Comments on: The Exploratorium's Sound Uncovered: A science museum in your hand (for free)

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:35:00 +0000

The Boston Museum of Science started as the Boston Museum of Natural History in 1830.

By: waj

waj — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:24:00 +0000

You call the Exploratorium “the granddaddy of modern science museums”, but OMSI precedes it by 25 years! The more you know… :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratorium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Museum_of_Science_and_Industry

By: felipejane

felipejane — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:37:00 +0000

Funny that you mention button-pushing in science museums and a segue to the Exploratorium. For 8 years in the 1980s I taught middle school science at a K-12 school in Center City Philadelphia, a short walk from the Franklin Institute. I took kids there on field trips a few times (a field trip that didn’t involve a bus!), but eventually stopped when I realized that the exhibits only engaged the kids at the level of pushing buttons; they rarely paused to find out what it was that happened when the did so. Fast forward a couple of years; I left teaching and took an unrelated job, and early on got to go on a business trip (to a convention in Santa Clara, CA). I went a day early so I could spend at least 24 hours in San Francisco, and while there went to the Exploratorium. What I saw there made me rethink the whole idea of a science museum: kids (and adults) didn’t race from exhibit to exhibit madly pressing buttons; they stayed at an exhibit and were truly engaged by it. I didn’t have a way to find out if the difference resulted from better designed exhibits or self-selected more curious kids (who hadn’t been dragged there by their science teacher), but I’ve thought ever since that there are many wrong ways (and many right ways) to design exhibits that draw people in instead of merely prompting them to push a button. If I had an iPad, I’d definitely check out this app.

By: jenjen

jenjen — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:09:00 +0000

Aw, requires iOS6. Welp, this might be the thing that pushes me over the edge to finally update. Goodbye my pretty Google maps.

By: dendrimer

dendrimer — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 07:53:00 +0000

i know that Dendrimers (PAMAM,CYD) have good and promising applications for the heavy metal-containing wastewater treatment. For example, Cu2+ in wastewater can be well absorbed through the terminal amino and tertiary amino of PAMAM dendrimer, so that effective treatment of heavy metal wastewater is realized. The absorption rate of Cu2+ can reach 100% when the pH of the wastewater is 9. is that some Practical industrial applications?

By: Bloo

Bloo — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 01:15:00 +0000

“Feel the little reward centers of your brain dance the watusi” – hereby nominated for ‘most fun phrase of this year (so far)’ !

In fact, if I knew how to get a meme started, I’d say this should supplant the “just look at it” meme

By: Susan Vriens

Susan Vriens — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 22:32:00 +0000

Sounds fun. If only they had an Android version.

By: thaum

thaum — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:16:00 +0000

I found the Exploratorium really dull when I was there last. I don’t know, is it just me? I spent about five minutes building an icosahedron and playing with a bit of rope on a motor and then wandering around trying to find something else remotely interesting to do.