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Science, Technology, Natural History Museums?
beadfulthings writes "An unexpected windfall has enabled my husband and me to plan a road trip next year. He's expressed a wish to visit some good science, technology, and natural history museums along the way. Of course it's easy to obtain a long list of them via Google, but I'd like some insight and input. What does your area or city in the US or Canada have in the way of science museums? Are they worth traveling to visit? Do you have any particular favorite exhibits or 'must see' recommendations? This man was brought up in Philadelphia and apparently spent most of his boyhood and adolescence at the Franklin Institute and its Fels Planetarium, so I guess that would be his 'gold standard.' I grew up going to the Smithsonian. Any area of science, math, technology, natural history, or even industrial stuff would be fair game. I think we'll probably want to miss out on the 'creation science' stuff."
Yes it's a "Kids" museum, but if you like anything hands on, it's awesome. Even to a 25 year old BSME.
http://www.childrensmuseum.org/
That and the museums in Chicago.
The field museum in Chicago has an exhibit on Pirates (the old-fashioned kind). It's awesome. Go there.
The Saturn 5 exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum in DC is my fave exhibit, but the entire museum is not to be missed. The IMAX theater is great too, unless you get motion sick.
The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan has a large variety of automobile, historical, and industrial/manufacturing exhibits. http://www.thehenryford.org/
Washington DC: Holocaust Museum, Smithsonian
Cambridge: MIT museum is really interesting. They have a 12 ft slide rule, and some other curiosities
New York: Natural history museum is really good
I've always been a fan of the huge Van de Graaf generator in the Boston Science Museum. Also they may have a display of flayed people there - I don't remember.
Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
Check out The Geek Atlas by John Graham-Cumming.
If you make it to the DC area and like the Air & Space museum on the National Mall, take a day to visit the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space museum where they have everything they couldn't fit into the National Mall site. http://www.nasm.si.edu/UdvarHazy/
The American Museum of Natural History (with the Rose Center for Earth and Space and the Hayden Planetarium) in NYC is always a reliable bet. I would definitely put it on a must see list of museums in this country. There is also the Museum of Sex, which you might find interesting.
Exploratorium in San Francisco
Balboa Park in San Diego
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago
Kennedy Space Center in Florida
The Computer History Museum is free and has an unbelievable collection of computer artifacts. It is in the Bay Area, so there are lots of other things you can see in San Francisco, San Jose, etc. I will leave recommendation of those up to others who will certainly chime in.
Here is a link to the museum: http://www.computerhistory.org/
Enjoy your trip!
Todd
Omne ignotum pro magnifico.
Two places in Southeast Michiagan are definately worth a visit. Caranbrook Institute of Science in Birmingham, small but well put together scinece museum and the magnificent Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. The Henry Ford has the best car collection anywhere as well as a great history of technolgy collection. If you like you can do the Greenfiled Village next door and see what daily life and technolgy were like at the turn of the 20th century. The Detroit Science center is just OK but the nearby Detroit Art Museum is great. BTW I also endorse the recomendation of the Field in Chicago... First rate.
Then go see the Science Museum of Minnesota in Minneapolis. I've been there numerous times ever since I was a kid, all the way through adulthood. Loved it every time.
+1 The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry has several one-of-a-kind exhibits, including a German submarine, a simulated coal mine, and an incredible art-deco streamline modern train.
They even have a museum of people who used to go to museums. Make sure you're out before closing time.
which is totally what she said
I agree with you; even if you don't agree with it, there is nothing wrong with viewing the other side. In fact, a true scientist would rationally consider all viewpoints equally, rather than excluding one because it doesn't agree with common beliefs.
Worst case scenario, you get a barrel of laughs.
Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
I second the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California.
Everything from a working Difference Engine to the Crays and Connection Machines that we kids dreamed about in the 80s. A fully-functional PDP-1; it still plays Slug Russel's "Space War". Within an hour's drive of anywhere in the Bay Area.
I'll see your computers and raise you some nukes. Next time you're in Vegas for some trade show or conference, take a day and see the Atomic Testing Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Thankfully, there's nothing fully-functional here, but there lots of fascinating artifacts nonetheless. Everything from Einstein's letter to Roosevelt, to bits and pieces of a NERVA nuclear rocket prototype, to engineers' notebooks filled with humorous mementos of projects they'd worked on, to Doc Edgerton's impossibly-fast cameras. Within a 10 minute cab ride from the Strip.
