Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum in London is one of the world's foremost centres for taxonomic and evolutionary research, holding a collection of around 80 million specimens spanning botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology, and zoology. Its scientists—several hundred researchers and curators—use this vast archive to study biodiversity, trace the history of life on Earth, and monitor how species and ecosystems are changing today. The museum's Darwin Centre houses a significant portion of the collection in specially designed cocoon-shaped storage, and its Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity supports citizen science and public engagement with natural history research. Beyond its historic collections, the museum is heavily involved in cutting-edge scientific fields such as genomics, conservation biology, and astrobiology, with specimens and expertise contributing to global efforts like biodiversity assessments and the study of meteorites (its meteorite collection is among the largest in the world). Researchers there also work on identifying new species, tracking extinction risk, and using techniques like DNA barcoding and mass spectrometry to unlock information from centuries-old specimens. The museum's scientific work extends well beyond its public galleries, informing on climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss, and its research arm collaborates with universities and institutions worldwide, making it not just a museum but an active hub of ongoing scientific discovery.