2017 is undoubtedly the year of the feud. As celebrities and corporations alike take to Twitter to hash things out, two of the UK’s most respected scientific institutions, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum, have got in on the action.
It all started with this rather innocuous tweet, during the Natural History Museum’s Ask a Curator event on Twitter, where users could post questions. The resulting back and forth is both amusing and educational…
Who would win in a staff battle between @sciencemuseum and @NHM_London, what exhibits/items would help you be victorious? #askacurator
Subscribe to the New Statesman this summer - 2 months for only £2— Bednarz (@bednarz) September 13, 2017
We have dinosaurs. No contest.
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 13, 2017
@NHM_London is full of old fossils, but we have robots, a Spitfire and ancient poisons. Boom! #AskACurator https://t.co/lsdOS3HqyO
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 13, 2017
We have robot dinosaurs, Pterodactyls and the most venomous creatures on Earth. Plus volcanoes and earthquakes … And vampire fish. pic.twitter.com/H2dNv0wgQr
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 13, 2017
What about this merman & we do have a Polaris nuclear missile as Khalil says! pic.twitter.com/uczMFrvKIw
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 13, 2017
Jenny Haniver sees your merman, never bring a nuke to an earth-shattering meteorite fight, and our cockroach specimens w/ survive us all ;) pic.twitter.com/mbEgDseZ7G
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 13, 2017
We see your cockroach and… whack it with a welly pic.twitter.com/ITEPuplGHK
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 13, 2017
There is never just one cockroach. And we quietly melt your plastics with our lava. pic.twitter.com/DaaJc5V5lJ
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 13, 2017
We’ll (hopefully) fight your lava with all our fire engines https://t.co/gRECpigRYt pic.twitter.com/n57QKfDcag
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 13, 2017
*Game of Thrones theme music* Send in the (sea)-dragons… (from The Book of the Great Sea-Dragons by Thomas Hawkins, 1840). pic.twitter.com/K4Duh3w7Vk
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 13, 2017
We see your dragons and have escaped in this bathyscaphe https://t.co/m4gMCpGNxq pic.twitter.com/zqs0YwiQRO
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 13, 2017
It may be a good idea to avoid our Fossil Marine Reptiles gallery in that. Chomp, chomp: https://t.co/bxYONpujYn pic.twitter.com/BaqHF80tjl
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 13, 2017
Shall we call #museumwars a draw then? Shake hands, go home and have a nice cuppa tea.
— Bednarz (@bednarz) September 13, 2017
Erm… oh, okay then. pic.twitter.com/xQwtLHjt7N
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 13, 2017
We were all set to call it a draw, but then we saw this. Turns out, we have a dinosaur AND it’s 3D printed! pic.twitter.com/vLRK0PI5JE
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 14, 2017
OK, we weren’t going to do this, but here come the locusts… Phymateus viridipes, Phymateus karschi, and Ornithacris pictula magnifica… pic.twitter.com/LWq6WfCCB9
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 14, 2017
And this locust is one you can see on the balconies of the new #HintzeHall. pic.twitter.com/Gpbtivr28T
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 14, 2017
Obviously we won’t use this DDT Insect Spray (on display in our new Mathematics Gallery) https://t.co/vQzoHMaSD5 so instead…. pic.twitter.com/t3imuW1WqP
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 14, 2017
… we’ll fight them off with this Giant Killer, a British-made insect swatter from 1900-1930 https://t.co/gmSJeBurDA pic.twitter.com/jfG0SR54aU
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 14, 2017
You’re going to need a bigger swatter. Victorians had to shoot some insects like the Goliath beetle out of the sky https://t.co/K8fRIpiyoL pic.twitter.com/dH1CmSzFNl
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 14, 2017
Ah, you mean something like this 1860s London-made Enfield carbine rifle? pic.twitter.com/r2sHbF41MN
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 14, 2017
Ah, you mean something like this 1860s London-made Enfield carbine rifle? pic.twitter.com/r2sHbF41MN
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 14, 2017
We’d see that coming from a mile off (Bold eagle by Klaus Nigge; one of the 100 photos in our upcoming #WPY53 exhib https://t.co/GyamMcKgPp) pic.twitter.com/KLa4vwaBjc
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 14, 2017
Time for us to try something stealthy, like this puma-leopard hybrid from our sister Museum in Hertfordshire, @NHM_Tring pic.twitter.com/UgVNAzgtOj
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 14, 2017
Ah, but we spotted your leopard from our balloon (Lunardi’s second balloon ascending from St. George’s Fields, 1785) https://t.co/NctLaxzqB0 pic.twitter.com/gUQiaVPNJL
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 14, 2017
In 1785 you’d be too distracted by our fleas… they are legion (and even have there own twitter feed @NHM_Fleas) https://t.co/TvgIg9EoTf pic.twitter.com/ckOSo5ks8m
— NaturalHistoryMuseum (@NHM_London) September 14, 2017
We would have caught the fleas in this Chinese bamboo flea trap (on show in our Making the Modern World gallery) https://t.co/4LI5va8ECv pic.twitter.com/7zWk3gzEgS
— Science Museum (@sciencemuseum) September 14, 2017
We have MILLIONS OF FLEAS – that would have to be a massive trap. Drop
— NHM_Fleas (@NHM_Fleas) September 14, 2017
These two look like the know how to get away from your trap pic.twitter.com/WTpHsocHsf
— NHM at Tring (@NHM_Tring) September 14, 2017
We’ve got your back as well – we will take ’em down! pic.twitter.com/dvPT9qdv6B
— NHM_Fleas (@NHM_Fleas) September 14, 2017
The spat seems to be ongoing; the last Natural History Museum reply was just minutes before this article was published.
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