Fun at the Science Museum

Last week my husband and I took a day off work to go up to London with my brother and his girlfriend to one of our favourite places, the Science Museum. The day was perfect for a museum visit - torrential rain and gale force winds!

We had fun exploring our usual favourite parts of the museum, the Energy Hall, Health Matters, and Glimpses of Medical History, before we got too hungry. We went to eat our lunch in the picnic area, surrounded by several parties of schoolchildren and a few bemused tourists who had clearly hoped the museum would be a quiet, reverent place and were somewhat overwhelmed by the excited shouts of children bouncing off of the cavernous walls and ceilings.

After this we decided to investigate the new Wellcome Wing that opened in 2011, briefly visiting Mathematics en route. The wing is home to the iMax cinema (which we ignored but apparently it's very exciting) and some great new exhibitions such as Atmosphere: Exploring Climate Science, and Who Am I?, which focuses on brain science and genetics. It was fascinating stuff.

Much science was learnt and admired, and many a deep conversation was had. Here's a few things that I learnt from the day:

1) My battered, broken, wind-shapen umbrella is actually at the forefront of technological fashion, and it cost a fraction of the one for sale in the museum gift shop.

2) If I was employed as Energy Minister of a random small country I would be held in high esteem because of my environmentally friendly decisions, but I would fail to keep the country's lights powered some of the time. A career that I shall not bother to pursue then...

3) I would be quite ugly if I was male.

4) I have a 'mostly female' brain, but apparently so do my husband and brother, who'd've thought it? I also have 'female' hands, and so do they... Maybe that bit wasn't working so well...

5) When the opportunity to behave like a freak presents itself, I do not hesitate (actually, I did already knew that).

My brother and I 'dancing' at the entrance to the Who Am I? exhibition

I'm sure there's plenty more we could have learnt, but when the four of us hang out together we usually spend a lot of time messing around (see the above photo as a case in point). Still, a jolly good time was had by all, huzzah!

Quote of the day from my husband came after we were reviewing various opinions on dealing with climate change. One of the comments said that we shouldn't meddle in it. To which he said,

"Science is all about meddling." 

He's got a point...