With 68 million plant and animal specimens, London's Natural History Museum boasts one of the greatest zoological collections in the world. The public now gets to see only the most glamorous 1%. Soon, however, most of the other 99% will be brought out of the closet and put in a new Darwin Center now under construction. The aim, says museum director Neil Chalmers, is to "turn the museum inside out."
Specimens collected over the past 300 years will be exhibited for the first time--including millions of jars containing the remains of animals from parasitic worms to alligators, some collected by Pacific explorer James Cook, others by Darwin himself. As part of the $160 million project, the museum's 300-plus scientists will also go on display--through lab tours, talks, and demonstrations. The undertaking also includes $32 million to make databases and other research tools available to anyone over the Internet. The zoology collection will be ready for viewing by summer 2002, with plants and insects to follow later.