Although both museums have material suitable for laypeople and/or children, they're targeted primarily at adults with engineering backgrounds. Expect to spend at least 3 hours at each of 'em.
Nukes are pretty cool, but you can have a lot more fun with a bunch of used pinball machine parts. And everything is fully functional in the Pinball Hall of Fame. Hey, you're already in Vegas -- flashing lights and wacky sounds are what it's all about. You won't need a DeLorean to go back in time, and it'll cost a lot less per hour than the blackjack tables.
to see what their view of the zoological world is would be very interesting.
Answer: God made it.
It's not all that interesting a viewpoint. My grandpa sent me a few books recently on evolution (after I stopped attending church last year), and the ways in which creationists try to use science to prove their points would be hilarious if it weren't so depressing. In a couple of the books people who clearly don't understand the difference between open/closed systems try to use the laws of thermodynamics to disprove evolution. It's pathetic. Life exists and evolves in a kind of battle against entropy sure, but it doesn't defy the laws of thermodynamics because the earth is getting new energy from Sol all the time. They also claim that evolution via random mutation is simply impossible, even though a scientist last year demonstrated that bacteria can evolve new traits from a series of presumably random mutations. I hope more people do as I have done and learn to just accept the truth (even if it means admitting a lot of their life thus far was based on a lie) rather than fighting a worthless battle against it.
which is totally what she said
You didn't specify continent, so:
http://www.deutsches-museum.de/
While others have mentioned both the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry, it should be noted that they are co-located with the (also excellent) Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium. Not far away is the world-class Art Institute of Chicago. Much of this is the legacy of the 1893 Chicago World Fair, and in terms of density of world-class museums, is more bang for your time and dollar that you'll get anywhere outside of Washington DC (Smithsonian, etc) and perhaps London. You can get a multi-day pass to all of these museums for anywhere from about $70/person, and it is well worth it.
No, this is Slashdot. I didn't even read your reply, I'm just guessing about what you wrote.
they have some really good exhibits showing documented evidence which supports the Creationist view.
What? There's evidence that a superbeing created the universe? If that were indeed true, the discover(s) would be a shoe-in for a Nobel Prize.
Trolling is a art,
As for me? I expose myself to every input, at every venue I possibly can. Whether I disagree with the source is another matter, but *ignoring* the source is tantamount to saying that "I have made up my mind, and I believe your opinions are of utter disinterest."
It is perfectly ok to make up your mind at some point, and once you realize that creationism is meaningless drivel you really don't need to expose yourself to it again and again and again in the faint hope that it might all somehow make sense one day. Isn't that the definition of madness, doing the same thing over and over again in the hope of a different outcome?
Besides, you go on a roadtrip to have fun, not to be subjected to endless fundamentalist stupidity. I'd say skipping creationism-oriented museums is a perfectly valid approach.
That's a ridiculous argument.
In my 43 years I've never believed in a god or gods. (My parents must have raised me properly!) Would my time be better spent going to a museum/science exhibition to learn something or going to churches, synagogues, mosques, cult retreats, etc. to have supernatural woo-woo fed to me?
Going to the religious bits wouldn't make me a "bigger man", it'd make me a "man wasting his time".
Trolling is a art,
Agreed. I used to hear about the whale, and I was like "great, it's a life-sized model of a blue whale. I get it. It's big. Why is that so exciting?"
Then, of course, I walked into the room, and as soon as I could pick my jaw up off of the ground, I said "holy fuck". I hope I said it quietly enough that the little kids around me couldn't hear, but that was my reaction.
It is a life sized blue whale, and it is bigger than you can possibly imagine.
Check out my sysadmin blog!
Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona is excellent for local geology (Grand Canyon vicinity, dinosaurs) and Native American archaeology, arts and crafts, etc www.musnaz.org Phoenix: The Heard museum (Native American stuff) is absolutely top notch! www.heard.org And Tucson's Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum if fantastic! www.desertmuseum.org If I were doing your trip, I'd also catch some caves along the way. In Arizona, that would be Karchner Caverns (you might want to make an advance reservation, however)
wear flowers in your hair, and visit:
Exploratorium. This is the original hands on museum.
