Raffles Museum news

Research and education at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore.

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05 Jul 2007 - Raffles Museum News has shifted to http://news.rafflesmuseum.net

Sat 22 Oct 2005

Semakau Workshop for trainee guides

Category : education

Posted at 11:35AM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Fri 21 Oct 2005

NYGH Nanyang Environmental Science Conference

Category : talks

21 Oct 2005 - Raffles Museum's Peter Ng (Conserving Singapore: Singapore evolving) and N. Sivasothi (Conservation in Singapore - issues thoughts and action!) along with National Institute of Education's Shawn Lun (Who does nature belong to?) spoke on local and international conservation of biodiversity issues at Nanyang Girls' High School.

They were speaking at one of several concurrent plenary sessions of NYGH's Nanyang Environmental Science Conference.

The session ended with presentations by students from Raffles Institution and NYGH - their projects dealt with limpet distribution and youth awareness and attitudes towards sustainable development.

Wang Luan Keng setup an exhibition introducing Pulau Semakau's marine life in the foyer of the school where participating institutions and companies set up exhibitions.

The conference is a two day programme with a keynote, international participants and includes workshops and industrial visits.

Posted at 3:34PM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Sat 15 Oct 2005

Toddycats Appreciation Dinner & Ghostly Night Tour 2005: After-dinner games

Category : toddycats

Posted at 2:36AM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Sat 15 Oct 2005

Toddycats Appreciation Dinner & Ghostly Night Tour 2005: Dinner

Category : toddycats

Posted at 2:36AM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Sat 15 Oct 2005

Toddycats Appreciation Dinner & Ghostly Night Tour 2005: Museum Tour

Category : toddycats

Posted at 2:03AM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Sat 15 Oct 2005

Toddycats Appreciation Dinner & Ghostly Night Tour 2005: Preparations

Category : toddycats

Posted at 1:55AM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Thu 13 Oct 2005

Toddycats Project Managers Briefing

Category : toddycats

Saturday, 8th October 2005 - Toddycats Project Managers who rarely ever meet off-season, attended a briefing by Research Officer/Volunteer Coordinator N. Sivasothi a.k.a. "Otterman" in the newly refurbished director's office. They were briefed about projections of the next phase of the develping Raffles Museum volunteer programme. During the discussion, Project Managers proposed the first ever Toddycats night tour of the musueum after its recent renovation. We also decided to host a volunteer "thank you" dinner after the tours and some 50 people are coming. Look out for more photos soon! Photo by November Tan

Posted at 8:47PM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Thu 13 Oct 2005

Life on board the "ALIS"

Category : research

Based on her "impressive" performance in the last two Panglao expeditions, graduate student Joelle Lai was invited along on a French expedition on board the IFR (Institut Fran�ais de Recherche pour le DŽveloppement en CoopŽration) ship, the "ALIS". Raffles Museum sponsored her trip there in order for her to gain more exposure and training. We hope she has stopped mimicking the Merlion and found her sea legs by now. At any rate, from her accounts, she is already dark, sun burnt, scruffy and salty. Its not torture, since she has hot showers, hot food and internet access - enough to send us a couple of photo-montages.

Posted at 7:23PM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Wed 12 Oct 2005

"S'pore's Captain Planet"

Category : toddycats

"S'pore's Captain Planet." By Teh Jen Lee. The Electric New Paper, 11 October 2005. Greenie high-flyer to attend UN Forum. [pdf]

"WHEN she was a child, she wanted to be like Captain Planet, a cartoon super hero who fights to save the planet from environmental problems. Of course, she doesn't have his super powers, but uses her talents to make an impact on Mother Earth. Ms Tan Peng Ting, 24, will attend the first Eco-Minds Youth Forum on sustainable development in Manila at the end of this month.

This is not the first time she's representing Singapore in such a programme. Last November, she was chosen as a Bayer Young Environmental Envoy for her contributions in promoting the preservation of Pulau Ubin.

She had set up an online information archive containing personal stories, history and articles about Ubin. She also helped organise Pedal Ubin, a unique guided-tour of the island on bicycle.

Together with three other Singaporeans, she won a week-long trip to Germany last November, with all expenses paid by Bayer.

Her older sister, Ms Tan Peng Ling, 32, recalled how Ms Tan loved Captain Planet when she was in Primary Five. She said: 'I got her an activity book and mask because I knew she wanted to be Captain Planet when she grew up.' The younger Ms Tan still has the mask.

This year, she impressed the judges again with other environmental programmes. The third-year Geography undergraduate from NUS set up a local 'whistle-blower' group with a difference. The two-month-old group is called Toddycats Engage and they are open to the 100-plus volunteers with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research.

They meet once a month to give feedback and to voice concerns over issues like trees being cut down during estate upgradings and air-conditioning being excessively cold.

Said Ms Tan Peng Ting: 'We write letters on the spot. It's an avenue for people to express themselves. We hope to build a civil society by giving feedback regularly.

