What happens behind the scenes at the Museum? Why is it important to preserve the 70 million specimens in the collections? And how relevant is the research of Museum scientists to today's challenges, like biodiversity loss and the spread of tropical disease? The BBC documentary, Museum of Life, will answer these questions, and many more.
Museum of Life gives viewers an inside look at the Natural History Museum and some of the 300 or more scientists who work here. Cameras follow them on collecting expeditions around the world, as they hunt for dinosaur fossils and study the biodiversity of remote areas. But there are also plenty of discoveries to be made at the Museum itself, including hidden store rooms full of specimens, and high tech science facilities, such as the DNA labs. Find out about the huge variety of plants and animals that scientists study here, and why they are important for conservation efforts today.
Episode guide-
A Museum in a Modern World
1/6 Jimmy Doherty gets to grips with Darwin's finches and Dippy the Diplodocus.
Digging up the Past
2/6 Jimmy Doherty and the team find out about the discovery of a new dinosaur.
All Creatures Great and Small
3/6 A nine-foot sturgeon turns up with the strangest tale of any object in the museum.
Discovery
4/6 A pioneering project finds a new species at the bottom of the sea off the coast of Sweden.
The Power of Insects
5/6 The team discover how the museum is using insects to help at murder scenes.
A Collection for the Future
6/6 How the latest scanner allows scientists to take a trip inside a shark.
Duration -5:53:28