Hello pod adventurers!

As it nears lunch-time here at work and my brain starts to resemble a slow-moving lava lamp, I know I only have to synthesise two simple thoughts: discovering the weather conditions outside the window and therefore deciding which of the local cafes gets my lunch money and patronage.

But wind back a million years ago to the same window vista and all I would see is volcanic smoke as Victoria (Australia) was a volcanic frenzy! And the only option for lunch would be smoked anything sandwiches. Okay I made that last bit up! So how do we know there was lava flow long ago? You guessed it, the rock-solid evidence of rock specimens: they map the story of our planet.

What blew me away in this pod episode was even though geology and mineralogy have been around forever as scientific pursuits, there are still rocks left unturned, and geoscientists are finding new minerals every year.

I pod, therefore I have rocks in my head and you will too when you hear what Pyrite and Pumice have to say about being museum specimens.

Rock on, Dr Andi.

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Beautiful Birchite. (Dr Andi) | The Bunyip Gold Nugget — This 50-ounce nugget was found near Bridgewater in the Loddon Valley and acquired by Museum Victoria in 1977. (MV Photographer Frank Coffa) | Dermot Henry clutches a special rock... (Dr Andi)

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Hi there and Hej! (hello in Swedish).

I've been doing a bit of travel recently - I've been in Washington, Toronto, Stockholm and I'm on my way to Copenhagn today. What makes cities round the world really feel like foreign places to me is not the architecture, the language on the street, or the different flavoured kiosk snacks... It's the amazing range of bird life. As a Melbournian I got very excited at seeing a gaggle (love that word) of geese out the bus window on the freeway in Toronto and yelled "look everybody - geese!". I got that quick bemused smile from my fellow travellers. In Sweden I keep seeing an unusual (well unusal for me as a Melbournian) grey brown bird (it could be the same one that is following me).

Anyway, what is even more extraordinary is that the ancestors of all this bird life around our planet were therapod dinosuars. Now that is exciting to all of us on the bus!

Cheers and chirps, and enjoy this month's episode - Dr Andi

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Archaeopteryx, A bird's eye view of the dinosaurs at Melbourne Museum, Chef Sean serves up a tasty dish at the cafe. (all images by Dr Andi)

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I have had a mortal fear of bees and bee stings ever since I was a kid, having seen and heard one too many neighbourhood chums howling after being stung.

So far I’ve managed to avoid getting stung myself, so it is with great fascination (and relief at maintaining my safety record) that I can view a bee hive from behind glass at Melbourne Museum.

It’s truly an amazing sight to see the bees clambering over the comb and doing their thing: they must be among the busiest hardest working public servants around (except perhaps the drones – you’ll find out why in the pod cast).

Having pondered the notion that we must surely know everything about bees by now - well apparently not so, as we find out from entomology researchers ‘what still needs investigating’. I also ponder the notion: if the Museum specimens could talk, what would they say? I ponder, therefore I pod or rather, I podcast.

Bee nice to the curators and museum staff: they do important work! - Dr Andi

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Images: Simon the entomology enthusiast (Source: Dr Andi), Female worker bees 'working for reward' (Source: Museum Victoria), Luke is manager of live exhibits and 'King Bee' (Source: Dr Andi)

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