Atmospherics!

This is the Museum of the History of Science (MHS) in central Oxford. You can just see the edge of the Sheldonian Theatre on the left.

I took this photograph as I was passing by today because I saw the blue notice fixed to the railings. It announces a special exhibition devoted to Atmospheres. Atmospheric Chemistry is my main professional (and professorial) interest, so I was stopped in my tracks. I hope you like the wise stone men guarding the notice.

The exhibition is described as Investigating the Weather from Aristotle to Ozone. It was opened only last week by an old friend and colleague, and I had not yet had a chance to see what's on display (and this morning the Museum was not yet open). I must go soon...

The MHS is itself a most interesting place, and the building in which it lives was completed in 1683. According to the MHS website

The Museum of the History of Science houses an unrivalled collection of historic scientific instruments in the world's oldest surviving purpose-built museum building, the Old Ashmolean on Broad Street, Oxford. By virtue of the collection and the building, the Museum occupies a special position, both in the study of the history of science and in the development of western culture and collecting.

There's a Virtual Tour of the MHS here, for those who cannot easily visit the museum itself. This is again part of the Virtual Tour of Oxford created by colleagues from my Department, and that I described on Sunday.