This paper explores the history of a proposal for an ideas-based museum of ecological concepts, a ‘National Biological Centre’ for Canberra in 1965, and its successors.2 The background to the proposal came from changing ideas about zoos in the 1960s, and the emerging discipline of human ecology. The mission of the centre was to explore the relations between humans, other life-forms and their physical environment through what its chief protagonist, Stephen Boyden, called a comprehensive ‘bionarrative’.3 The centre was to facilitate the understanding of biophysical and social worlds as interrelated dynamic systems. The Biological Centre was conceived as a ‘major cultural institution’ for the nation, reflecting relations between science and society, and informing culture with science.4 Unlike traditional natural history museums and zoos, collections of objects (or animals) were not its primary mission. This paper considers how the 1965 proposal for the Biological Centre anticipated later ‘museums of ideas’, and reviews its relevance to new twenty-first-century museums of the Anthropocene, and how museums and related institutions can shed light on the role of science in society.

中文翻译：

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讲述生物故事：环境理念博物馆1

本文探讨了 1965 年堪培拉的“国家生物中心”及其后继者的生态概念理念博物馆提案的历史。2 该提案的背景来自 1960 年代关于动物园的观念变化，以及人类生态学的新兴学科。该中心的使命是通过其主要主角斯蒂芬·博伊登 (Stephen Boyden) 所称的全面“生物叙事”来探索人类、其他生命形式及其物理环境之间的关系。 3 该中心旨在促进对生物物理和社会世界的理解作为相互关联的动态系统。生物中心被认为是国家的“主要文化机构”，反映科学与社会之间的关系，并以科学为文化提供信息。 4 与传统的自然历史博物馆和动物园不同，收集物品（或动物）不是它的主要任务。本文考虑了 1965 年的生物中心提案如何预见到后来的“思想博物馆”，并回顾了它与 21 世纪人类世新博物馆的相关性，以及博物馆和相关机构如何阐明科学在人类世界中的作用。社会。