Science, Technology, Natural History Museums? 435
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."
Air & Space Museum (Score:2, Informative)
Body Worlds! (Score:1, Informative)
I saw the Body Worlds exhibit at the Denver Natural History museum a couple years ago, and I LOVED it! It was so fascinating to see the inner-workings of the human body. It is definitely a must-see... head over to www.bodyworlds.com to see schedule info, as they tour around the world.
The Henry Ford (Score:5, Informative)
Boston (Score:3, Informative)
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. (Score:5, Informative)
The Geek Atlas (Score:5, Informative)
Check out The Geek Atlas [geekatlas.com] by John Graham-Cumming.
Ontario Science Centre (Score:1, Informative)
The Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is really wicked. It also has new exhibits all the time. However, the Centre tends to have more of a kids focus, although they do have really cool exhibits on that are very adult-oriented like Dr. Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds [ontariosciencecentre.ca] exhibition happening this season.
http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/
Udvar-Hazy (Score:3, Informative)
American Museum of Natural History (Score:3, Informative)
Best museums to see (Score:5, Informative)
Balboa Park [balboapark.org] in San Diego
Museum of Science and Industry [msichicago.org] in Chicago
Kennedy Space Center [kennedyspacecenter.com] in Florida
The Computer History Museum (USA) (Score:5, Informative)
Here is a link to the museum: http://www.computerhistory.org/ [computerhistory.org]
Enjoy your trip!
Todd
Recomendations for the SE Michigan/Detroit area (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Air & Space Museum (Score:2, Informative)
If you're passing through Minnesota... (Score:3, Informative)
Then go see the Science Museum of Minnesota in Minneapolis [smm.org]. I've been there numerous times ever since I was a kid, all the way through adulthood. Loved it every time.
Re:Body Worlds! (Score:1, Informative)
Yes Body Worlds is amazing! I think Body Worlds will be in Toronto's Ontario Science Centre [ontariosciencecentre.ca] starting October 9.
Here's a map [google.ca].
Chicago Museum of Science and Industry (Score:5, Informative)
Computers, nukes, and pinball! (Score:5, Informative)
I second the Computer History Museum [computerhistory.org], 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 [atomictestingmuseum.org], 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 [pinballmuseum.org]. 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.
Re:Pirates!! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The Henry Ford (Score:5, Informative)
Yep, agreed on that recommendation. It's a bit old-fashioned in places: some of it's just big collections of stuff without much explanation. But that can be fun too (and it's not all that way.)
And the adjoining Greenfield Village has tons of technological history. Last time I was there I got a kick out of seeing a Jacquard Loom they were in the process of renovating. (And the guy there with it was knowledgeable and interesting.)
Sounds like you probably already know the Smithsonian, but: I always take people to the National Building Museum. Neat, fun place, and easy for tourists to overlook.
Chicago (Score:3, Informative)
Re:NYC: American Museum of Natural History (Score:2, Informative)
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.
In Arizona... (Score:2, Informative)
If you are going to San Fransisco (Score:4, Informative)
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 [wikipedia.org]. Not much to see, but Palo Alto is a mecca of technology.
and of course, the Computer History Museum.
http://www.computerhistory.org/about/ [computerhistory.org]
Re:Air & Space Museum (Score:2, Informative)
Science museums as habitat for AI Minds (Score:0, Informative)
Boston [wikipedia.org] MA -- Museum of Science [mos.org]
Re:Creation Museum (Petersburg, KY) (Score:2, Informative)
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/
Re:Air & Space Museum (Score:2, Informative)
Plus, the last time I was there, they had a decommissioned SR-71 Blackbird (wikimedia image [wikimedia.org]) hanging from the ceiling just inside the front door, with the tip of the nose just out of reach as you walk in. A really beautiful airplane, and awesome to see that close up. They used to have some first-rate space craft restoration exhibits there, as their museum crew were the ones responsible for getting the re-entry capsules ready for showing by the Smithsonian and others. They've specialized in the "space" part of "air and space museum" for many years.
Since Wichita is not likely to be on the road travel map (not if I had anything so say about it, anyway), it's probably worth mentioning that Hutchinson, Kansas is about 4 hours from Kansas City's airport.
Museum? Really? Why Not Meet Living Science? (Score:2, Informative)
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
I'm a museum professional... (Score:3, Informative)
...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.
Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada (Score:3, Informative)
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!
ASTC (Score:3, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Science-Technology_Centers [wikipedia.org]
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 [astc.org]