Many creatures across the animal kingdom prefer to use one side of the body over another, just as humans do: 90 per cent of people using their right hands as their ‘write hands.’  Every person should have a 50-50 chance of being left or right biased so why do we prefer to be lopsided in the way that we behave, and our brains work?  Today, a study based on experiments carried out in the Science Museum provides insights into why we tend to be right-pawed, so to speak, providing new insights into evolution and brain development.  The handedness of people extends beyond writing and ..read more

I’m going to speculate about the far future of spaceflight. But let’s start with the near term. The Apollo programme – humans’ first footprints on another world – was an epochal event.  The Apollo astronauts were heroes – they accepted high risks and pushed technology to the limit. The primary objective of Apollo 11 was to complete a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961: perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth. Apollo 11 launched July 16, 1969 and landed back on Earth on July 24, 1969. In this photograph, astronaut Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin takes his first s ..read more

National museums such as the five that make up the Science Museum Group, which I’m privileged to Chair, are in the fortunate position of receiving some Government funding. It is critical to our responsibilities in caring for the national collections we hold on behalf of the nation. In our case, this funding accounts for nearly half of the cost of running five museums that inspire more than five million visitors in a typical year.   Ensuring our museums prosper demands innovation from our teams in finding novel ways to generate revenue, while respecting the principle of free access to the ..read more

Left: Prof. Dr Larissa ‘Lara’ Suzuki; Right: Dame Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley CH. Engineers and good friends Dame Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley CH and Prof. Dr Larissa ‘Lara’ Suzuki have grown up generations apart, but both work in one of the newest areas of engineering:  software engineering. Working in this field has opened up a wonderful, creative, and richly rewarding career for both women. Dame Steve and Professor Lara come together to discuss their own experiences and what can be done to encourage more young women and girls to take up successful engineering careers. Tell us a bit about yo ..read more

It all began when groups of parents of children with CF came together with researchers, clinicians and experts to find out more about a condition that once had a very short life-expectancy.  Cystic Fibrosis or CF is a genetic condition that affects a person’s lungs and digestive system, by producing additional mucus. This makes it difficult to breathe, causes chronic inflammations of the lungs and difficulty digesting food. While there is currently no cure for the condition, treatments for symptoms including physiotherapy, exercise, medication and mental health support are available. Gene ..read more

Dr Shannon Lucid’s extraordinary life , which fellow astronaut John Fabian described as a ‘triumph of the human spirit,’ are an inspiration to many who followed in her footsteps to work in spaceflight and space science. Although she went on to achieve remarkable milestones during her time at NASA, Lucid had to overcome many obstacles to become one of the first American women astronauts in 1978.   Shannon Lucid astronaut candidate portrait. Credit: NASA Image Library Born in Shanghai, China during World War II  to Baptist missionary parents in 1943, Lucid (nee Wells) had dreamt of adv ..read more

While the Nobel Prizes are awarded annually, and the prestigious Fields Medals for mathematics every four years, it’s been centuries since John Harrison won the first Longitude award for revolutionising navigation with his extraordinary maritime clocks.   Longitude Prizes are the nec plus ultra of so called ‘challenge prizes’, which do the opposite to traditional prizes, such as the Nobel and the Fields. While the latter celebrate past achievements, challenge prizes incentivise future efforts to crack a key problem, from tinned food to transatlantic flight.   Today in the S ..read more

Scientists have talked for decades about how, in theory at least, quantum computers could revolutionise science: they offer a way to crack ‘unbreakable codes’, model the way that drugs work in the body, and answer many questions that lie beyond the capability of current ‘classical’ computers in our smartphones and desktops.  The reality has lagged the hype but in recent years major manufacturers of traditional ‘classical’ computing have entered the race to make commercial quantum machines, from IBM, Google, Microsoft and now Intel, which thinks the answer might lie in extending the tradit ..read more

Cue the encore! Turn It Up: The Power of Music has been extended due to popular demand until 1 September 2024, giving you and your group more time to visit this interactive musical exhibition.  Audience research reveals that most people, unless highly skilled in playing an instrument or reading music, consider themselves ‘unmusical’. However, much like science, music is all around us and is something that everyone can access and enjoy. Turn It Up: The Power of Music explores the impact music has on humans; how it affects the way we feel and how it shows up in our everyday lives.  Wit ..read more

Every time I visit the exhibition Zimingzhong 凝时聚珍: Clockwork Treasures from China’s Forbidden City I notice or learn something new. Often these changes in my perspective come about through conversation with others. Take the first of the clockwork automata, also known as zimingzhong, in the exhibition – the Moving Pagoda Zimingzhong whose tiers elevate while the clock plays the Chinese song The Molihua (translated as The Jasmine Flower) in a nearby video. The clock was made in Britain to appeal to the Chinese market and would have been shipped to Guangzhou (then Canton) with a shape and sound ..read more