Today while procrastinating on working on some writing, I found an article about magic and neuroscience that speaks to the reasons that we have the demonstration on the floor. I know that we always feel like we have to justify having magic in a science museum, but this article offers even more evidence in favor [...]
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November 19th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
Exploratorium Health Inspectors
November 11th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
Thought you all might appreaciate seeing what kind of place the lunch cloffice is to work in. A couple weeks the Bio folks scurried around the museum collecting samples of bacteria from various locations. They put the 20 samples in petri dishes and waited for the good stuff to grow. Here is the picture of [...]
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November 5th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
Dead Science Graveyard
November 4th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
For those of you who didn’t make it out to Phantasmagorium-atorium at the Exploratorium on Friday night, you missed a hell of a party. There was a hilarious puppet show, a chance to lay down in a coffin, a purveyor of decaying animals, and a sugar skull making workshop. One of my favorite parts of [...]
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October 16th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
As I was doing some research for my thesis this morning, I came across this quote by the late, great author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and felt like I had to share it with you all.
“…the two most potent spiritual forces
in contention today
have nothing to do with nations,
political parties,
or economic philosophies.
The opposing forces are these:
those who [...]
Shocking Roof Secrets Revealed
October 15th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
On Friday, a few of us lucky souls, still ‘working’ at 4:00, got to hang out up on the roof of the Exploratorium to check out the fleet week Blue Angels show. It was a pretty scary climb up the ladder, but at least I knew that if I slipped, Marcus would break my fall [...]
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October 13th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
I picked up the newspaper this morning and turned to the magazine and saw this awesome picture of a cob of corn being pulverized. I thought to me self that that looks very similar to the smash bat gallery that Walter and Luigi created. Since they just got interviewed by MAKE TV, I guess this [...]
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October 11th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
Here are some of the best pics from our trial run with the sand last Monday! Hopefully we can make some really cool patterns next week on the floor!
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Genius Alert
September 25th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
For those who didn’t catch the newspapers, radio coverage, web traffic, mus-news, etc.
Our good buddy and Exploratorium artist Walter Kitundu won the MacArthur “Genius” award on Monday. Walter has so many awesome talents to share with the world and its been amazing to work with him for the past year or so on PIE projects. [...]
Museu Da Vida
September 4th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
I recently got an email from our buddy Sebastian all the way down in Brazil. He’s at a science museum conference down there and has shared our blog with some of the participants. Hopefully some of the “explainers” of other museums around the world can get exposure to one of the ways it’s possible to [...]
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August 26th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
Step 1 - Take Everything Out
Step 2 - Sort Into Piles
Step 3 - Put Everything Back In
Step 4 - Don’t Mess It Up!
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August 6th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
I used to be scared of the CERN particle accelerator creating a black hole and ending life on this planet. But then Paul D. told me that there is nothing to be scared of and that the accelerator doesn’t create anything that doesn’t already enter our atmosphere.
Now I’m scared of the world ending because it [...]
CERN Particle Accelerator Rap
August 6th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
I used to be scared of the CERN particle accelerator creating a black hole and ending life on this planet. But then Paul D. told me that there is nothing to be scared of and that the accelerator doesn’t create anything that doesn’t already enter our atmosphere.
Now I’m scared of the world ending because it [...]
Paul D. at 4:00AM
August 4th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
Last Thursday night and early Friday morning, there was a sleepover at the Exploratorium to watch a web cast of a total solar eclipse live from China. The festivities started at 9:00pm and the visitors sped toward the skylight in order to get the best sleeping spots. As you can see…it got a little crowded!
Some [...]
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July 31st, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
Last week, Exploratorium resident magician-in-chief Luigi visited our summer camp to perform his famous “Peanut, Butter, and Jelly” and “Mongolian Pop Knot” tricks. Luckily Walter was on hand to videotape the entire trick as performed to a group of about forty 7-10 year olds. If you can’t afford Luigi’s hefty appearance fee for a personal [...]
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July 31st, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
I’ve been wanting to post these videos for a while. Ann and I were hanging out in the learning studio and Luigi couldn’t wait to share the clips of Japanese chain reaction machines that he was researching for his ‘job’. We watched about 40 of these beauties non-stop. They are eerily addictive. And I have [...]
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July 1st, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
Check out these awesome pictures of Sun Dogs (or Parahelions) taken in Mendocino.
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June 20th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
Last week I was hanging out the in learning studio (otherwise known as…cough cough…roam all) and got to check out some of the latest projects by sound artist Ranjit Bhatnagar who just happened to be hanging with the PIEL crew. They showed me some amplifiers made with magnetic wires spun around sewing wheels. Those rocked [...]
