Last year I took part in a talk about biology, terrorism, and art during the World Science Festival. One of the best things about the experience was getting to talk with people before and after the actual event. The crowd was loaded with artists (for example, the wonderful photographer Justine Cooper) giving serious, interesting thought to how we think about science, and how science changes how we think about the natural world.

I also met Richard Pell, who is trying to reinvent the natural history museum. It’s high time someone did. Natural history museums were originally developed to house a representative sample of the diversity of life. Yet for at least the past 10,000 years, people