Thames & Kosmos was founded in 2001 by a science museum director and her son, who saw the great need and demand for better science education materials — resources for parents and their children that are more engaging, more effective, more relevant, and more fun.
Thames & Kosmos operates as the exclusive arm of parent company, Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. KG — Kosmos for short — based in Stuttgart, Germany. Founded in 1822, Kosmos operated solely as a book publisher until the 1920s, when the company published its first science kits aimed at explaining the world of science to children and young adults by bringing it to life with hands-on experiments.
Generations of European children have discovered their enthusiasm for science through Kosmos science kits. Since 2001, Thames & Kosmos and Kosmos have teamed up to develop science kits for children in the United States and other English speaking markets around the world.