Editorial

Issue 02

https://dx.doi.org/10.15180/140201/001

When we launched the SMG Journal last March it was in the firm belief that there are fertile interstices between different academic disciplines and the work of museums, and that the extraordinary results should be shared.

Issue 02 has strengthened this belief. Take, for example the range of articles: from an analysis of a disregarded scrapbook, to a discussion of a five-year academic study re-evaluating the quest for longitude; from a survey of the state of science communication in Latin America to a discussion of the challenge of displaying particle physics: research takes us both deeply into the detail and widely across big ideas.

To my delight, three articles in this issue tackle the research behind exhibitions. This is something of a coup as exhibition-making often eludes academic comment and is more usually associated with the practical skills of museum professionals. The issue also provides a glimpse of two extraordinary women, Daphne Oram and Winifred Penn-Gaskell, who doggedly pursued their interests in the male-dominated worlds of sound engineering and aeronautical collecting. Finally, the Journal highlights the importance of the image in science. Two articles explore drawings or photographs specifically – of clouds, moons and nebulae – but throughout the authors provide a visual treat, reminding us how much images add to our understanding of science, and how central science is to our visual heritage.