The Golden Gate Park: Strybing Arboretum, Beautiful, stunning diversity, reminder of what that giant ball in the sky is for... oh and, ummm.... Biological Studies.
California Academy of Science is nice too, as is the DeYoung.
Over the bridge in Berkley is the Lawrence Hall of Science. I remember spending a little time with Liza there on a Pdp-11!
Chabot Space and Science Observatory is a great little place to study the stars.
Shockly's Semiconductor Labratory is also nearby: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley_Semiconductor_Laboratory. Not much to see, but Palo Alto is a mecca of technology.
and of course, the Computer History Museum.
http://www.computerhistory.org/about/
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
they have some really good exhibits showing documented evidence which supports the Creationist view.
Unless you're actually claiming that there's evidence that snakes didn't have venom until a few thousand years ago:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scalzi/1970009866/in/set-72157603091357751/
Why settle for exhibits when you can visit live labs, see real data and meet interesting, famous and soon-to-be-famous scientists? Come to Tucson and visit your dollars at work.
If Hubby weaned happily at Franklin he's gonna flip out for the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory where almost every major telescope on Earth (and beyond) gets it's mirror -- some are up to 20 feet across. Tours, interviews, whatever. While in Tucson make sure to sample our cooking, the food's insane great here! And, of course, you can marvel at the Grand Canyon either before or after.
Newest Scope is the Large Binocular Array Observatory, at Mount Graham, AZ (70 miles east of Tucson but close enough to I-10 for a day trip) Dual 20-foot mirrors, scanning the Universe with public tours, seminars, etc. Google it.
Star of the show is Kitt's Peak just 42 miles southwest of Tucson. It's the largest, most diverse gathering of astronomical instruments in the world and the only advanced astronomy site on this continent, with three major optical telescopes plus 19 other major instruments. Visitor center, tours, transportation all explained at the website.
What's up there? About two billion dollars of technology and fifteen or twenty of the best living astronomers, that's what. Including the Large Binocular Telescope with two, count 'em two, of the afor-mentioned 20-foot reflecting disks mounted in a dedicated six-story building.
Inventory:
KPNO Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope 4.0 m Ritchey-Chrétien reflector
WIYN Telescope 3.5 m Ritchey-Chrétien reflector
McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope Unobstructed solar reflector
KPNO 2.1 m Telescope Fourth largest on the mountain
Coudé Feed Tower Coudé spectrograph
SOLIS/Kitt Peak Vacuum Telescope Solar telescope
Razdow Telescope Weather monitoring for the solar telescopes
WHAM Telescope Milky Way temperature and density mapping
RCT Consortium Telescope Remotely controlled
WIYN 0.9 m Telescope Galactic studies
Calypso Observatory Only private telescope on the mountain
CWRU Burrell Schmidt Galactic studies
SARA Observatory Variable stars, undergraduate training
ETC/RMT No longer operating
Spacewatch 1.8 m Telescope 72 in mirror scavenged from the Mount Hopkins MMT
Spacewatch 0.9 m Telescope Spacewatch
Super-LOTIS Follow-on to the ETC/RMT
HAT-1 Recently relocated to nearby Mount Hopkins
Bok Telescope Versatile
MDM Observatory1.3 mMcGraw-Hill Telescope Originally at Ann Arbor
MDM Observatory2.4 m Hiltner Telescope Galactic surveys
HF radio-telescope, built atop a tank turret
ARO 12m Radio Telescope One of two telescopes operated by the Arizona Radio Observatory, part of Steward Observatory
VLBA One of ten radio-telescopes forming the VLBA
Ashfall just underwent a massive expansion and is a completely amazing place to visit, if you are in the area of north-eastern Nebraska. Look it up if you are into mammoth-era fossil sites.
...and I've been building exhibits for science museums for the past 25 years. In my experience, the following are the best in the U.S.:
Liberty Science Center, Newark, NJ
Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL
Indianapolis Children's Museum, Indianapolis, IN
Science Center of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (don't miss the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices!)
