Flying visit to famous fossil

RELIGIOUS people, the world over, go on pilgrimages and venerate relics.

You wouldn’t expect secular scientists, however, to have scientific shrines or visit places where great discoveries were made. But Down House, Darwin’s home for most of his life, is on the pilgrimage circuit and will attract hordes of disciples during 2009, the 200th anniversary of his birth.

The Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin is the custodian of one of biology’s most celebrated relics; a fossil of the earliest known bird. Until comparatively recently, only a plaster-cast copy was exhibited to the public but, now, the real McCoy is on show. Earlier this month, I visited the museum on behalf of RTÉ’s Mooney Show, to talk to Dr Uwe Moldrzyk about the museum and its famous fossil.