博物館史的相關研究已經顯示，國族意識在博物館制度化的過程中產生關鍵性的影響，舉世皆然。即使到了當代，博物館的公民性、開放性被不斷地強調，國族意識似乎仍然存在於許多博物館展示空間中。歷史性或藝術性的博物館或許較容易操作以貼近國族意識；相對而言，科學性的博物館標榜著科學理性，並且肩負著傳播科學知識的使命，又如何面對國族意識？如果科學博物館選擇貼近國族意識，則其中科學性知識――尤其是生物學知識又會如何詮釋國族意識，溝通國族認同？本論文藉由研究國立自然科學博物館，以及臺大醫學人文博物館的博物館展示與博物館誌歷史檔案，探討科學博物館中生物學知識與國族意識的關聯性。

The research on museum history has shown how national consciousness has influenced museums worldwide. Even in modern museums, in which citizenship and public access are well emphasized, nationalism affects exhibitions. Historical or art museums might be able to operate close to national consciousness. In contrast, how should a science museum, which is based on scientific rationality and is responsible for disseminating scientific knowledge, deal with national consciousness? In this paper, two of Taiwan’s science museums, the National Museum of Natural Science and the Medical Humanities Museum of National Taiwan University, were studied to understand the relationships between biological knowledge and national consciousness in science museums.