National Museum of Scotland, Science & Technology Gallery

The museum’s building in central Edinburgh opened in 1866. It was built around a magnificent central hall of cast-iron columns and balconies. Six science and technology galleries opened in 2016 to explore the history of innovation. The displays cover engineering, medicine, transport, communication, physics and chemistry. The aim is to demonstrate how scientific and technological inventions have shaped people’s lives. Among the stories told are the development of communications technology from the semaphore to the smart phone, the evolution of the bicycle and the pioneering development of prosthetic limbs. Objects include a Boulton & Watt beam pumping-engine from 1786, one of the two oldest locomotives in the world (Wylam Dilly, built by William Hedley in 1813), a wooden bicycle designed by Karl Drais in 1817, three Formula-1 racing cars, an Apple-1 computer from 1976 and the cloned sheep ‘Dolly’. Visitors enjoy hands-on activities such as launching a hot-air balloon, designing their own bicycle and generating electricity by stepping into a human-sized hamster wheel.