The Francis Crick Institute’s new exhibition, Craft & Graft: Making Science Happen, will showcase the surprising roles of the people who work around the clock to make its life-changing research possible.
The free exhibition runs from March until December 2019 and takes visitors behind the scenes to meet the technicians, engineers and specialists supporting science at the Crick.
These technical teams prepare, process, make, mend, analyse and innovate.
From fixing faults in complex cutting-edge technology to feeding fruit flies and operating robots, technical staff are essential to keep the labs running and science happening.
The exhibition shines a spotlight on five specialist teams who have opened their doors for the first time:
- The technicians feeding and breeding over 15,000 families of fruit flies.
- The “librarians of life-forms” responsible for nurturing billions of cells in thousands of flasks, plates and vials.
- The people who meticulously clean the Crick’s essential glassware to allow re-use and prevent any contamination.
- The mechanical and electronic engineers who race against time to fix, adapt or invent vital equipment for use in the labs.
- The specialists preparing biological samples, from fruit flies to cancer cells, for study using powerful microscopes.
- The exhibition is part of the Crick's wider commitment to support technical staff working in research and to highlight their vital work.