Children's Express journalists put the Darwin Centre under the microscope.
| We passed scientists working on their projects. They looked like specimens in a jar themselves. |
The Natural History Museum has for years displayed an expansive collection of exhibits, from deep-sea fish to extinct birds and reptiles. But most of the collection of 22 million specimens has, until now, been tucked away in storage for years on end, soaking in alcohol and hidden from the UV rays of the sun.
But now the massive collection has been moved next door into a very non-descript looking shiny, new building, the Darwin Centre, where the bizarre beauty treatment continues. The collection is now on public display, although, it's fair to say, not that many of the 450,000 glass jars are exhibited at any one time.
On entering the building you are almost immediately confronted by some of the displays, ranging from an African elephant foetus to the contents of a sperm whale's stomach. You also get a view through a glass wall into the huge specimen area. Touch screens are scattered throughout the foyer, where you get to read about the centre in more depth - in a choice of 12 languages.
You'd be mistaken to think that the Darwin Centre is a museum. It's more of a working laboratory, open to the public. Every visitor is invited to take part in a short tour of the building. We passed scientists working on their projects. They looked like specimens in a jar themselves.
The vast specimen halls contain row upon row of cabinets. Most were closed; some, though, had glass fronts so we could see the contents inside.
The tour was not very long, lasting only about twenty minutes. At the end we felt we'd only really scratched the surface, and never really got an impression of what the museum's archives were all about.
Adjoining the entrance hall is a presentation area where the Darwin Centre Live events take place twice a day. This is where the public get to meet and question scientists.
We were given a short presentation on the subject of fish. Adding to the experience was a live camera feed from the basement, where we got to see the first barracuda found in British waters. We found the style of the scientist doing the talking a bit dry. This may not have been to everyone's taste. Rather than watch events on camera though, wouldn't it have been better to see the exhibit in the flesh as part of the tour?
Overall the Darwin Centre was well planned, though pre-teens may not be that interested. The museum themselves acknowledge that it's not pitched at younger children.
To engage most young people you need more interaction, more things to touch and feel and more of a sense of being able to wander about freely.
We did feel that the Darwin Centre was strangely lacking in atmosphere. The building itself had all the atmosphere of a bank corporate headquarters. We were quite surprised at the lack of access behind the scenes. We enjoyed what we saw, but there could have been so much more to satisfy our enquiring minds.
About the team
This review was written by Sean Sabbage, 14, and Nuru Rimington-Mkali, 16. It was published in The Museums Journal.
