a distant city. Again in brown ink.
May 11, 2025 at 2:32 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
The RA’s exhibition of Victor Hugo’s drawings is great (if you like dark moody ink drawings of castles and seascapes, which I do!)
Banner advertising an exhibition. The image is a brown and white drawing of an octopus. Over this white text reads Astonishing Things: the drawings of Victor Hugo.
May 11, 2025 at 2:29 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Forgot to share this magnificent sign on the bathroom door at a queer line dancing event we stumbled across on Friday. 🏳️‍⚧️
A4 sized sign on a bathroom door with a picture of a guitarist with pink shirt, brown trousers, white cowboy hat and blue bandanna. Text says: “Round these parts we don’t ask folk about their parts”.
May 6, 2025 at 2:34 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Really great turn out for the trans rights rally on Parliament Square right now. Come down and join us if you’re in London! 🏳️‍⚧️
Trans pride flag flying over the heads of indistinguishable crowd of people with fancy buildings in the background
April 19, 2025 at 12:28 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Generation Hope is just two weeks away! Sign up for sessions here and tell your friends! www.nhm.ac.uk/events/gener...

Events on the planetary crisis led by young activists from around the world. Much needed chance to build community and find some positive actions in these dark times.
Generation Hope logo. Deforested area with cartoon blue mushrooms drawn on top.
April 18, 2025 at 7:19 AM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Fun couple of days in the collections helping PhD student Sidney to measure mammal vertebrae (my role was less measuring and more typing numbers into a spreadsheet!). Look at this lovely sloth we found! 🦥
A white box without a lid inside which is a yellowish coloured skeleton of a sloth. It has amazing long fingers and a massive rib cage.
April 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Resharing this for the evening crowd! If you're in London 30th April - 3rd May please join us!
Background image is a colour photo of a degraded forest with a large tree stump in the foreground and logs from cut down trees in the background. On top of this is a cartoon, drawn in light blue pen, of five mushrooms. Over all of this there is text reading: Fixing our broken planet: Generation Hope
March 27, 2025 at 5:59 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Forgot to include the lovely image!
Background image is a colour photo of a degraded woodland with a large tree stump and logs fromcut down trees. On top of this is a simple cartoon of some mushrooms. It’s a line drawing done in blue pen. Text over this reads: Fixing Our Broken Planet. Generation Hope.
March 26, 2025 at 10:59 AM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
In today’s “what’s on Natalie’s desk” excitement - lemur skulls! Here’s a skull of a mouse lemur, the smallest type of lemur (Microcebus spp. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_l... ~ 25 species) and an indri the largest living lemur species (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indri)
White background with two skulls, cream/off white in colour. One is small, the size of a cherry tomato, with large eye sockets. The other is the size of an elongated grapefruit. The small is a mouse lemur, the large is an indri.
March 4, 2025 at 10:57 AM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Please enjoy this lovely Chillingham bull from Northumberland. Only about 150 individuals of this breed exist en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chillin... You can go on “safari” to see them!
Grey/white/cream head of a bull with long soft curly looking hair. Horns are half the length again of the head, white/cream with black tips. The bull is looking into the camera.
March 3, 2025 at 2:24 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Today we’re in the ungulate collections measuring some legs…
Large black brown cow leg in the foreground. The top of the animal is cut off. In the background more white cow legs can be seen. Even further back more legs of antelope. More legs of antelope from the thigh down. Mostly black/brown in colour. Ending in hooves
March 3, 2025 at 2:15 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Lol I’m now going to end up in Bluesky jail for all these inappropriate images! It’s history! Here’s a bonus owl from www.basilicasanclemente.com in Rome. It’s a historical layer cake with a 1st century temple, then a 6th century church on top of that, and a 12th century basilica on top.
Mosaic with golden background, and an owl in brown and black and red tiles. It looks a little shocked
February 26, 2025 at 10:36 PM
nhcooper123.bsky.social
Or a swan…
Naked woman hugging a grey bird with an orange beak that is apparently a swan
February 26, 2025 at 10:29 PM