The National Council Science Museum’s wall calendar for 2025 introduces phantasmagorical creatures that would give a good run for money to JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise.

The Technocoleus artificialis (a representation of the beetle) with its long antennae and spidery legs, the Machinaodon draconia (dragonflies) with its helicopter wings and motorcycle headlight eyes, or the Ferrocamelopardalis constructum, a giraffe of nuts and bolts seem to have escaped from the suitcase of wizard and ‘magizoologist’ Newt Scamander.

Only that they haven’t.

Rather they have escaped from the imagination of the NCSM team of technicians and artists who have created the artworks out of discarded materials from the various Swachh Abhijans at the different centres of the council.

“The first creature was made at the Calicut centre where a whale was made out of discarded PET bottles,” said Manash Bagchi, director, Central Research and Training, NCSM.

The whale is on the back cover of the wall calendar.

Each creature has been given imaginary biological names from the plant, animal or human kingdom blurring the lines between art and life.

May

“The imaginary biological names were given following the way new species are named. Like the Buceros ferroscrapium where Buceros is the genus name for hornbills, ferro signifies iron and scrapium highlights its construction from junk materials like nuts and bolts,” said Bagchi.

Something like a brown puppy named Canis ferromechanicus pupillus barks out of the April page that has its upended tail made of an iron shaft while the body is formed of bolts and its legs and face are made of screws.

The May page has the Acer electrofilamentum which is an electrical maple tree with wire filaments as its leaves and branches.

The Gurs plierorostris in July represents theavian species of crane with various parts of thepliers.

May artwork

October has the Panthera plastisquama or a lion made from plastic sheets and bottles and the November page has the Ferrovivus croakiformis which is a frog sticking out its tongue to catch a fly.

October artwork

The NCSM has come up with a desk calendar as well. Through it, the council seeks to inform and educate in a fun and simple manner about the basics of quantum physics through illustrations and quotations from scientists.