London's Science Museum

I love the Science Museum in London; it's a curious and eclectic mix of old and new all overlaid with a wonderful geeky vibe. Since our meetings finished early on Friday and I had a few hours to kill, the prospect of spending some at the Science Museum and then walking across Hyde Park to Paddington station to catch the Heathrow Express was just too good to pass up. As luck would have it, I have been re-reading John Gribbin's 'Science - A History'. This is a great read for those who enjoy science as Gribbin brings the scientists to life, painting little vignettes on their lives as he walks us through science from the Renaissance into the 21st Century. How timely then, to have been reading of Newcomen and Watt when to be confronted with their actual machinery sitting in the first hall of the museum. They have even re-created Watt's workshop, right down to the trunk where he kept his son's effects after the little boy died of TB. One thing that really stood out was how long these machines remained in operation. Some of these machines were still running in the 1920's, eighty and hundred years after they were originally manufactured. It's only when you get up close that you realize why this is possible; the strength of construction and the size of the components really defy believe in this modern age of planned obsolescence. They built them to last back in the 1800's, that's for sure! As well, Watt's machines were all low pressure steam as well, so I guess there may well have been less potential for damage. He was quite dismissive of the high pressure boilers as well; I'm sure Watt would have understood the thermodynamics behind the night pressure boilers but he saw them as dangerous and life threatening. Indeed, the museum reports that he felt so strongly that he is quoted as saying Mr. Trevithick 'should be hung' for his designs! Moving into hall two, we makes it space travel. I remember being at school in Melbourne watching the first moon landing. The school was small and had only one television but, since I was one of the prep kids, we were the shortest so we had front row seats. Most of my primary school was spent wishing to be an astronaut and reading everything I could get my hands on about space flight. So this hall is like heaven! Amazing footage of Robert Goddard's early flights with full scale models of his earliest rockets. There is a full scale V2 standing here; Hitler's vengeance weapon would never win him the war but did go on to be the model for the US space program. The exhibit includes actual rockets suspended from the ceiling, satellites (models and real ones), a full scale replica of the lunar module and even a piece of moon rock. Given that there were only 400kg of rock brought back to earth, how neat that the museum has this 51g sample sitting in its glass case. But the piece de resistance has to be the Apollo 10 Command Module sitting slightly on its side with a glass window where the hatch would be. There is something wonderful and terrifying about this machine. How did 3 men live in the cramped spaces for the six days of the journey? The burnt and corroded base and edges of the vehicle remind us how intense the heat of re-entry really is. Does that piece of wiring look a little frayed? Is that because this is now more than40 years old or were they closer to disaster than anyone imagined? With the passing of Neil Armstrong only a week earlier, there is a whole poignancy that I wasn't expecting. I'm standing a metre from a craft that circled the moon in 1969 and it brings a shiver to the spine. Sensational! There was also an Alan Turing exhibition happening at the same time. Google him if you have to, because here is an interesting man and story. A mathematical genius, he came to the fore as a code breaker at Bletchley Park during WW2. He and his team were able to develop the means of breaking the German ENIGMA codes but also developing machines (called 'bombes') that could replicate this process in short order. So you can begin to understand Turing's amazing skills in artificial intelligence and computer design. His life was tragically cut short by his suicide at the age of 41. There are those who believe this was driven by his homosexuality but his mother never believed he was responsible for his own death. The tragedy is that he lived 50 years too soon; his work was years ahead of its time. Almost unbelievably, there are still papers written by Turing that are classified by the British Government. Imagine the progress that has been made in pure mathematics and computer science in the last fifty years and then imagine how far ahead Turing's work must be to have some of his work still classified. Imagine what he could have achieved today with the technology at his disposal and an environment where being gay is no longer illegal. Timing is everything and, in site of his wonderful work in code breaking during the war and the first computers that he built, it feels like we only got a hint of Turing's genius.