Knowledge is GREAT - Part 2

This is the Science Museum in London. It has millions of visitors every year and that's because there are some pretty special things here. Let’s go and explore.

The Science Museum is home to over 230,000 objects, although only a fraction can be on display at any one time.

Now that’s what I call an engine.

The museum is dedicated to learning and knowledge. For over a hundred years, it's been engaging  people with science. The exhibitions here range from technology to space… The only issue is where to start; this place is huge…

Roger Highfield is a spokesperson for the Science Museum.

Richard: Roger, tell me about the Science Museum.

Roger: Well, this is the science museum. In fact, if you're going anywhere in the UK and you want to find out about science or technology, this is the place to come. Overall, we've got the biggest selection of iconic scientific and technological objects on the planet. We get something like 3 million visitors every year, just enjoying the kind of amazing insights we give them into, you know, the objects and the ideas that are still changing our world. 

Richard: And this exhibition is incredible. Tell me more.

Roger: This is Making the Modern World and, if you like, this is the greatest hits of science and technology. We've got a V2 rocket over there, we've got Watson and Crick's model of DNA, we've got the engine that powered the spitfire, Model T Fords, Stephenson's Rocket, you know these are – if you want to go to one place on the planet and figure out what made the modern world, this is where you've got to come.

Richard: What makes Britain so great in the search for knowledge?

Roger: Well, we've got some of the great scientific pioneers, an amazing history. Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Paul Dirac, who gave the world antimatter, and we've also got amazing scientists still at work today. We've got the world's best-known scientist, Stephen Hawking, and just a few hundred yards away from where we are, we've got Sir John Pendry, who gave the world invisibility cloaks. Now, how cool is that?

Richard: And he's stood here right now, listening to us. Shall we keep looking?

…..

Well, that was fun! What a great way to learn about science!

This is the Wellcome Collection in London. All the items here are to do with medicine, health and the search to discover more. It’s the place to go for those who are hungry for knowledge.

This is the medicine man gallery. Some of it is really horrible.

Many of these medical objects were collected by Sir Henry Wellcome, a Victorian collector and businessman.

That’s Napoleon’s toothbrush.

Sir Mark Walport is the chief executive of the Wellcome Trust.

Richard: Sir Mark… Tell us about the Collection.

Mark: Henry Wellcome was an avid collector of objects that linked together human health and well-being and history and then the Wellcome Trust brought his collection up to date in the Medicine Now gallery, which looks at medicine, art and science in a contemporary setting.

Richard: And there's plenty of art here as well.

Mark: Absolutely. Well, here's an example. This is quite an amusing piece of art. This is a take on a skeleton where the pelvis has been swapped with the skull, and it looks slightly like a character from Star Wars.

Richard: He wants to see a doctor about that, doesn't he?

Mark: Absolutely.

Richard: So why do you think the search for knowledge is so important in Great Britain?

Mark: Knowledge is the foundation for human development, for economic development. If you look around the world, if you look around, you see the impact of science everywhere you look and the Wellcome Trust is about funding medical research and of course that advances human health throughout the world, so there's nothing really more important than knowledge.