The second phase of the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum (NHM) inLondonhas opened for business.  The £78 million project includes a stunning new `Cocoon' – a 65 metre long, eight storey concrete building, housing millions of insect and plant specimens, alongside 200 of the museum's scientists.

Intertwining functions

Professor Richard Lane, Director of Science at the NHM told People and Science, `The centre has three functions.  One is to house the national research collections in the best possible conditions.  The second is to give a really good research environment for doing the kind of science that we need in the 21st century, and the third thing is to enhance the public engagement activities of the museum.  Those three are intertwined.'

Engaging directly

He continued: `What's really exciting is the way in which the public get engaged with the actual process of how science is done. As the public journey through the Cocoon they pass through a number of display areas with interactives about this.  They can also look from these spaces into the collection and all the research labs and talk to some of our scientists as they prepare specimens for the collection.'

When People and Science visited, the centre was very effectively engaging the visiting public with how science is done.  Interactive displays featuring four `scientist guides' who work at the museum explained how research papers are considered by journals for publication, how scientists plan field trips to collect specimens and how they identify species of mosquito and work to eradicate malaria, for example.  It was also possible to see from the public spaces into the museum's collection and to talk to scientists preparing specimens for storage and research. 

Scientist guides

One of these scientists is Max Barclay, beetle curator and a scientist guide at the museum. `[When working in the preparation area] a lot of people ask you what you're doing and why you're doing it,’ he said. ‘That's the bread and butter of it.  But occasionally you get some kid who's really, really keen and wants to know how to become an entomologist.  You can see yourself twenty or thirty years ago and that's exciting because we need to think about where the next generation of scientists is going to come from.'

Feedback

Lane isn't fazed by one grown-up visitor's online comments that the centre was hard to engage with and not a great exhibit for children.  He responded:  `There are other parts of the museum for very young children. In the Darwin Centre we're particularly interested in connecting with children who are beginning to ask lots more questions, maybe about to go to secondary school, because that's the time they tend to lose interest in science.'  Max Barclay confirmed this:  `For me the most important things are creating scientifically literate citizens and inspiring the next generation of scientists.  I hope we're doing a good job of that.'