Darwin's Bassoon Wasted on Worms

 The mainly non-mythological constellations of the southern hemisphere, 

including Chameleon, Compass, Toucan and Telescope (source.)

 

 The final Ships, Sea & The Stars of this series is up now, in which you can hear me read an A. A. Milne poem that was completely new to me (at 29:00) and a terrific account by Charles Darwin of his attempts to test the hearing of worms (at 4:17). The theme of this episode – in coordination with Heritage Open Days – is "Hidden Nature" which, according to guest and "preventive conservator" Maria Bastidas-Spence, unambiguously means bugs. It's rare to see an insect expert who actually hates insects, and weirdly rewarding, an addition to carpet beetles and constellations, the team discuss ship's mascots: it seems pretty much every species has at some point been considered for mascothood, including a polar bear. 

 This isn't him though, this is "Trotsky". As soon as I learnt of his existence I whatsapped my Finnemore colleagues and... well, long story short, John has finally decided on a name for his first child. Unfortunately though, Trotsky – the photographed Trotsky above, not the putative Trotsky Finnemore – would ultimately be shot dead by a sailor tragically unaware that "ship's bear" was a thing. A very sad death then, but I can't say he was necessarily on the wrong side of History.