The Alnwick GardenThe Alnwick Garden
Toxic Plants
At The Alnwick Garden in northern England, you can see their special Poison Garden. This unusual exhibition of dangerous and deadly plants is kept secure behind a tall iron fence, visitors are accompanied at all times, and nobody is allowed to touch or smell the plants.
The Alnwick GardenThe Alnwick Garden
It may sound like overkill, but these plants are nasty. Arum Italicum, also known as Italian Lords-and-Ladies, is a toxic leafy green flower which is sometimes mistaken for edible wild garlic. The leaves will cause vomiting and swelling, and the berries can, in rare cases, kill.
Strawberry poison frog, Oophaga pumilio by Dirk Ercken (3) and Klaus Ulrich MuellerOriginal Source: Frogs & Friends
Poison Dart Frogs
In the rainforests of South America live these tiny, thumbnail-sized frogs. They might look like a meal for many predators, but these multi-coloured amphibians are some of the most poisonous creatures on the planet. As their name suggests, their poison is used to make darts.
Fast Forward Science Video Award (2019) by Frogs & FriendsFrogs & Friends
Despite being so deadly, many species are at threat of extinction. At Frogs & Friends in Berlin, Germany, several species of poison dart frogs are kept in captivity - and safely away from humans - as part of a breeding programme.
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American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History exhibits many of the natural world's most dangerous and deadly animals. But while the ferocious teeth of a sabre-toothed tiger or the sharpened claws of an Allosaurus make provoke a primal fear, the most deadly animal is much smaller…
Giant Mosquito by AMNHAmerican Museum of Natural History
Mosquitoes
The mosquito is more than an annoyance, it's responsible for the deaths of more humans than anything else in history, due to the number of horrifying diseases this bloodsucking bug can transmit. Each year, mosquito-borne illnesses infect 700,000,000 and kill over 1,000,000.
This scale model was made in 1917 to help educate Americans about the dangers of mosquitoes. It was only with the invention of anti-bacterial medicines in the 1940s, that humans began to beat many of the deadly diseases mosquitoes transmit.
Bandbox (ca. 1850) by J.G. HuntOriginal Source: See this work of art on the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum website
Unfortunately, the green ink was made using arsenic. A chemical that today is known to be utterly toxic. At the time, arsenic was used as a dye in everyday products, from wallpaper, to fabrics, and even soaps and medicines - this bandbox at the Cooper Hewitt museum is just one.
Marie Curie measuring radioactivity (1904) by Source : Musée Curie (coll. ACJC)Musée Curie
Marie Curie's Lab
With hindsight, many things seem strange; such as studying radioactive materials with little more to protect you than an apron. The Polish-French scientist Marie Curie performed pioneering research into radioactivity, but never appreciated quite how dangerous it is.
View of Marie Curie's chemistry lab (2015) by Photography 2015 : Jérémy MathurMusée Curie
Curie died of anaemia in 1934, believed to be caused by her long-term exposure to radiation. In 1992, her lab was opened as a museum, but not before every piece of equipment was decontaminated. The museum also shows dangerous objects such as radioactive drinking fountains.
Shards of Metal from a V2 Rocket (1945) Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei
V-2 Rocket
Of course, some of the most deadly museum exhibits were designed to kill. These small metal fragments are all that's left of a V-2 Rocket, built and fired by the German army in 1945, the final year of the Second World War. There was no defence against these supersonic missiles.
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The Imperial War Museum in London, England, has an intact example of a V-2, which was captured in 1945. These devastating weapons were responsible for the deaths of around 10,000 civilians and soldiers, in addition to 12,000 slave labourers who were killed in their construction.
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The Enola Gay
On the other side of the war, the allies were creating their own weapons of mass destruction. This B-29 bomber at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, named the Enola Gay, was the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, on 6 August 1945.
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In an instant, the city was destroyed and at least 70,000 people were killed. Without a doubt, this plane delivered the most devastating weapon of the war.
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SS-20 Missile
The atomic bomb ushered in a new and terrifying age of nuclear war. At the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is this Soviet SS-20 missile - just one of thousands of weapons on both sides of the Iron Curtain, ready and waiting to be fired. Thankfully, that day never came.
