Jack Ashby – författare

A 'compelling, arresting' (New Scientist) behind-the-scenes tour through the world's greatest natural history museums, revealing their hidden secrets Zoologist Jack Ashby spends his life working in Britain's natural history museums, and in Nature's Memory he guides us through a series of extraordinary collections, from marvellous mounted whale skeletons and impossibly tiny insect cabinets to buried treasures in vast museum storehouses.But look more closely at these displays: all is not as it seems. While most exhibits succeed in communicating feelings of wonder and awe - a vital function when less people than ever before have access to the outdoors - Ashby argues that the version of nature natural history museums present does not always reflect reality, with specimens revealing more about the biases of curators than they do about the species they represent. Likewise, the ways in which museums have traditionally told the story of their own histories has disproportionately elevated the contributions of certain kinds of people whilst diminishing the work of others, often ignoring their complex colonial heritage altogether. But Ashby contends that these issues are precisely why it's such an exciting time to be a natural historian, for while society shapes museums, so too can museums shape society - for the good. And as we face the existential threat of cataclysmic biodiversity loss, natural history museums will emerge as indispensable resources in the fight against climate catastrophe.Weaving together fresh historical research, entertaining zoological trivia and insider stories from Ashby's distinguished natural history career, Nature's Memory is a charming ode to the joys, eccentricities and planet-saving potential of the world's best-loved museums.

Winner of the Whitley Award for Best Natural History Book 2022 A compelling, funny, first-hand account of Australia's wonderfully unique mammals and how our perceptions impact their future. Think of a platypus: they lay eggs (that hatch into so-called platypups), they produce milk without nipples and venom without fangs and they can detect electricity. Or a wombat: their teeth never stop growing, they poo cubes and they defend themselves with reinforced rears. Platypuses, possums, wombats, echidnas, devils, kangaroos, quolls, dibblers, dunnarts, kowaris: Australia has some truly astonishing mammals with incredible, unfamiliar features. But how does the world regard these creatures? And what does that mean for their conservation?In Platypus Matters, naturalist Jack Ashby shares his love for these often-misunderstood animals. Informed by his own experiences meeting living marsupials and egg-laying mammals on fieldwork in Tasmania and mainland Australia, as well as his work with thousands of zoological specimens collected for museums over the last 200-plus years, Ashby's tale not only explains the extraordinary lives of these animals, but the historical mysteries surrounding them and the myths that persist (especially about the platypus). He also reveals the toll these myths can take.Ashby makes it clear that calling these animals ‘weird’ or ‘primitive’ – or incorrectly implying that Australia is an ‘evolutionary backwater’ – a perception that can be traced back to the country's colonial history – has undermined conservation: Australia now has the worst mammal extinction rate of anywhere on Earth. Important, timely and written with humour and wisdom by a scientist and self-described platypus nerd, this celebration of Australian wildlife will open eyes and change minds about how we contemplate and interact with the natural world – everywhere.

A behind-the-scenes tour through the world's greatest natural history museums, revealing how their hidden secrets can help us in the fight against climate changeZoologist Jack Ashby spends his life working in Britain's natural history museums, and in Nature's Memory he guides us through a series of extraordinary collections, from marvellous mounted whale skeletons and impossibly tiny insect cabinets to buried treasures in vast museum storehouses.But look more closely at these displays: all is not as it seems. While most exhibits succeed in communicating feelings of wonder and awe - a vital function when less people than ever before have access to the outdoors - Ashby argues that the version of nature natural history museums present does not always reflect reality, with specimens revealing more about the biases of curators than they do about the species they represent. Likewise, the ways in which museums have traditionally told the story of their own histories has disproportionately elevated the contributions of certain kinds of people whilst diminishing the work of others, often ignoring their complex colonial heritage altogether. But Ashby contends that these issues are precisely why it's such an exciting time to be a natural historian, for while society shapes museums, so too can museums shape society - for the good. And as we face the existential threat of cataclysmic biodiversity loss, natural history museums will emerge as indispensable resources in the fight against climate catastrophe.Weaving together fresh historical research, entertaining zoological trivia and insider stories from Ashby's distinguished natural history career, Nature's Memory is a charming ode to the joys, eccentricities and planet-saving potential of the world's best-loved museums.

From a single beginning, countless millions of stories from the animal kingdom have – and continue to – run their course. Museum objects allow us to investigate some of those stories. Animal Kingdom journeys through both the evolutionary history of animals, and the ways that people have interpreted them in museums. Animals in museums are not only representatives of their entire species, but they also tell us something about the time in which they were collected. They provide windows into the past as well as data for the present. They embody centuries of natural ecosystems and human cultures. Through a selection of 100 objects, telling 100 stories, this beautifully illustrated book explores the diversity of animal life over the past 600 million years, and delves into some of the most exciting mechanisms in evolution. By understanding some of the key stories of how nature operates, we can gain amazing insight into the systems underlying life itself.