'We don't just point out the bad, we applaud the good. When people are affirmed, they are more willing to listen to future feedback.'

ECO-MINDS FORUM

ECO-MINDS Forum is a joint youth environmental education programme of the United Nations Environment Program and Bayer.

Delegates from nine Asia Pacific countries, selected from fields such as natural sciences, engineering and commerce will team up to discuss problems caused by development."

Copyright © 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.

All rights reserved.

Posted at 4:13AM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Fri 07 Oct 2005

"New species found in Bohol deep"

Category : research

"New species found in Bohol deep." By Charles E. Buban. Inquirer News Service, 07 Oct 2005. [pdf] Editor's Note: Published on page A1 of the Oct. 7, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

"An International research expedition has found species of mollusks, crustaceans, echinoderms (star fish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers) and fish that may be new to science in the deep waters off Bohol province.

The research was part of the Panglao Marine Biodiversity Project 2005: Survey of the Deep-water Benthic Fauna of Bohol Sea and Adjacent Waters, or the Panglao 2005 expedition.

A team of 30 marine scientists, technicians and fishing masters from France, Singapore, Taiwan, Russia and the Philippines went on a two-week expedition in May using unsophisticated methods like trawling, dredging and trapping.

The research team said it also gathered specimens previously regarded as rare to very rare, including those previously thought to be not found in the Philippines or even in the Southeast Asian biogeographic zone."

Read the rest of the article at the Inquirer.

This article refers to the Panglao 2005 expedition.

Posted at 7:42AM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Thu 06 Oct 2005

"Marine Life in Singapore: Surprises and the threat of marine trash"

Category : talks

4 Oct 2005 - N. Sivasothi Coordinator, International Coastal Cleanup Singapore Research Officer, Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, NUS gave a talk on "Marine Life in Singapore: Surprises and the threat of Marine Trash." The talk was organized by NUS Campus Green Committee at the LT31, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore.

"The Singapore coastline is still survived by interesting patches of coastal and marine ecosystems, which are home to otters, dugongs, sea stars, octopus, dolphins, hundreds of species of fish, sea snakes, turtles and even a crocodile! Marine life faces several challenges - development, marine trash, poaching and environmental accidents.

Volunteers with the annual International Coastal Cleanup Singapore removed 10,334 kg from our coastline in a single day last year - almost 90% of this was plastic and almost two-thirds from land-based sources. Abandoned nets entangled and killed birds, snakes, crabs, horseshoe crabs and fish. In the past two years, volunteers from NUS had joined the team to help clear Kranji mangroves. Just last year, 3,167 kg of trash was removed in a single day!"

There were pictorial panels on "Marine Life in Singapore" and "Green Transport" courtesy of Singapore Environment Council in the LT31 foyer. Interestingly the tv series Biologic was on sale for S$20. The series contains an episode about the cleanup.

See reports from 2005 at Habitatnews

Posted at 4:48PM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Thu 06 Oct 2005

Toddycats Engage!

Category : toddycats

30 Sep 2005 - Second session of the Toddycats Engage! Recognising the need for citizen participation in Singapore, in this series of meetings coordinated by Tan Peng Ting and Marcus Tay, Raffles Museum volunteers meet to identify problems, suggest solutions, engage the relevant parties and follow up on the issues.

Getting to know each other before the session begins.

Posted at 10:07AM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Tue 04 Oct 2005

The Petrus Artedi Tricentennial Symposium on Systematic Ichthyology

Category : meetings

Or of a rare sighting of Maurice Kottelat in a suit.

From the Artedi website:

13 Sep 2005 - "The Artedi Tricentennial Symposium on Ichthyology commemorated the birth of Artedi by providing a forum of excellence for summarizing the present state of systematic ichthyology.

The invited speakers represent today's frontline of research on the inventory and systematic arrangement of the global fish fauna, as well as phylogenetics and biological information systems.

The programme opened with a day of public lectures, held on the 13th of September in the Beijer Hall at the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences.

Amongst the five Artedi Lecturers for 2005 was Maurice Kottelat, Honorary Research Associate, Raffles Museum of Bioddiversity Research, who delivered a lecture "2349 years", 'alluding to the number of years since the first comprehensive scientific fish work was written by Aristotelis'.

Lynne R. Parenti, a frequent collaborator with museum staff, was also an Artedi Lecturer 2005, and presented "The Relationship Between Biogeography and Phylogeny of Fishes", 'which demonstrated the need to include the biogeographic perspective.'

Link

Posted at 3:06AM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,

Mon 03 Oct 2005

Patricia Kailola

Category : people

30 Sep 2005 - Patricia J. Kailola, with the Marine Studies Program, The University of the South Pacific was last here for the All Catfish Species Inventory (ACSI) programme. She dropped by the wet collections to check catfish specimens of the family Ariidae.

Posted at 10:47PM SGT by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,