Sir

You emphasized the roles that museums should play in both increasing and diffusing knowledge, in your Editorial 'Museums need two cultures' (Nature 446, 583; doi:10.1038/446583a 2007). Germany's premier natural-history institution, the Berlin museum of natural history, recently demonstrated the potential that museums have to do the latter.

On 13 July, its main palaeontology exhibition reopened after a redesign. The dinosaurs in the main hall are now all mounted according to the latest findings in vertebrate palaeontology. The tallest mounted dinosaur skeleton in the world — of Brachiosaurus brancai — is no longer sprawling but striding majestically through the hall. On the opening day, thousands of visitors queued from the underground station, breaking Germany's record for the highest number of visitors to an exhibition during an opening weekend.

The Berlin Brachiosaurus skeleton was first mounted in 1937. Seventy years, although little by dinosaur standards, is a long time for scientists and the public to wait before money is provided for a modern exhibition. Funding bodies must recognize that natural-history museums are in a unique position to explain complex issues in science to a wide audience. But to do so, they need to be able to update their exhibits and present new research to the public on a regular basis.

The results are well worth the investment. During the opening weekend, more than 38,000 visitors preferred the Jurassic period to a day in the Berlin sunshine.