(no subject)
Read this post. It is long, and I should be writing my thesis instead of it, but read it. READ IT! Because it is soooooo cool, and you should go too. Ok, maybe it really isn't about my "date" on Friday. But it is. Sort of. And you should read it.
Jon's parents are members of the Field Museum, so this Friday, like the nerds we are, he and I went to the Field's members-only behind the scenes night. It was awesome. We got to run around the whole place, learn how they preserve plant specimens, look at their neverending collections of every type of natural whatever (insects, birds, plants, rocks, and other stuff), see their fabrications department, even see them disecting a tiger! Now, you all know I love museums, so it's no surprise that I really enjoyed this. What surprised me most, however, was not the behind the scenes stuff, but the new exhibits on display at the Field.
I've been to the Field Museum before many times, and I never cared too much for it. After a certain age, huge dinosaur bones cease to be impressive, in my opinion. And I never liked the exhibits with the stuffed dead animals. They always looked really dusty and somewhat disturbing. One of the things that annoyed me in the past was that their dinosaur exhibit, one of the things they were known for, was outdated.
It isn't anymore.
In fact, it's amazing. It's part of an exhibit called "Evolving Planet," one of the most scientifically up-to-date exhibits I've ever seen. The exhibit is huge. Jon and I went in at the very end of the night as a whim, just one more thing to do. We got what we thought was about half way through the exhibit when they started shooing everyone towards the exit. We weren't half way through, we were only half way through the first section, which talks about early evolution from single-celled organisms to early mammals. Although we didn't have a lot of time to look at everything in the rest of the exhibit, I was really, really impressed.
The exhibit is like a really fascinating science course on everything you've ever thought was important in your biology class and then forgotten. Cells, difference between asexual and sexual reproduction and the benefits and problems inherent in both forms, climactic changes and evolutionary changes perimitting life to come out of the ocean, parts of seeds and eggs and how they protect the embryo, and, of course, how evolution takes place and how natural selection works.
Now, I have perhaps a slightly better than high-school level of knowledge about biology and evolution. I didn't learn a ton from the parts of the exhibit I was able to look closely at, because I'd been taught much of it already. I know the parts of a cell, the differences between plant and animal cells, that sort of thing. But there was a lot more than simplistic coverage of the way our world developed over millenia. Anyone, of almost any age, except perhaps babies and people with a graduate level biology degree, would learn a lot from the entire exhibit. There is stuff for kids, and then stuff for people like me who already think they know it all.
The stuff I mentioned before? Only the first part of the exhibit. It keeps going, and going, and going. Dinosaurs, of course, in steps explaining their development and evolutionary changes, and then the development of birds and mammals, and sea-going mammals (whales and dolphins). There is the hominid area, which covers the development of humans from apes, and then (in a slightly backwards in time step) the wooly mammoths.
All of this is backed up with skeletons, fossils (ohwowwaytoomanyfossils), stuffed models, and very comprehensible diagrams and text. But the exhibit isn't at all boring, despite all the information on offer. Lots of bright colors, cool light up stuff that shows different parts of things, and simple and funny cartoons about, for instance, how an adaptation that may be advantageous in one environment can be a hindrance in another environment.
Did I mention that the exhibit is big? Yes? Ok. BIG. REALLYREALLYBIG! I think it takes up at least two normal sized exhibit halls, which are already comfortably large at the Field. My only complaint is that there are not enough benches.
Anyways, Jon and I want to go back, because really, you could go and spend the entire day in the exhibit, and we were in there for perhaps half an hour. You should go too, if you're in the area. Or if you're going to visit Chicago, stop by the Field Museum, because it is awesome. Oh, if you do go, the exhibit is free, but you need a timed ticket so that they can control the crowding, so remember to pick one up when you buy your ticket to the museum.
And if you get there before June 4 (May be a good place to take family coming in for graduation or something) there is a small, very powerful traveling exhibit on display (for free!) upstairs, called "The Auschwitz Album: The Story of a Transport." The exhibit displays images from an album of photographs, taken by a Nazi soldier, of the arrival of a group of Hungarian Jews at Auschwitz. It's very haunting, and you shouldn't miss it.
