From 11 February to 12 April, Talking Plants invites you to take part in a live experiment exploring how artificial intelligence can help us connect more deeply with the plant kingdom. By scanning QR codes positioned throughout the Glasshouses, you’ll be able to talk to 20 remarkable plants, each represented by a generative AI chatbot.
Ask questions, follow your curiosity and discover more about each plant’s habitat, life cycle, ecological role and cultural significance. Every conversation is unique, shaped by what you choose to ask and how you choose to engage.
What is an orrery? Why is the clock chiming 13? Why would you collect and display a set of plaster horses’ teeth, some green spectacles and several hundred pocket calculators?
Join us for a tour of the Whipple’s collection in 10 objects, featuring spectacular instruments, fascinating scientific stories, and links to some of Cambridge’s most famous names.
Meet at the reception point in the Main Gallery.
Explore the collections of the Whipple Museum to find out more about measuring time, travelling around the world and how ideas have changed and moved through history. Find out about scientists in different times and places and create your own time travelling adventure!
All activities are drop in. Additional information to follow soon.
This event is part of the Cambridge Festival programme 2026.
Access Update at the Whipple Museum: Lift Works 2026
Join us for our third Little Stars session – a relaxed morning at the Whipple Museum. We’ll have picture books, drawing materials, and sensory play resources. We’d also love to hear what you’d like to see in future activities for little ones at the museum.
There’s no need to book, just drop-in. All welcome, especially suitable for families with babies and young children.
Meet in the Learning Gallery.
Access Update at the Whipple Museum: Lift Works 2026
Explore a remarkable range of scientific instruments used to make sense of the world, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Discover objects from astronomy, navigation, surveying, drawing and calculation, including sundials, mathematical instruments, early electrical apparatus—and even a microscope once owned by Charles Darwin.
Plus, enjoy hands-on activities in the newly refurbished Learning Gallery, perfect for little ones — or book a Whipple Highlights guided tour. Afterwards, take home a treat from the Whipple gift shop to remember your visit.
Join us for a fantastic whodunit mystery this winter and track down who’s been stealing seeds from pinecones. Simply pick up a free self-led Crazy Cone Caper trail from the Ticket Offices on your way into the Garden and start investigating. On your adventure you will find amazing pinecones from all around the world, discover cool facts and solve puzzles. Have you got the skills to work out which of our six suspects is guilty?
Suitable for all ages. Children must be accompanied. Standard Garden entry charge applies for adults.
On Saturdays, the Polar Museum runs a range of activities for all ages. get an insider view on the collections at one of our staff favourites tours at 12 to 12.30pm; drop in to one of our object handling sessions, run by our enthusiastic volunteers, between 11am and 12pm; or ask at the front desk any time for a chance to meet the narwhal tusk! Everything is free of charge, there is no need to book.
In the halls of natural history museums all over the world, you can peer through the glass and come face-to-face with the ghosts of extinction. Extinction has been going on as long as there has been biological life—in fact over 99% of all species that have ever existed on Earth are extinct--but extinction usually happen at a slow place. We are now, however, living through the Sixth Mass Extinction, with species rapidly going extinct because of human actions. These are the ghosts of extinction that now make their homes in the museum.
FREE guided tour of the Museum. Join our expert guide as we uncover fascinating facts about the Museum, from our fin whale to the dodo and the beetles collected by Charles Darwin.
Spaces are limited so please book ahead.
Dates:
Friday, 9 January, 2026 - 15:00 to 15:45
Friday, 13 February, 2026 - 15:00 to 15:45
Friday, 13 March, 2026 - 15:00 to 15:45
Explore a remarkable range of scientific instruments used to make sense of the world, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Discover objects from astronomy, navigation, surveying, drawing and calculation, including sundials, mathematical instruments, early electrical apparatus—and even a microscope once owned by Charles Darwin.
Plus, enjoy hands-on activities in the newly refurbished Learning Gallery, perfect for little ones — or book a Whipple Highlights guided tour. Afterwards, take home a treat from the Whipple gift shop to remember your visit.
