The Power of Poison
Yesterday, Breda and I ventured away from our usual museum haunts to see The Power of Poison at the Old Truman Brewery. As you might suspect from its name, the Old Truman Brewery was once a brewery, but isn't any more. It now describes itself as "East London's revolutionary arts and media quarter." We didn't realise there was anything besides the exhibition there, and so scooted off to take in the sun by the river, without seeing the rest of the site. Maybe we'll spend a bit longer if we go back.
As the name suggests, the exhibition is all about poison. It divides into two halves, the first about poisonous plants and animals, the second about the use of poisons by people. It presents a lot of information within those subjects, and does so in a way that's easily understandable by a wide range of visitors.
Plants and animals that use poison have to make a trade-off between it and whatever else they might use that energy and matter for. For example, spiders that hunt their prey tend to have much more toxic venom than spiders that spin webs. The web does some of the work of subduing the prey, making it less likely to fight back and injure the spider. Some scorpions have two types of venom - a mild one that causes pain, and a stronger one that kills. Such a scorpion, when cornered by a predator, will first try stinging with the mild venom. If that doesn't persuade the predator to leave it alone, it will use the more extreme option.
Often when one (prey) species in an ecosystem uses poison, you'll find another (predator) species nearby that's partly or wholly immune to that poison. The immunity allows it to eat something that no other species can, meaning it has no competition for food. Of course, this comes at the cost of having to manufacture whatever chemicals make it immune, and carries the risk that if the prey species goes extinct, the predator probably will too.
The human side of the exhibition uses a historical approach, taking in myths, legends and modern fiction, though it generally takes the angle of asking, "Could this really have happened?" The highlight here is a live presentation about the origins of forensic toxicology, specifically the Marsh test, which detects arsenic. Before this test was developed, arsenic, in the form of arsenic trioxide, was a very popular poison, to the point that the French nicknamed it poudre de succession, or "inheritance powder."
The large amount of content and the relatively low ticket price make the exhibition good value for money. The space is much larger than most of the exhibitions I've been to lately - there's plenty of room to stand and read the labels or study the exhibits without feeling that you're blocking people who want to pass you.
My only quibble really was that the standard of presentation left something to be desired. The cloakroom was closed, there's a sign warning of uneven floors, and the lighting levels are sometimes low, even though most of the artefacts aren't rare or valuable. Perhaps most annoying, the sound from various looping videos isn't properly confined to the places where you have a good view of the screen. By the time I got to watch each of them, I'd already heard the soundtracks four or five times.
Overall, I found The Power of Poison enjoyable and informative, and I'll be interested to see what The Old Truman Brewery has to offer next. The exhibition runs until 4th September 2015, and tickets are £9 for adults.
As the name suggests, the exhibition is all about poison. It divides into two halves, the first about poisonous plants and animals, the second about the use of poisons by people. It presents a lot of information within those subjects, and does so in a way that's easily understandable by a wide range of visitors.
Plants and animals that use poison have to make a trade-off between it and whatever else they might use that energy and matter for. For example, spiders that hunt their prey tend to have much more toxic venom than spiders that spin webs. The web does some of the work of subduing the prey, making it less likely to fight back and injure the spider. Some scorpions have two types of venom - a mild one that causes pain, and a stronger one that kills. Such a scorpion, when cornered by a predator, will first try stinging with the mild venom. If that doesn't persuade the predator to leave it alone, it will use the more extreme option.
Often when one (prey) species in an ecosystem uses poison, you'll find another (predator) species nearby that's partly or wholly immune to that poison. The immunity allows it to eat something that no other species can, meaning it has no competition for food. Of course, this comes at the cost of having to manufacture whatever chemicals make it immune, and carries the risk that if the prey species goes extinct, the predator probably will too.
The human side of the exhibition uses a historical approach, taking in myths, legends and modern fiction, though it generally takes the angle of asking, "Could this really have happened?" The highlight here is a live presentation about the origins of forensic toxicology, specifically the Marsh test, which detects arsenic. Before this test was developed, arsenic, in the form of arsenic trioxide, was a very popular poison, to the point that the French nicknamed it poudre de succession, or "inheritance powder."
The large amount of content and the relatively low ticket price make the exhibition good value for money. The space is much larger than most of the exhibitions I've been to lately - there's plenty of room to stand and read the labels or study the exhibits without feeling that you're blocking people who want to pass you.
My only quibble really was that the standard of presentation left something to be desired. The cloakroom was closed, there's a sign warning of uneven floors, and the lighting levels are sometimes low, even though most of the artefacts aren't rare or valuable. Perhaps most annoying, the sound from various looping videos isn't properly confined to the places where you have a good view of the screen. By the time I got to watch each of them, I'd already heard the soundtracks four or five times.
Overall, I found The Power of Poison enjoyable and informative, and I'll be interested to see what The Old Truman Brewery has to offer next. The exhibition runs until 4th September 2015, and tickets are £9 for adults.
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