Something you don't normally see at the pub...

We went along to our local SciBar last night. If you've never come across the concept before, it sounds a bit unlikely.
Basically, it's science in a pub.

A guest speaker is invited to give a talk about their particular branch of science at a suitably enlightened drinking establishment and anyone who's interested can come along and listen, ask questions and drink beer.
Our local SciBar is held once a month at "The Vale Inn" and since it started, last year, we have had speakers covering such widely diverse topics as "The Search for Extraterrestrial Life", "Body Clocks", "Nuclear Fusion" and "Anti-matter". It is astonishingly popular, to the extent that if you don't get to the pub by 6pm, you'll probably struggle to find anywhere to sit.

Last night we were lucky enough to see Herpetologist and Amphibian Conservationist,  Andrew Gray, from The Manchester Museum. As you would expect, anyone who is willing to go out and talk about their work to a bar full of complete strangers needs to be a bit of an enthusiast and this is a man who clearly loves his work. With his tales of crawling about in caves and climbing trees in the jungles of South America, simply to observe frogs I was left with no doubt that he had found his dream job.
The talk was full of good stuff. I didn't know that frogs don't drink, but absorb moisture through their skin and that a frog's eyes help it to swallow, but the undoubted highlight was when we were introduced to a couple of live tree frogs that he had brought along.

They are almost unbearably cute. 

Have a look at "Frog Blog Manchester" if you want to see the sort of things Andrew Gray gets up to.