Exhibition A: scientist at work: Science museums are shifting their focus away from educating and elating their audiences to fostering dialogue with scientists.

Abstract

In the 19th century, exhibitions of manufactured products and industrial techno‐logy became popular throughout Europe and North America. The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London was the first of its kind, housed within a temporary “crystal palace” built for the occasion; the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris welcomed visitors to marvel at the newly erected Eiffel Tower; and the 1896 Berlin Industrial Exposition's greatest attraction was a large telescope, completed only a month before the exhibition opened, and which was later moved to its own building, now the Archenhold Observatory. Despite the temporary nature of the crystal palace itself, many objects from the London exhibition continued to attract interest from the public and were eventually contributed to the foundation of the London Science Museum in 1928. The museum and its companions in Paris, Munich, New York and elsewhere have since attracted visitors in their millions to see the wonders of modern technology. > After Sputnik's launch in 1957 and the space race it triggered, SCMs sought to engage and teach the public, especially children, about science and technology The 1960s saw a shift in focus of these exhibits when several science centres and museums (SCM) moved beyond merely presenting collections to providing visitors with first‐hand experience of scientific phenomena. After Sputnik's launch in 1957 and the space race it triggered, SCMs sought to engage and teach the public, especially children, about science and technology. Interactivity became the modus operandi : buttons could be pushed and cause and effect observed. This is still the approach taken in most SCMs today: “We put real objects in conversation with real phenomena”, explained Ignasi Lopez Verdeguer, Director of the Department of Science at the “la Caixa” Banking Foundation that owns and runs the CosmoCaixa science centre in Barcelona, Spain. He points to an exhibit …