Science Museum Blog

The Science Museum’s Head of Communications, Peter Dickinson, responds to concerns raised about an image used in the marketing campaign for our new interactive gallery. Wonderlab: The Statoil Gallery is extraordinary; it is a gallery designed with the sophistication to impress one of the UK’s most respected architecture critics, the Observer’s Rowan Moore, while at the same time prompting Time Out to write: “If Stephen Hawking and Willy Wonka designed the ultimate science playground then it might go a little […]

The quest for artificial intelligence is gathering pace, with research groups worldwide in both universities and industry making huge advances in the development of sophisticated neural networks – inspired by the architecture of the brain – that may one day give computers the capacity for independent thought. Recent developments in machine learning and the proliferation of smart devices interconnected via a global high-speed network are already starting to enable far greater interaction between machines and information – what many call […]

With the museum’s Director of External Affairs, Roger Highfield, and Prof Ed Dougherty of Texas A&M, Peter Coveney of University College London has written a critique of the blind use of big data in biology. Here Prof Coveney sums up their paper. Visit the Our Lives in Data exhibition in the Science Museum’s Wellcome Wing and you will see a section on the revolution in genetics. Today it is cheaper than ever to read a person’s entire genetic code (genome), […]

When Wonderlab: The Statoil Gallery opens in October 2016, we will extend our reach beyond traditional museum audiences with a series of important charity partnerships. Tom O’Leary explains more.

Hanging at the centre of Mathematics: The Winton Gallery is the Handley Page ‘Gugnunc’, an experimental aeroplane built in 1929. Curator David Rooney explores the story of this eloquent, striking and powerful embodiment of the mathematics of risk.

Collections Assistant Dominique Russell describes the process of cleaning and preparing the incredible Elliott 401 computer to go on display.

It’s September again and for students all over it’s time to think ahead to the new academic year. We in the Learning Support Team have also shined our shoes and restocked our pencil cases ready to welcome half a million education group visitors to the Science Museum this year. Our main role is to give advice and plan visits to the Museum for all education groups from nurseries, schools and university students, to Scouts and Brownies as well as booking […]

  Creating exhibitions about cutting-edge science is a hard task for museums. We want to share the latest mind-blowing scientific discoveries and innovations with everyone who comes through our doors, but keeping things up-to-date isn’t always easy. Science moves fast but museums, by their nature, adopt a slower pace. Much of what we do best is to present world-changing ideas and inventions, often from a distant past when scientific instruments were beautifully crafted in mahogany and brass. When it comes […]

The Evening Standard’s tenth celebration of London’s most influential people – the Progress 1000 – took place at the Science Museum last night, attended by a glittering array of partygoers including HRH The Prince of Wales, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, the President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Dame Ann Dowling and Mercury Prize winner, Benjamin Clementine. The focus of the celebrations of the Standard’s top 1000 Londoners – which includes Science Museum director Ian Blatchford and Director of […]

Two hundred and fifty years after his birth, Stephanie Millard celebrates the life of John Dalton who laid the foundations of modern atomic theory.

Karinna Nobbs explores the data visualisation and projection mapping needed for the Dress For Our Time installation.

Roger Highfield explores the impact of eclipses on science.