London gained a new science education facility this week with the unveiling of the Centre of the Cell. What must rank among the world’s most gaudy classrooms finally opened its podule doors yesterday after a rather lengthy gestation period.

The Centre is based inside the Blizard building, at Queen Mary University of London. Has anyone ever taken a look around? It’s a startling space, where bulbous pods dangle from the ceiling, overlooking the turquoise lab benches of a working biomedical research laboratory down at ground level.

Looking down on the labs from the Centre of the Cell. Absolutely no opportunities for teenage ‘oops I dropped my chewing gum’ mischief here.

The new Centre has dangled there, unused, for a couple of years. Finally, school kids aged 9-16 are able to visit. No Lubert Stryer for this generation. Inside the pod, they’re treated to a multimedia, audio-visual projected extravaganza of molecular and cell biology. If you want to get a taste, have a go at some of the Centre’s online games. And I can also recommend the Cell Trumps card game.

One day all labs will look like this