£78m Darwin 'cocoon' for nature's exhibits

THE Natural History Museum today began moving 20million of its best plant and animal samples into a new "concrete cocoon".

The £78million Darwin Centre will be one of the world's most important biological collections when it is completed in September. Experts describe it as the museum's most significant development since it moved to South Kensington in 1881.

The 65m long and 28m high glass-clad structure has taken 280 workers 25 months to build and, with temperature regulated at 17C, provides perfect conditions for hosting some of the planet's rarest life-forms.

Today curators begin moving more than 17million insects and three million plants on to 40,000 shelves. When viewing areas are open, visitors will be also able to watch 200 scientists at work.

Museum director Dr Michael Dixon said: "There is no other museum in the world that brings the public and scientists together in this way or on this scale."