Natural History Museum

I am feeling quite proud and privileged to have been an advisor to the Natural History Museum Life in the Dark exhibition.

Sometimes being a diver and cave diver can lead to unusual events.  Late last year I was contacted by the Natural History Museum in London asking a few questions on an exhibition they were planning.

The initial contact they made turned in to my being asked to act as an advisor and contributor to the exhibition. 

Life in the Dark leaves daylight behind and allows visitors to put their senses to the test in a truly illuminating exhibition. You get to meet the creatures that thrive at night, in pitch black caves and deep in the sea.  Visitors can enter the worlds of nocturnal animals and discover how they find their way around in their environment, hunt, mate and evade predators. 

Part of the exhibition gives an insight in to how humans have discovered the creatures that live in the shadows, inhabit submerged cave passages or live in the cold, black deep oceans.

It was with the submerged cave passages that the museum wanted my help.  As well as contributing toward a film and sound track I was asked to help construct a ‘cave diver’, to show visitors how we go about exploring the water filled subterranean world.

The start point was getting equipment manufacturers involved and my thanks go to AP Diving, Otter Drysuits, Apeks, Suunto and Nautilus Diving for all their help in providing everything we needed to build our cave diver.

As well as giving advise on the construction and display of our cave diver, I also gave a few ‘cave diving lessons’ to engineers and designers in order they better understood what we do when we cave dive and so allow them to more accurately portray the cave diver.

Regular trips to the museum, along with online consultations over the months of the build and subsequent installation of the cave diver were part of a fascinating cooperation and it was a privilege and pleasure to work with so many dedicated and professional staff at the museum.

Finally all was ready and although I was out of the UK on opening day I have seen the exhibition a number of times and it does not loose it’s appeal.  It is truly an amazing and educational exhibition and well worth a visit.

My involvement with the Natural History Museum has not stopped and I have given a number of presentations to museum visitors as part of the Nature Live programme, with more lined up for November.

So if you have the time, do go and visit this wonderful exhibition and it the next Nature Live talks are planned for late November.  More information on the exhibition can be found on the Natural History Museum website here http://www.nhm.ac.uk Dates and times for the nature Live talks will be published as soon as they are confirmed.