An idea that no doubt contains fatal flaws but why isn’t there greater public engagement with the sciences? After all the tax payer funds our research so we should probably tell them what we get up to. I keep returning to the genuine surprise that I encountered at Bristol, to many the idea of meeting a scientist in a science museum seemed shocking almost absurd. It’s no wonder we’re often perceived as some sort of isolated elite emerging from our ivory towers to make arcane pronouncements from authority, like some sort of modern day priesthood. Surely the onus is on the universities to rectify this situation.

I think a university museum approach would also benefit the wider research community. I could imagine even a small ‘museum’ acting as a summary page of current research. Bringing together ideas from across the campus and allowing visiting or isolated academics to quickly identify potential interdisciplinary research opportunities. The preparation and presentation of various displays and exhibits can also sharpen research teams thinking on their subject and open them up to thousands of potentially useful, potentially critical, viewpoints. Ultimately, by providing a university ‘shop front’ we’re saying to the public “come in, this is what we do and it’s not as scary or as weird as you think.”