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June 12th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. And desperate times calls for desperate measures. Like paper towel tubes and pepper eating. And a desperate competition based on the greatest television show of all time that’s not named American Gladiator”
“Cui-san, what’s in the McBean Auditorium?”
Explainers competing to the death…with one secret [...]
Garden Pt. 3 w/ Avogadro the Avocado
June 6th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
Check out these awesome photos of the garden! It’s been about three months since first planting and things have been looking amazing back there. The peas have been tasty treats and the tomatoes and squash finally have flowers and even the beginnings of fruits. I’ve also included a picture of an avocado seed first sprouted [...]
Related StoresThe Anti-Rainbow!
June 6th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
A little while ago we had a training with Richard Brown about the anti-rainbow (a band of the reverse colors of the usual ROY G. BIV). The main colors on an anti-rainbow are cyan, blue, and magenta which are the opposites of blue, red, and green. Think of it as a blending of the colors [...]
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May 17th, 2008 — SF Mom Map from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
This is a copy of an email sent by Richard Brown on Pie Day!!!
Of course, Albert Einstein never actually visited the Exploratorium, but did you know that our collection includes exhibits that were actually used by Einstein? One of these is still on our museum floor. Can you guess which it is?
Answer: [...]
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May 3rd, 2008 — SF Mom Map from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
Check out Luigi and Kristen’s big modeling debut at last Friday’s second skin event. Click on the picture to get to the Flickr page where you can see Paul D in a dress, Dennis Bartels joshing around, and other explainer types getting in on the action. Also check out the CNET article about the night [...]
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May 1st, 2008 — SF Mom Map from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
With many of the explainers (and the two leaders of the pack) ailing with flu-like symptoms, colds, sniffles, shakes, stuffiness, and sultry voice, I thought I would post a few links all about chicken soup including some of my favorite recipes.
Matzo Ball Soup from Smitten Kitchen
Get Well Soon Soup from Chef John
The Science of Chicken [...]
Garden (Update) Pt. 2
April 30th, 2008 — SF Mom Map from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
Well it’s been about a month since the first post about the garden in my backyard. Things are going super awesome and its so fun to see how much growth can happen in just one month. A few weeks ago we saw white flowers on the pea plants. They seemed a little closed up but [...]
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April 30th, 2008 — SF Mom Map from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
What emotions do these photos conjure up? Does one connote a noble symbol of freedom and the other a urban nuisance? Where do these ideas come from?
Here’s a neat article that I read today in the NY Times science Tuesday by one of my favorite science writers, Natalie Angier, about the problems with “biobigotry” (hope [...]
How to offend ‘Stroop Purists’ and Luminaries
April 10th, 2008 — SF Mom Map from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
I just checked out a book in the library called The Best American Science Writing 2006. Now I can be totally caught up with all the developments that happened in science two years ago. Woo-hoo! But funny enough in the first article called “Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore” Natalie Angier writes about the exhibit [...]
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Giant Squid in SF Bay
April 8th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
So Amisha sent out the link about the squid that have infiltrated the bay. Here’s the link.
Giant, hippie-hating, cannibalistic squids attack SF Bay Area
The unintentional comedy factor for this video is pretty high even though it’s produced by QUEST a PBS station in San Francisco. In the beginning they totally try to make it seem [...]
Cow Eye Questions/Answers
April 2nd, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
So I’ve been doing some outside research on the cow’s eye demonstration and it turns out that some of the information that we give is just not correct. Apparently a few other museums and schools do the dissection but have passed on many false ideas. An article that I stumbled across debunked some of the [...]
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March 27th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
I’ve been having some great conversations with other explainers and visitors while initially just compiling a list of questions (without worrying about the answers) at the DNA demonstrations. Its a nice technique to get the conversation started and cultivate a more two-way street at the demo stations. Today a visitor shared reading this article in [...]
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March 24th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
The easter-eggs that we colored on friday are starting to smell a little funky, but I can’t bear to just throw them out without sharing them with the world. So here are our attempts to create colored eggs that no child could ever duplicate!
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March 24th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
So I’ll admit that at first I wasn’t too thrilled about the next member’s class topic. I mean what is there to talk about ’soil’ and ‘why do I care’? That all changed after this weekend! Sarah took one look at my backyard and was convinced that we could make something of it! It [...]
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March 19th, 2008 — exploratorium from ryexplain @ Exploratorium Explainers
We had a training last week with Charlie Carlson about the structure of brain cells in order to better understand the ways that the mind works to process feelings, sensations, and emotions. These kind of topics often come up as we interact with the public in the brain exploration demo station. While we came up [...]
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