Jon's parents are members of the Field Museum, so this Friday, like the nerds we are, he and I went to the Field's members-only behind the scenes night. It was awesome. We got to run around the whole place, learn how they preserve plant specimens, look at their neverending collections of every type of natural whatever (insects, birds, plants, rocks, and other stuff), see their fabrications department, even see them disecting a tiger! Now, you all know I love museums, so it's no surprise that I really enjoyed this. What surprised me most, however, was not the behind the scenes stuff, but the new exhibits on display at the Field.
I've been to the Field Museum before many times, and I never cared too much for it. After a certain age, huge dinosaur bones cease to be impressive, in my opinion. And I never liked the exhibits with the stuffed dead animals. They always looked really dusty and somewhat disturbing. One of the things that annoyed me in the past was that their dinosaur exhibit, one of the things they were known for, was outdated.
It isn't anymore.
In fact, it's amazing. It's part of an exhibit called "Evolving Planet," one of the most scientifically up-to-date exhibits I've ever seen. The exhibit is huge. Jon and I went in at the very end of the night as a whim, just one more thing to do. We got what we thought was about half way through the exhibit when they started shooing everyone towards the exit. We weren't half way through, we were only half way through the first section, which talks about early evolution from single-celled organisms to early mammals. Although we didn't have a lot of time to look at everything in the rest of the exhibit, I was really, really impressed.
The exhibit is like a really fascinating science course on everything you've ever thought was important in your biology class and then forgotten. Cells, difference between asexual and sexual reproduction and the benefits and problems inherent in both forms, climactic changes and evolutionary changes perimitting life to come out of the ocean, parts of seeds and eggs and how they protect the embryo, and, of course, how evolution takes place and how natural selection works.
Now, I have perhaps a slightly better than high-school level of knowledge about biology and evolution. I didn't learn a ton from the parts of the exhibit I was able to look closely at, because I'd been taught much of it already. I know the parts of a cell, the differences between plant and animal cells, that sort of thing. But there was a lot more than simplistic coverage of the way our world developed over millenia. Anyone, of almost any age, except perhaps babies and people with a graduate level biology degree, would learn a lot from the entire exhibit. There is stuff for kids, and then stuff for people like me who already think they know it all.
The stuff I mentioned before? Only the first part of the exhibit. It keeps going, and going, and going. Dinosaurs, of course, in steps explaining their development and evolutionary changes, and then the development of birds and mammals, and sea-going mammals (whales and dolphins). There is the hominid area, which covers the development of humans from apes, and then (in a slightly backwards in time step) the wooly mammoths.
All of this is backed up with skeletons, fossils (ohwowwaytoomanyfossils), stuffed models, and very comprehensible diagrams and text. But the exhibit isn't at all boring, despite all the information on offer. Lots of bright colors, cool light up stuff that shows different parts of things, and simple and funny cartoons about, for instance, how an adaptation that may be advantageous in one environment can be a hindrance in another environment.
Did I mention that the exhibit is big? Yes? Ok. BIG. REALLYREALLYBIG! I think it takes up at least two normal sized exhibit halls, which are already comfortably large at the Field. My only complaint is that there are not enough benches.
Anyways, Jon and I want to go back, because really, you could go and spend the entire day in the exhibit, and we were in there for perhaps half an hour. You should go too, if you're in the area. Or if you're going to visit Chicago, stop by the Field Museum, because it is awesome. Oh, if you do go, the exhibit is free, but you need a timed ticket so that they can control the crowding, so remember to pick one up when you buy your ticket to the museum.
And if you get there before June 4 (May be a good place to take family coming in for graduation or something) there is a small, very powerful traveling exhibit on display (for free!) upstairs, called "The Auschwitz Album: The Story of a Transport." The exhibit displays images from an album of photographs, taken by a Nazi soldier, of the arrival of a group of Hungarian Jews at Auschwitz. It's very haunting, and you shouldn't miss it.