Museum Crawl

I’ve been haunting Pittsburgh museums a lot lately. My favorite thing to do is get a pass to the Museum of Natural History on my lunch break and just stroll through the Hillman Hall of Minerals & Gems. That exhibit, however, will be closing soon so they can cycle new material in. I guess I’ll finally have to man up and see Dinosaurs in Their Time: T. rex vs. T. rex. The revamped exhibit has attained an almost mythic status in my mind due to my love of the original and the additional T. rex, and I’m afraid I won’t like the new version. (I have peeked on the ‘net, though. Check out the rockin’, high-resolution press photos here. Total eye candy and desktop wallpaper fodder!)

It seems like everything is aimed at kids these days in most museums, a problem that was made explicit by my recent trip to the Carnegie Science Center. If little brats can’t fondle, slurp, and sniff an exhibit the museum isn’t interested. (And honestly, it’s all about engineering anyways–the practical application of technology. Not really pure science.)

Against my better judgment I also went to see the Science Center’s Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. Just like Bodies, it was all sensationalism and spectacle. Instead of discussing something scientific, like how the ship sank, how the artifacts survived, or how the artifacts were recovered, the exhibit instead focused on a narrative of the ship sinking and personal stories. I was even given a boarding pass, and was cheerily encouraged to “see if you survive the voyage”. Jacques Heath Futrelle, whose “boarding pass” I was given, died, although his wife survived. I thought it was in very poor taste the way children and adults alike ran to the roster board at the end of the exhibit to “see if I survived”. (Life-size replicas of rooms from the ship further encouraged this role-playing.) Even if it was intended as a sobering activity, it sure didn’t turn out that way.

I did, however, enjoy The Alps, an Omnimax feature chronicling John Harlin III’s attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger. Although it wasn’t brilliantly constructed or particularly illuminating in terms of geology, climatology, or mountaineering, the footage of the Swiss Alps was stunningly beautiful. They also used a bunch of Queen’s songs for the soundtrack, which I was more than pleasantly surprised by.

If I don’t make it to Mars, perhaps I can make it to the Alps.

On a related IMAX note, I saw The Dark Knight and though it was terrible, although not worse than Batman Begins. Poor editing and pacing (save in the action sequences, of course!), a flat and uninteresting Batman (par for the live-action course), a claptrap, bombastic, and ultimately trite set of characters’ motivations (I’m looking at you, agents of chaos), and finally a Ledger performance that didn’t live up to hype. Some of the method acting on Ledger’s part was just terrible. All that tongue wagging? Honestly!

:: Bibliography ::

• Franzos, Joshua (photographer). 17 June 2008. Staff Preview Day for Phase Two of Dinosaurs in Their Time: T. rex vs. T. rex . Carnegie Museum of Natural History. http://www.carnegiemnh.org/news/08-apr-jun/061708preview.htm (28 August 2008).

Water on Mars!!! H2O! Dihydrogen monoxide!

Laboratory tests aboard NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander’s robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.

“We have water,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA.

I vow that one day I will call Mars my home.

:: Bibliography ::

• NASA. NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water, Mission Extended. NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080731.html (1 August 2008).