Key Stage 4: How Science Works
Object-rich galleries
A continually updated exhibition on science and technology news.
Compare your home computer with Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 in this gallery on the history of the computer. Watch the video on Babbage's ingenious machine, or learn about the mathematical instruments used before the invention of computers.
The ingenious use of steam to generate power helped Britain become the world’s first industrial nation. The steam engines in this gallery range from the earliest type used to the turbines that still generate power today.
In this game, you can explore how science and technology might affect your life in the future. With other visitors, decide whether new technological developments - such as space tourism to male pregnancy - should or should not go ahead.
This unique, breathtaking gallery chronologically presents 150 of the most significant items from the Science Museum's collections from 1750 to 2000. Nowhere else in the world will you be able to see a display that shows so vividly the development of the modern industrial world.
This fascinating exhibition explores the science of you. See how new discoveries in genetics, brain science and psychology are helping us learn more about ourselves. How similar and different are you from other people and from other animals?
Special exhibitions
Our latest in-depth exhibition asks which technologies might be best at tackling climate change. Discover how to make sense of all the solutions being offered, cut through the debates and explore one controversial suggestion – biofuels – in more detail.
Explore how astronomy has changed the way we see our universe - and ourselves - through this object-rich exhibition.
Imagine, invent, adapt; use, reuse, recycle. An exhibition exploring the first century of plastics.