The Museum Where Research Itself Is On Display

The new Darwin Center (“the Cocoon”) at London’s Natural History Museum includes the offices and labs for more than 200 researchers along with plenty of exhibition space. Indeed, the “research facilities and scientists are part of the exhibition; they are glimpsed through windows, framed by explanations. They even become the subject of the show. The Cocoon’s displays are not really about botany and bugs; they are about the collection and study of botany and bugs.”