Kate Davis, a Learning Resources Project Developer, discovers the story behind one of our more unusual objects. The fifth floor of the Science Museum is a fascinating area, full of gory and often unusual paraphernalia related to the history of medicine. One of the more unusual objects lurking in this gallery is the Drug Castle. Our knowledge of medicine and how civilisations have treated illness and disease stretches all the way back to the earliest writings on the subject from […]
Alice Lighton, content developer for our Collider exhibition, writes about the history of quantum physics. Collider: step inside the world’s greatest experiment opens in November 2013 with a behind-the-scenes look at the famous CERN particle physics laboratory. The air brimmed with excitement on this momentous day. The discovery of the particle confirmed a theory that had taken years to devise, and justified the toil of hundreds of scientists. You might think I’m referring to the Higgs boson – the particle that explains mass, […]
A guest blog post by Vivienne Parry, MRC Council Member This year the Medical Research Council (MRC) celebrates 100 years of life-changing discoveries. The MRC has its roots in the National Insurance Act, passed by Parliament in 1911. At the turn of the last century, TB was as great a concern to the Edwardians as cancer is to us today. Desperate for cures, government proposed that one penny per working person per year should be taken from their national insurance […]
This summer, our IMAX theatre will be transformed into a steampunk world for ‘The Energy Show’. This theatre show for families explores the different forms of energy through some explosive experiments live on stage. It stars futuristic science students Annabella and Phil plus their lab assistant Bernard. These initial sketches from designer Janet Bird demonstrate the distinctly steampunk feel to The Energy Show. Science Museum Live presents ‘The Energy Show’ at the Science Museum from 22 July – 31 […]
Curator David Rooney is preparing to take our Twitter followers on a rather unique tour. Last June, we opened our Codebreaker exhibition, which reveals the life and legacy of a truly remarkable man, Alan Turing. The opening coincided with Turing’s 100th birthday, and over the last 12 months it has been a pleasure to read your comments and welcome so many of you to our exhibition. To anticipate Turing’s birthday this year, I’ll be giving a live tour of the […]
Jared Keller, a researcher and former Science Museum Explainer, discusses some of our hidden objects and the science behind them. Today we’re looking at the Sound Section of Launchpad and one of my favourite exhibits, “Sound Bite”. If you’re a bit rusty on your Sound Bite science, there is an old BBC refresher course on the principles of sound travelling through a medium/solid. The important thing to remember is that sound waves can travel through a solid material like a […]
This blog post is writted by Chloe Vince, volunteer for Information Age. Information Age is a brand new communications gallery opening in 2014. “Joel, I’m calling you from a ‘real’ cellular telephone. A portable handheld telephone.” These words, spoken by Martin Cooper – a senior engineer at Motorola, to Joel Engel – a competing developer at the company Bell Labs, began the first ever conversation to be had on a mobile telephone. It was 40 years ago that Martin Cooper, […]
A while ago the Science Museum took part in a project called First Time Out – where museums put on display a ‘treasure’ from their stored collections that had never before been seen in public. Well we’re giving it a go again – but this time the project is larger than ever. Ten museums, from all over England, have paired up to swap objects from their collections, with the Science Museum partnering with the Discovery Museum in Newcastle (a great […]
Micol Molinari writes about the launch of Enterprising Science, the largest science learning programme of its kind in the UK.
Dr. Harry Cliff, a Physicist working on the LHCb experiment and the first Science Museum Fellow of Modern Science, writes about his recent filming trip to CERN for Collider, a new Science Museum exhibition opening in November 2013. The first part can be read here. Day 2, Thursday On the first day of the Collider exhibition team’s visit to CERN we had explored the architecture and interiors of the town-sized laboratory. Now it was time to enter its beating heart: the gigantic experiments probing the fundamental laws […]
Dr Helen Peavitt explores the technology used to conquer Mount Everest.
Guest post by Apprentices Jorden, Vicki & Toni Hello everyone! We are the bubbly young apprentices who work in the Learning department (mainly with the Explainers) at the Science Museum. We are here to gain vocational skills and experience in a working environment. This will prepare us for work in the future and provides us with a Level 2 NVQ in Cultural Heritage and Venue Operations qualification, which is widely recognised by employers. Jorden, 17 “I chose to do an […]