Spot of Culture: Richard Fortey loves...

Scientists who are changing the way we understand the world tell CultureLab their favourite places to seek inspiration and reflect.

(Image: Paul Grover/Rex Features )Richard Fortey says he has "always loved" The Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London. "I remember as a child visiting their tropical house with the huge water lily Victoria amazonica. Recently I revisited, and there it still was, with vast, rimmed leaves like tea trays for giants. The massive buds were about to open. (It wasn't the same plant, of course.) Nowhere else had quite made me think nature really is wonderful." Richard Fortey has retired as senior palaeontologist at London's Natural History Museum

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