Built in 1881, the Natural History Museum captured the spirit of an age that had just begun to awaken to the wonders of our planet. It was during the Victorian era that the old Biblical traditions that had dominated for centuries were swept aside by a new period of scientific discovery. Say what you like about the violence and evils of Victorian imperialism, the great leaps in geological and zoological knowledge were all made as an indirect result of this period of expansion. Thanks to the newly mechanised printing press, remarkable books such as Robert Chambers’ Vestiges Of The Natural History Of Creation and Charles Darwin’s On The Origin Of Species were disseminated to a hungry populace, despite the vehement protests of the Church. And thanks to the new network of railways which sprung up all over Britain, places like the Natural History Museum awoke a new thirst for knowledge to a class deprived of education for too long. Episode three of The Story Of Science relates this remarkable story with humour and style. Presenter Michael Mosley charts the remarkable sea change from ignorance to enlightenment, from an enduring belief that the Earth was a mere 6,000 years old, to the realisation that our verdant planet is, in fact, shockingly old, and its species, far from the perfect, ordered creation as taught by the Bible, are in a constant state of competition and flux. It’s all scintillating, inspiring stuff, and encapsulates the elusive spirit of the Natural History Museum, with its skeletal wonders and fossilised curiosities, in infectious, accessible style. Read our review of episode 2 here.
