It's a privilege to be the custodian, to be responsible for this material, but the greatest pleasure for me is to see these old collections, these older parts of the collections still being used in a contemporary and relevant way. There's a whole raft of technology that's been developed which means that more and more genetic information can be extracted from older and older specimens, so there's sort of renaissance for collections like these now with the developments in new techniques and scientific analysis. While some items can spend years hidden away behind the scenes, there are others that are always in demand. A few however, are so famous and so globally important that having one just isn't enough. One item owned by the Natural History Museum is constantly sought-after, not just by scientists in the museum, but by scientists all over the world.


我很荣幸担任管理员，照看这些藏品。但更令我高兴的是，它们年代久远，保管经年，却余温尚在，永不过时。科学技术日新月异，远古生物标本上，可提取的遗传信息也越来越多，借着新科技和科学分析的东风。这些标本渐渐重焕光彩，有些藏品常年不见天日，有些却总是门庭若市。有些展品举世闻名。游客络绎不绝，让展品分身乏术，自然史博物馆就有这样一件展品。不但馆中专家时常研究，各地科学家也参与其中。 -挺重的 -没错，相当重