NMNS "Fascinating Nature" (奇幻自然) Permanent Exhibition

The National Museum of Natural Science (NMNS) welcomes the magnificent transformation of the Life Science Hall. The new permanent exhibition "Fascinating Nature" (奇幻自然) is now open. The exhibition area is planned with 5 major themes, co-curated by nearly 20 researchers within the museum, presenting the rules and mysteries of the natural world in a simple and easy-to-understand way. Stepping into the exhibition hall, the first thing that catches the eye is a huge specimen of Taiwan Spruce (臺灣雲杉) over 400 years old. Visitors can use their sense of smell and touch to feel its scent and texture in the experience area. There is also a manually operated mechanical squid nearly 4 meters long, which is eye-catching and cool.

The "Fascinating Nature" permanent exhibition area is located on the B1 floor of the Life Science Hall, with an area of 253 ping. It gathered the efforts of 20 co-curators, the well-known Yu-Jiang Design Company, and its partner team from planning assessment to design proposal. After more than 3 years of communication and refinement, its predecessor "Numbers and Shapes" (數與形) was given a new look.

"Fascinating Nature" includes 5 units: "Wow Nature! Hi Science," "Round or Not: Egg Science," "Move it: Biomechanics," "Chasing: Computation and Behavior," and "Storytelling: Exploring Nature, Discovering Science." It introduces the diversity, morphology, functions, behaviors, and scientific inquiries of the natural world in detail. Visitors can enjoy exploring a wide variety of scientific stories.

Museum permanent exhibitions generally last for 10 to 20 years. Thanks to technology, the academic community may "discover new species" or "establish new theories" every few years. Therefore, the display cabinets are specially designed to be "front-opening" for easy updates of exhibits or specimens based on academic discoveries in the future. They can also interact with the audience according to the needs of lectures or guided tours.

The Life Science Hall of the National Museum of Natural Science was completed in 1988. It was designed by British designer James Gardner at the invitation of the first director Han Pao-teh and produced by the British company Beck & Politzer. With the theme of the mysteries of nature, it displays the wonderful evolution from ancient organisms to modern humans and is very popular with the public. At that time, "Numbers and Shapes" (數與形) had various interesting interactive devices, combined with simple and easy-to-understand, extensible mathematical and scientific concepts, opening up natural science horizons for countless people.