Museums Week: A magical mystery tour through the scientific psycheMuseums Week: A magical mystery tour through the scientific psyche
All In The Mind
A collection of butterfly genitalia gathered by novelist Nabokov; a precious sand dollar from Darwin's epic Beagle voyage; tapeworms from the stomachs of wealthy Bostonians - Harvard's acclaimed Natural History Museum is a vast treasure trove of biological objects and oddities. Reaching back to the 1700s, the collection represents a who's who of great minds of science. Join Natasha Mitchell for a magical mystery tour through the rarest of the rare - and a glimpse into the making of the modern scientific psyche. [Find out more about and contribute to Marvellous Museums week on ABC Radio National here].
30:14•24 May 2008
Rare Specimens, Wild Stories: Inside the Scientific Psyche at Harvard
Episode Overview
- Museum collections can preserve extinct species’ DNA, helping scientists understand environmental change and extinction.
- Nabokov’s detailed study of butterfly genitalia shows how intense focus on small differences can redefine species classification.
- Stories like the Harvard mastodon murder case highlight the human dramas and ethical questions woven through scientific history.
- Traditional specimen-based biology has regained importance alongside molecular biology for building the broader tree of life.
- Rare plants and strange creatures from remote habitats may hold unexpected medical potential, reinforcing arguments for conservation.
“Every scientific truth goes through three states. First, people say it conflicts with the bible. Next, they say it’s been discovered before. Lastly, they say they always believed it.”
What emotional and inspiring tales of recovery are out there? Here, the focus shifts from human crises to the curiosities that shaped how science thinks, offering a different kind of mental workout for anyone interested in minds and behaviour. Natasha Mitchell takes you on a quirky walk through Harvard’s Museum of Natural History with writer and journalist Nancy Pick as guide.
Together they wander past dodos, mastodons, tapeworms from wealthy Bostonians, and even an infamous ant scooped from Stalin’s table and dropped into vodka. The museum doesn’t just store 21 million specimens; it stores the stories behind the scientists, their obsessions and, sometimes, their darker sides.
You’ll hear how novelist Vladimir Nabokov spent years straining his eyes over butterfly genitalia and why “the highest enjoyment of timelessness is when I stand among rare butterflies and their food plants.” There’s the murder trial linked to the Harvard mastodon, the astonishing gastric brooding frog from Queensland preserved in alcohol for its DNA, and the giant tube worm that survives without a mouth or anus thanks to bacteria and chemosynthesis.
The episode also steps into the tension between belief and evidence through Louis Agassiz, a brilliant yet creationist and racist scientist who helped build the very institution that now underpins evolutionary research. Nancy explains how old-school specimen collecting went out of fashion with the rise of DNA, then returned as scientists realised you can’t protect what you don’t fully understand.
Glass flowers, ant pheromones, rainforest plants with potential HIV treatments, and dinosaur footprints mistaken for giant birds all feed into one theme: how collections shape the scientific psyche and our sense of what life is. If you’re curious about how curiosity itself can change history, could this be your next listen?
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