NHM - Darwin Centre

8-Nov-2010 (Monday). Next stop, Darwin Centre! There are two cool exhibit to see here, the Cocoon, and the Spirit House. I don't really have any photographs of the Cocoon, but basically it's multi-storey exhibit shaped like a cocoon. Mostly it's about life cycle of insects and cocoons and such. But whats really cool about it is, when you enter, you can collect a NaturePlus card that has a barcode on it. And as you walk around and see something interesting, you can scan your barcode and the information of the exhibit you were interested in is automatically stored on your card. So in a way, you can bring the museum home with you. I really really like the idea of that. Sadly, the site is rather slow...

The other totally cool place is the Spirit House, where strange things are kept in bottles filled with spirits. Look at the photos below, isn't science beautiful? Isn't life beautiful?

And now, a special tip, if you are interested to see more then just what the Spirit House has to offer, look out for the Spirit Collection Tour event. The ticket to the tour is free, just register your interest at the information to get your ticket, and with that ticket, you can use the lockers and cloak room for free. I highly recommend this tour, cause you will get to visit all the bigger creatures stored in the spirit tank! I was actually surprise that not many people registered for it. Camera were not permitted in the tour, so I'm gonna share with you what you will get to see in the tour using other people's photography :P

This is what the tank room looks like. If you click on the photo you can view it in more detail. Check out the bottle glasses behind.

There is also a 8.2 meter long giant squid found in the tank room. This photo was taken from NHM's website

And the cool thing about this private tour? You get to see Sir Charles Darwin's very own collection, with his very own handwriting. Now isn't that awesome or isn't that awesome???Of cause the giant squid also played a part too. The Spirit Tour really made my day! 4 limbs up for the Darwin Centre!


Ref:
Darwin Centre
NaturePlus