St. Louis Science Center, St. Louis, MO
OMSI, Portland, OR
Reuben H. Fleet Center, San Diego, CA
California ScienCenter, Los Angeles, CA
And when you're in L.A., don't miss the Museum Of Jurassic Technology. Absolutely fascinating.
I'm not sure if you're trolling, but in case you're one of those people trapped in a religious school that pretends to teach biology (and I'm gonna ignore at least three major factual errors in your biological diatribe, because I wanna talk theology with you anyways.)
The problem with YEC types is that they aren't giving God the benefit of the doubt. And they're ignoring the awe-inspiring experiences that - assuming He exists - God's set out there for us to figure out. We've got answers most of the things in God's rant in the Book of Job, "Thus Spake God The Lord Out Of The Whirlwind", yet God could still lay that rant on us, He'd just have to change the scientific questions.
One thing is absolutely certain about our Universe. No God hashed the whole thing together in a week some time around the invention of human writing, and He sure as hell didn't fill it with faked evidence that it's much older than 6000 years. That's the kind of hack job a human would imagine.
God, if He exists, is way smarter than that.
Now, take a Being that could, by nudging a couple of mathematical entities (branes), set things up such that when they intersect, a different mathematical entity (a universe) gets spawned, and one of them (maybe more than one, but how would we humans know?) just happens to be spawned with physical constants suitable for stellar nucleosynthesis, and some 13.2 billion years later - intelligent life evolves on a 4.5-billion-year-old planet that's smart enough to notice (stellar parallax) that the nearest stars are very far away, some of them vary regularly (Cepheid variables), and can be used as yardsticks to compute the distance to other consistently-bright objects (supernovae), which could be used as yardsticks to compute the distance to galaxies, which revealed the Hubble red shift, and ultimately, the mapping of variances in the cosmic microwave background radiation from the Big Bang...
And that's just the stuff we've managed to figure out, all by using the big brains our universe and our biosphere and natural selection has enabled us to evolve.
My God created something 13.2 billion years ago that continues to boggle the world's greatest physicsts. Science is a game we play with Him to figure out what His rules are. The smarter we physicsts get, and the more we learn about His creation, the smarter our God has to have been in order for us to still be perplexed by the awesomeness of it all.
Six thousand years? Painstakingly creating each species, one at a time? Your God appears to be a obsessive-compulsive micromanager who - if you're going to use the Bible as your "science" textbook - hasn't revealed a damn thing about Himself to us since the days of the Roman Empire. Stop shrinking God to human standards and timeframes. If you don't comprehend a 13.2 billion year old universe, if you don't fathom a 4.6 billion year old Earth, and if you don't like how amazingly awesome it is that sentience evolved a mere 50,000 years ago - barely a tip on a 3-billion-year-old iceberg of biological awesomeness - then please, give God the benefit of the doubt that He might have done something you can't understand, to say nothing of what a shephard wrote 4000 years ago.
At one time the Museum of Nature (Ottawa, Canada) was the most surreal experience you could imagine. The building is literally a massive castle. Beautifully built with an atmosphere without comparison. They had the most fantastic paleontology section where you would start at the bottom of a ramp, very dark and foreboding and see fossils from a billion years ago. As you walk up the ramp you see newer and newer fossils - they did an excellent job showing transitional fossils. The ramp would wind around, showing the incredible assortment of life our planet has seen in the past. Finally, it would open up into a large chamber with dinosaur skeletons as far as the eye could see. You would begin with Triassic, Jurassic then Cretaceous. The chamber would then lead to the rise of mammals, ice age, etc... I swear the designer was a genius.
After renovating (I kid you not) they've lumped everything together in a horrible assortment of ice age animals, dinosaurs, mammals, etc... in a set of adjoining open ceiling rooms. There's no atmosphere (everything is bright white with phosphorescent lighting) and the science is certainly gone. I've tried to look into what idiot designed the new layout and I was certain I would find some slack-jawed creationist being responsible but no luck.
Anyway, this is just me venting and telling people not to waste their time on this travesty. However, the three museums of war, aviation and civilization in the Ottawa area are fantastic!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Science-Technology_Centers
Get a membership at one of the science centers that is part of ASTC (most of them in NA seem to be) and you can get free admission in essentially all of the other ASTC member institutions via their "passport program". The ASTC also lists their members:
http://www.astc.org/members/passlist_about.htm