Natural Sciences
Welcome to the Natural Sciences department. We research, maintain and monitor National Museums Scotland's Natural Sciences collections.
Where possible we would be happy to answer your queries about natural history specimens. Please contact natsci.enquiries@nms.ac.uk.
Please include as much detail as possible, including:
- A thorough description
- Clear images
- Where and when it was found
- Its approximate size
Our collections and specimens are open to researchers for examination where possible. Please contact our staff to enquire.
Contact list of staff members
Natural Sciences department
Our collections
Our collections are global in terms of their content and most of the several million specimens held originate from efforts to better understand the natural world.
What we do
Our scientists undertake research in a number of areas ranging from phylogenetics, biometrics, biodiversity informatics, biodiversity monitoring, biogeography and taxonomy, to tectonic geomorpology, gemmology, topographical mineralogy, volcanology, palaeoecology, palaeoentomology and palaeoneurology.
Digitising natural science collections
National Museums Scotland is excited to be contributing to the development of the DiSSCo project. This is a major initiative spearheaded by the Natural History Museum to digitise and aggregate the natural sciences collections across the UK. Read more about the project.
Natural Sciences stories
The Roaring Game: Scotland's curling stone island
Natural world
Written by Dr Bob GoodayDid you know that all curling stones are quarried on a small, uninhabited island in the Firth of Clyde called Ailsa Craig?
6 world-class type specimens in our stores
Natural world
Written by Dr Andrew Kitchener, Dr Rachel Walcott & Dr Andrew RossType specimens are among the most important objects in natural science collections. They are the specimens on which the scientific names of species of animals, plants or minerals are based. Animals and plants are named using the Linnaean…
What's in a firework? Minerals that bang
Natural world
Written by Emily BrownSo, you light a firework, you stand back and WHOOSH, off it shoots into the air. A few seconds wait and then BOOM, the firework explodes in a shower of coloured sparkles raining down from the sky. To get this sequence of events, you need…
