This article is more than 1 year old

The Information Age: A day out for grown-up children?

Will the Science Museum's new gallery keep the kids quiet this Xmas?

Into the web

For many Reg readers, The Web is perhaps one of the most interesting bits of the exhibition, and it's a veritable treasure trove of things, including the original NeXT cube used by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, alongside relics like a copy of Apple's Hypercard, an Altair 8800 and a NorthStar Horizon. And, depending on your age, there may be some moments of nostalgia or shock when you realise that, in showing a selection of early home computers, the Science Museum has more or less put your teenage years in a display case.

Speaking peace unto the nation: this was 2LO

Speaking peace unto the nation: the 2LO the BBC's first radio transmitter
Image courtesy of the Science Museum

It's not all touchy-feely though – there is, for example, a section on Alan Turning, which talks about his paper "On Computable numbers", his work at Bletchley and the Pilot ACE; perhaps unusually for a modern exhibition, it makes no mention of his personal life.

There are plenty of join-the-dots moments, too, for example the information on the Pilot ACE explains how it was used to help discover the flaws of the De Havilland Comet. Much of this is presented on touchscreen displays, which are straightforward to use, and let you either get a simple overview, or dig a little deeper.

Social impacts

There is, as with many modern exhibitions, and especially one that aims to show how the world has been changed by technology, plenty of detail about how the different networks have impacted on society.

Social context: Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II: plenty of social and context, as well as technical info
Image courtesy of the Science Museum

Alongside the guts of the 2LO transmitter, you'll find plenty of information about crystal sets, recordings of old broadcasts - I'm still humming the Ovalteenies song - and nostalgia about things like the TV broadcast of the coronation. That's brought right up to date with information on the digital switchover, and even gadgets like the first Sky+ and the Nokia OnDigital box find their way into display cases.

In the case of The Exchange, there's also a section about Paul Robeson's famous transatlantic telephone performance, which explains the background to his passport removal at the behest of the HUAC (which to a degree makes the omission of Turing's problems a little peculiar). There's also a considerable space devoted to The Samaritans.

Over in The Constellation, there's a section dedicated to the BBC's 1967 Our World broadcast, as well as some clips from the first Telstar link up. Arthur C Clarke gets a mention for the idea of geo-stationary satellites, and there are even some pieces from spy sats on display. Perhaps more controversially, three soldiers relate some of their tales from Gulf War 1, which is when the exhibition considers that GPS really came of age.

A phone box from Cameroon

A phone box from Cameroon: The role of mobile phones in the developing world is part of the Information Age
Image courtesy of the Science Museum

In The Cell, besides a hymn to the joys of competition, there's also background on how Europe agreed to use GSM, information about how the first TACS networks were built in the UK, and a section on connecting Africa, which explores the impact of mobile telephony there.

Next page: Missing links

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like