Get your brains ready for some post-Covid intellectual activity! Over the remainder of the Winter and Spring, PSNS is planning to run a short series of talks on a variety of topics of local interest. Many of these will be presented by our very own home-grown experts and enthusiasts within the Society. The talks started on 19th February when PSNS member Jeff Banks told us about an intriguing new discovery called “Bird Supersense”. Click for the YouTube link.
Next scheduled talk:
5th March. David Bowler (PSNS) “Greyfriars Burial Ground”
David Bowler, PSNS President and an outstanding authority on the archaeology of Perth, is going to give us an expert’s tour of Greyfriars Burial Ground.
PSNS Members will receive a newsletter advising Zoom codes. Non-members are welcome, but numbers are limited. Please email secretary@psns.org.uk for details.
Greyfriars burial ground is in a quiet and secluded corner of central Perth, and is easily overlooked. But, for those in the know, it is a window into the hidden world of hopes, fears and the forgotten lives of a proud and busy urban community. Greyfriars became the burgh’s burial ground in 1580, because St John’s kirkyard was full. It had previously been the site of the Franciscan Friary, founded by 1496 and dissolved in 1559. It remained in use until it was superseded by Wellshill Cemetery in 1849, with occasional burials as late as 1978.
The earliest surviving monument is the Buchan stone (1580), but many stones were removed in 1652 to build Cromwell’s Citadel on the South Inch. There is a fine group of 18th-century stones, with traditional winged souls, hourglasses and skulls and crossbones, and even a Greek inscription from the 19th century. We shall try to understand how the stones and their symbols show changing tastes and hopes, and record life and death in the early modern burgh.
Future Talks: (*titles to be confirmed)
19th March – Dr Clare Scanlan – Seaweeds – More Than Just Slime
26th March 2021 – PSNS AGM 7pm Click here
26th March – Tim Haynes – Landscape Photography – Techniques and Thoughts
9th April – Prof. Martin Wilkinson, Heriot-Watt University – *Recovery of shores in Fife from mining pollution.
16th April – Duncan McNab – *A journey into the Okovango Delta
40 Years of Change and A Year of Covid – Share Your Thoughts
Share your thoughts on the last 40 years of change and how the pandemic has re-shaped your approach to the natural sciences. Here’s How and Why from David Bowler. All contributions are welcome. Click here to read some.
To contribute email secretary@psns.org.uk.
About PSNS Today – A Society for All
PSNS is one of the oldest Scientific Societies in Scotland. It has always been, and remains today, a ‘Society for All’. It consists of a ‘Parent Body’ as its primary membership with currently four activity groups (or Sections) covering the topics of Botany, Ornithology, Archaeology and History and Photography. Each Section organizes its own series of activities and you can find the programmes listed on this site.
Curious Minds
PSNS also runs a series of public lectures on Friday evenings from October to March in partnership with Culture Perth and Kinross. The talks, called ‘Curious Minds‘ explore the theme of Contemporary Science in Scotland. We invite speakers from Universities and other Research Institutions to come along and tell us about their work – with no jargon and no complicated equations. We have enjoyed four very successful seasons with talks ranging from mud houses in Errol through the physiology of seals to the Higgs boson and theories of Consciousness. As one of our guests said “It’s like going to the gym – for your brain”.