Huge concrete hangars from the 1920s house an interactive, kid-friendly maritime museum complete with a 1936 mine-laying submarine, a British seaplane that saw active duty in World War I and a large aquarium revealing the fishy inhabitants of the Baltic Sea.

BBC: Tallinn��s cultural renaissance, step by step

Few of these early sketches survive, but a drawing entitled "Mine workers in the snow" from 1880 and in the collection at the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands, depicts workers trudging towards a mine which looms darkly in the background.

CNN: Saving Van Gogh's home from dereliction

Of course, I wish to make the disclaimer that all writing and opinions expressed here at Take As Directed are mine only and do not represent any official position of my primary employer the NC Museum of Natural Sciences or North Carolina State University.

FORBES: Science education and public engagement