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Natural Histories

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Nature that has had a profound impact on human culture and society across history.

Nature that has got under our skin and profoundly impacted human culture and society across our history.

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Natural Histories: Anemone

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Anemone

BBC Radio 4 - Natural Histories, Anemone

Brett Westwood explores the role sea anemones have played in art, literature and science.

Brett Westwood explores the role sea anemones have played in culture. They seem to occupy two realms, the seashore and underwater, and were viewed as flowers of the sea.  From 2015.

Sea anemones are also known as the flowers of the sea. They inspire whimsy and fancy, poetry and art. The Victorian craze for aquariums which Philip Henry Gosse encouraged with his 1860 book "A History Of The British Sea-anemones and Corals" was intense, though short lived, and had an ecological effect in nature.

Today the collection of anemones for aquariums is devastating places like the Philippines, especially since the Hollywood blockbuster Finding Nemo was released. Bizarrely the complexity of anemone nerves means they are more closely related to humans than to flies and worms. Some species are as close to immortal as you can get. Cut them in half and you get two, cut off the mouth and it will grow a new one. They seem to go on and on, leading some scientists to use them in the search for eternal youth.  The Natural History Museum in London owns delicate, anatomically accurate and beautifully crafted glass models of anemones are so realistic they look like the real thing crystallised from the sea. They were made by father and son glass blowers called Blaschka in the 19th century. These models allowed ordinary people  to see the wonders beneath the sea.

Original Producer : Andrew Dawes
Archive Producer : Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio

Revised Repeat : First Broadcast BBC Radio 4; 6th October 2015

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