Science Museums and Exhibits

For hundreds of years, engineers have been finding new ways of using electricity to revolutionize the way we work, play, learn, and communicate. Here you'll explore the history of these technologies, find out how they work, and leaern about some of the people who invented them.

Housed within the walls of San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, the Exploratorium is a collage of over 650 science, art, and human perception exhibits. The Exploratorium is a leader in the movement to promote museums as educational centers. This unique museum was founded in 1969 by noted physicist and educator Dr. Frank Oppenheimer, who devoted his efforts to it -- and was its director -- until his death in 1985. Dr. Go�y Delac�e, a renowned French scientist, science educator and public servant, was named executive director of the Exploratorium in February 1991. Online since 1993, the Exploratorium was one of the first science museums to build a site on the World Wide Web. Our site now contains over 15,000 Web pages exploring hundreds of different topics. We currently serve fifteen million visitors a year. That makes us one of the most visited museum Web sites in the world.

Exhibits. Featured exhibit. News. Info desk. Real museum. Photo gallery. The National Institute of Standards and Technology keeps an archive of its online exhibitions in its virtual museum (the Institute has a real museum as well, but you needn't move more than your mouse finger to catch these art shows). Check out an exhibit on The Standardization of Women's Clothing, wherein you'll get a short history of ready-to-wear and learn how NIST (then the National Bureau of Standards) played a role in women's vanity by instating--and then withdrawing--commercial standards for clothing sizes. Also of note, an exhibit on Marie Curie and radium standards, and one on the use of magnetic disks for recording music.

The Hall of Planet Earth displays one of the most outstanding collections of geological specimens ever displayed in an exhibition hall. Between 1996 and 1998, Museum teams embarked on dozens of reconnaissance trips and 28 acquisition expeditions to distant locations, from Indonesian volcanoes to the Sahara Desert in West Africa. Each trip included working with local experts to uncover the most geologically significant rocks. Every specimen and model was chosen to illustrate an important aspect of Earth's dynamic story.

These exhibits trace evolutionary thought as it has developed over time, pausing to ponder the contributions of scientists and thinkers including Aristotle, Darwin, Wallace, and many others. Explore the theory of evolution. Learn about the history of evolutionary thought.

The American Museum of Natural History, established in 1869, is located at Central Park West and 79th Street in New York City. The act to incorporate the American Museum of Natural History, which passed the New York State Congress on April 6, 1869, states: The American Museum of Natural History, to be located in the City of New York for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in said city a Museum and Library of Natural History; of encouraging and developing the study of Natural Science; of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and to that end of furnishing popular instruction. The 1996 strategic plan, adopted by the Board of Trustees on December 10, includes the following statement of mission: To discover, interpret, and disseminate -- through scientific research and education -- knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.