Exhibition: Our Lives in Data

From our daily commute to our genes, more and more information about our lives is being recorded as huge amounts of data, whether we are aware of it or not. Our Lives in Data, an exhibition at the Science Museum, investigates the rapidly evolving role of big data in all our lives and how it is being used to transform the world around us.

Our Lives in Data explores some of the diverse ways that our data is being collected, analysed and used, from a toy that learns the personality of a child to become a better playmate to new virtual reality tools created by game designers to help researchers understand vast collections of data. Visitors will have a chance to test facial recognition software through an intelligent mirror, designed to guess your age, gender and emotions.

As the amount of data collected grows so does the debate around data ownership. This exhibition highlights some of the new products developed to help individuals protect their data, including a Cryptophone designed to prevent access to your mobile phone data and paint that blocks WiFi signals. Our Lives in Data also looks at the data we share openly through social media and consider the consequences of living in a more connected world. Visitors will be able to join in the debate and compare their views with others through an interactive exhibition quiz.

There has been a huge acceleration in data collection over the last fifteen years, driven by recent advances in technology and data science. The exhibition looks at the crucial role of big data in planning and improving public transport in London as well as its importance in medical science.

The first human DNA sequencing took about 13 years to complete but now takes just two days. Exhibition visitors will see an example of a modern DNA sequencer and find out how it is helping the 100,000 Genomes Project to uncover the causes of rare diseases and cancer.

The exhibition is free to visit and is open from 15 July 2016 to September 2017.