Microsculpture

The University of Oxford Natural History Museum (http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/) is often featured in this blog and it has recently opened a temporary exhibition called Microsculpture, consisting of a series of exquisite photographs of 22 of the museums 5 million specimens from its Hope Entomological collection.

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Photographer Levon Biss has used a microscope lens to painstakingly take 8000 photographs of different parts of each subject, each with its own lighting arrangements and then combined them to produce these remarkable images, such as this orchid cuckoo bee:

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The exhibition also includes the actual insects, which demonstrates Bliss's remarkable talent in showing the exquisite beauty of these insects.

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Such as the Jewel longhorn beetle:

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And he has shown the Mantis Fly can look like something from a science fiction nightmare:
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Even the most mundane of British insects, like the blow fly, is shown to be just as magnificent as any of the exotic ones featured in the exhibition.
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The exhibition runs until the 30th October and is highly recommended to anyone in the locality or anyone visiting Oxford.

For those not fortunate enough to be able to visit, the exhibition has it's own website: http://microsculpture.net

The water voles of the Oxford Canal

The Oxford Canal, completed in 1790, links the River Thames to Coventry and was one of the main methods of transporting goods from the manufacturing heart of the midlands to Oxford, Reading and London
The canal now stops at Hythe Bridge Street in Oxford city centre, but once continued to Worcester Street to a basin at Worcester Street - now an expensive car park.
The freight may have declined, but it is popular place for mooring a barge and and is an enjoyable place for an evening stroll:
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As it has become more of a source of leisure than commerce, it has become a haven for wildlife and as the canal passes through Jericho, there are what looks like signs of water vole feeding by the canal path:
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Further along the canal there are very obvious signs of water vole latrine
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Although trying to catch a glimpse of them is very hard, to the far side of the canal are gardens and the habitat is more suitable for snoozing ducklings than water voles.
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But lurking in the undergrowth, next to the canal path is the unmistakable nose of a water vole.
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The water voles along this stretch are well known (if somewhat hard to see) and have caused a few problems when attempts have been made to renovate the footpath

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10099754.Voles_scupper_plans_for_towpath_revamp/