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The sprawling, stinking marvels of a natural history museum’s specimens
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s so-called ‘whale warehouse’ is easy to miss: from the outside, it’s a nondescript industrial building down the street from a meatpacking plant. But the collection of large mammal bones within – including enormous whale skulls and skeletons too massive to fit on shelves – is one of the biggest of its kind in the world. Exploring the reasons we hoard things, the specifics of the museum’s collection, and the ways in which the collection is used for research, The Whale Warehouse draws fascinating links between the psychology of collecting and the pursuit of knowledge.
Producers: Mae Ryan, Grant Slater
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Physics
Groundbreaking visualisations show how the world of the nucleus gives rise to our own
10 minutes
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Earth science and climate
There’s a ‘climate bomb’ ticking beneath the Arctic ice. How can we prepare?
8 minutes
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Physics
To change the way you see the Moon, view it from the Sun’s perspective
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Ecology and environmental sciences
GPS tracking reveals stunning insights into the patterns of migratory birds
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Space exploration
The rarely told story of the fruit flies, primates and canines that preceded us in space
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Neuroscience
This intricate map of a fruit fly brain could signal a revolution in neuroscience
2 minutes
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Computing and artificial intelligence
The ‘cloud’ requires heaps of energy to stay aloft. Could synthetic DNA be the answer?
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Biology
Brilliant dots of colour form exquisite patterns in this close-up of butterfly wings
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Genetics
Why it took a century to work out that humans interbred with Neanderthals
22 minutes