The museum reopened in August 2007, using the Machikaneyama Shugakukan, which was completed in 1931. The concept of the museum is an "interactive museum." Through exchange, the museum communicates how the university's research and traditions are linked to society. Currently, about 600 academic specimens are on display, with the highlight being one of the world's largest crocodile fossils. This crocodile lived in Osaka about 500,000 years ago and was excavated from the university's campus construction site. On the second floor, materials related to Kaitokudo and Tekijuku, the university's roots, are on display. Kaitokudo was founded by townspeople in the Edo period and played a role in spreading academic soil in Osaka to the general public. Tekijuku was founded by Ogata Koan, and young people who built the dawn of modern Japanese culture, including Fukuzawa Yukichi, studied here. In addition, the first domestically produced electron microscope, developed in 1939, and the university's first study of protein structure using X-rays are displayed in a three-dimensional model. These exhibits are proof that Osaka University was at the forefront of research into light and electrons. Over 1.6 million academic specimens are stored at other universities, and plans are underway to gradually open them to the public while devising new ways to display them.