Opening just a few days before The National Lottery’s 25th Birthday, support for Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries brings National Lottery investment at the London museum to nearly £34million.

"Telling those stories has opened up whole worlds of scientific heritage to be enjoyed and to inspire new generations to play their own part in shaping the world in which we live.”

 

Sir Peter Luff, Chair of The National Lottery Heritage Fund

The history and future of medicine

We all have our own history of medicine. From birth and broken bones in our adventurous youth to routine trips to the dentist, doctor and optician, visits to loved ones in hospital and experiences of loss.

The new Medicine galleries reflect this personal connection over centuries - and may inspire the practitioners, innovators and inventors of the future.

Here are some of the things you can do at the new galleries:

• explore 3,000 medical items, artworks and interactive games and experiences
• examine 200-year-old wax anatomical models of internal organs
• see the world’s first stethoscope, MRI scanner, protein model and paramedic bicycle
• step into a Victorian pharmacy through an immersive digital experience or discover what it takes to perform heart transplant surgery in an interactive game
• hear the personal stories, fears and hopes for the future of patients, practitioners and communities across the world

What has the National Lottery achieved for the Science Museum?

Here are some of the other galleries and objects that might not exist at the Science Museum without National Lottery funding:

• Information Age: charting the birth and development of communication from 19th-century telegraph network to today’s mobile phones. The Queen sent her first tweet from the gallery when it opened in 2014.
• The Wellcome Wing: home to exploration of molecular genetics and biotechnology, the brain and artificial intelligence, and information technology
• Helen Sharman’s spacesuit: the spacesuit worn by the first Briton in space was bought by the museum with National Lottery funding
• Past exhibitions also include: Robots, the story of 500 years of robotics and Wounded, which explored the huge medical and human impact of wounding during and beyond the First World War.

Sir Peter Luff, Chair of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: ”Over the 25 years of The National Lottery, we’ve been pleased to support the Science Museum Group as it shares the inspiring stories of science and engineering.

"Telling those stories has opened up whole worlds of scientific heritage to be enjoyed and to inspire new generations to play their own part in shaping the world in which we live.”