This museum traces the development of science and industry and their influences on everyday life. These collections are among the largest, most comprehensive, and most significant anywhere. On display are Stephenson's original rocket and tiny prototype railroad engine. You can also see Whittle's original jet engine and the Apollo 10 space module. The King George III Collection of scientific instruments is the highlight of an exhibit on science in the 18th century. Health Matters is a permanent gallery on modern medicine. The museum has two hands-on galleries, as well as working models and video displays.

A large addition to this museum explores such topics as genetics, digital technology, and artificial intelligence. Four floors of a new Welcome Wing shelter half a dozen exhibition areas and a 450-seat Imax theater. One exhibition explores everything from the use of drugs in sports to how engineers observe sea life with robotic submarines. On an upper floor, visitors can learn how DNA was used to identify living relatives of the Bleadon Man, a 2,000-year-old Iron Age man. On the third floor is the computer that Tim Berners-Lee used to design the World Wide Web outside Geneva, writing the first software for it in 1990. One of many marvelous features here are the interactive consoles, strategically located throughout the museum, that display special itineraries for families, teens, adults, and those with special interests.