Considering the big stuff at the National Museum of Scotland

Curiosities at the museum

 Our other half term outing had me thinking about the big stuff. No, not that big stuff. The other kind.


The “what’s out there?”, and “why us?” kind of stuff.


Boys One, Two and I took the train to Edinburgh to visit the newly refurbished National Museum of Scotland. I’ve always enjoyed trips there, right back to when it was the Chambers Street Museum and still had a stuffed dodo in a glass case. Well, the goldfish in the ornamental ponds are gone, but there are some splendid new exhibitions.


Earth in Space – past the dinosaur and suspended sealife – particularly grabbed us, not least because one of us is named after a star. 


There’s a short film that includes this quote from Dr Carl Sagan. 


“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made from the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.”


Well of course that made our day. “I’m star stuff.” “No, I’m star stuff,” from the brothers. I wonder if sibling aliens on other planets bicker quite so much. 


Still, we’ve got our quarrel proof system for visiting museums off pat. The Boys take turns pick a thing to see and toss a coin to see who’s first. 


We didn’t get anywhere near enough of the museum explored on one visit, so family star stuff will be back. 

From the roof

Looking down on cloning

Star stuff

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