The science of collecting
Pete Wilton | 08 Jun 10
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If you haven't explored Oxford University's museums then you're missing a scientific (and artistic) treat.
Regular OxSciBlog readers will be aware of the incredible fool’s gold fossils currently on display at Oxford University's Museum of Natural History (OUMNH) as well as its historic collections, including Darwin's crabs.
In a new video [see above] OUMNH's George McGavin, an entomologist who has scoured Papua New Guinea and Guyana for new specimens, pays tribute to the collections of four University museums here in Oxford.
OUMNH itself has over 6m specimens, including dinosaurs and the best preserved remains of the Dodo. The collections continue to be used by scientists from around the world as part of their work, as well as helping to explain the wonders of the natural world to visitors.
George also takes in the Pitt Rivers Museum, with its artefacts charting human ingenuity from prehistory to the present, before examining the The Museum of the History of Science, which has the biggest astrolabe collection in the world as well as an array of famous scientific instruments, each one with a story to tell.
Of course he couldn't miss out The Ashmolean, Britain's oldest museum, that first opened its doors in 1683 and ever since has been introducing visitors to art exhibits spanning four millennia.
The video is a great introduction to these collections but nothing beats seeing them for yourself, so why not become one of the 2m people who explore them every year?
