Becky Honeycombe from our Learning Support Team writes about one of her favourite objects in the Museum. Have you ever dreamed of being able to fly like a bird? Well if you have, you’re certainly not alone. The ability to fly has been a human obsession for thousands of years. One of the earliest references to bird-like flight is found in the Ancient Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus who attached feathers to their arms to escape captivity. However, the […]
Cate Watson, Content Developer takes a look at the pride and passion of Charles Babbage. Designing the Difference and Analytical engines was a monumental task, demanding dedication and extreme attention to detail. Both engines were made up of thousands of parts that required near identical manufacturing – pushing Victorian technology to its limits. And Babbage was determined to make the machines operate without any possibility of errors. Babbage was very certain his engines would work. His passion for his machines kept […]
Ahead of November’s opening of the Collider exhibition, Content Developer Rupert Cole takes a look at the story behind the Geiger counter “The excitement is growing so much I think the Geiger counter of Olympo-mania is going to go zoink on the scale!” Thus spoke Boris Johnson in his London Olympics opening speech a little over a year ago. The author of several popular histories including Johnson’s Life of London, is it conceivable Mayor Boris knew the Olympic summer coincided […]
Steph Millard in the exhibitions team looks back over 100 years of stainless steel, first cast in August 1913 by Harry Brearley. Today’s journey into work sets me thinking. Looking at the queue of cars ahead with their stainless steel exhaust systems I repeatedly glance at my wristwatch – with its stainless steel back – to check I won’t be late. To my right, the Canary Wharf tower – with its 370,000 square feet of stainless steel cladding – glints majestically in […]
Its festival season and the Science Museum’s outreach team are on hand to bring explosions and experiments to the muddy music festival crowds. That’s right, there is a place for science alongside the bizarre and off the wall experiences of a music festival. Last month the outreach team returned for the 2nd year running to the Lounge on the Farm festival, nestled in the Kentish countryside on Merton Farm. Amongst a variety of acts including comedians, storytellers and the enigmatically […]
Our summer spectacular, The Energy Show, is staged in a steampunk world which blends the past and the future. Much inspiration for the show was taken from the Science Museum’s collection, especially the machines of The Energy Hall. Ben Russell, Curator of Mechanical Engineering, talks here about some of our ‘steampunk’ objects in the Museum. Beam engine by Benjamin Hick, 1840. Inv 1935-513 Modern technology values function over anything else. Things are stripped down and smooth in appearance. Steampunk is […]
Geoff Chapman is a volunteer working on Information Age, a new gallery about communication and information opening in 2014. Hi, I’m Geoff and I’m a volunteer in the team developing the Information Age gallery. I’ve been investigating the early days of experimental wireless communication prompted by a box of mainly 1910’s and 1920’s letters, documents and photographs. Early radio amateurs were also known as experimenters, and in the UK they were issued with licences for experimental purposes. In April 1913 the […]
We asked Curator of Time, Transport and Navigation, David Rooney to tweet some of the hidden gems in the Making the Modern World gallery.
This post is written by Alex, a 16-year old student who spent a week on work placement with the Learning team. The brain is one of the most complex biological organs in the world, and even today our understanding of it is very primitive, but recent advances in the field of neuroscience could help us unpick some of its mysteries… In Who am I? there is a little mouse with a big secret: its brain glows in a rainbow of colours. The […]
Associate Curator Rupert Cole explores some famous physics parties of the past.
Mark Champkins, Science Museum Inventor in Residence is challenging young visitors to design an invention to help solve a common summer problem. The winner will receive a Makerbot 3D printer worth over £2,000 and get their idea 3D printed and displayed in a new exhibition. When we’re basking in a heat wave, spending a summer holiday in Britain can be the perfect way to unwind. But as we all know, a British summer can present it’s own problems – from annoying wasps, to superheated car journeys, and from […]
One of the main characters in The Energy Show is lab assistant i-nstein. Nina Dunn, responsible for Video Design and Animation Direction, and Mike Wyatt from Attack Animation were the masterminds behind bringing i-nstein to life. Take a look at their process here. Design: We started off with a few rough pencil sketches. Then some orthographic representations of the sketches were created in Photoshop. Extra detail was added into the basic form to add interest. 3D Model: Using a 3D computer […]