The science museum was generally pretty good, but a little thin on real science in some places, and a little thick on corporate marketing in others.
The majority of the first floor was given over to a big exhibit on the science of superheros. It was clear they were trying to do something fun that would appeal to children, but the superhero exhibit included a pretty minimal amount of science. It was much heavier on just fun zaniness: screaming at a sentinel like Banshee ( ostensibly to learn about the properties of sound), controlling Doc Oc’s arms with a joystick (to learn about prosthetics!), shining a light on Bruce Banner’s amygdala to turn him into the Hulk (to learn about the role the amygdala plays in regulating emotion).
Download Link Moving Doc Oc’s claws.
Ouch! My spider sense is tingling!
The first floor also had an exhibit sponsored by the Valencia Institute of Biomechanics (or something like that) that looked like it might have had more science content. Unfortunately, they were only allowing a certain number of people in at a time, and the line was enormous. They also had an exhibit on sailing that was interesting, but somewhat cursory. Yes, it’s cool that mariners used an astrolabe to navigate, but I’d like to know how they used it.
The second floor had a nice section on space exploration that included a bunch of stuff about the Russian and European space programs that you wouldn’t see at the average museum in the United States.
Oh man, that Women’s exhibit could have been cool. Stupid commercials…….Oh well.
I would have thought of that Jamie Curtis commercial the whole time too……..heh