Event name: National Museum of Natural History

Event time and place: October 20, 2024 @ National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC


Me at the "Cellphones: Unseen Connections" exhibit.
The first exhibit I visited was the “Cellphones: Unseen Connections” exhibit, I initially had trouble finding it, as it was hidden inside another section of the museum. Once I did locate it, I saw a set of large display screens resembling cell phones. These screens captured visitors’ images and overlaid them with cartoonish animal emoji faces (as seen in the attached image). Throughout the exhibit, information was displayed in the following forms: games, physical displays, and videos. All of the presentation techniques were effective in their own ways. The games could appeal to the younger demographic of visitors to the exhibit, like younger children. The physical displays provided a visual for the text that accompanied them, this allowed the guests to see things such as minerals that were used in phone production. The videos had closed captions and worked similarly to the physical displays accompanied by text. One of the exhibit's central themes was the environmental and human costs of cell phone production. It highlighted how the extraction of minerals like gold, tin, tantalum, and tungsten often fuels human rights abuses and environmental destruction. For example, copper mining—cited to generate more waste than any other mineral extraction in the U.S.—was prominently featured. The exhibit also pointed out that while some phones are recycled, many are not. These facts were accompanied by the following visuals: images of mines and mining locations, physical samples of copper, and actual phone parts, which helped bring the information to life. The exhibit also explored the social and technological impacts of cell phones, complementing the information about their environmental costs. Images and text illustrated how the rise of cell phones has created job opportunities in the secondhand phone market, including reselling and repairing phones. A comic series highlighted another social consequence: the potential deterioration in face-to-face communication skills as digital interactions become more popular. On the technological front, the exhibit showed how cell phones have driven advancements in energy efficiency, with displays featuring a power box and power lines to illustrate these innovations.

The next exhibit, the “David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins”, which explored human evolution alongside various other topics, including how information was recorded, the role of jewelry in reflecting identity, and the change in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The exhibit traced the development of information recording, from the use of animal bones and antlers on clay tablets to document basic concepts like numbers, to the later recording of sounds and syllables. Jewelry, made from materials such as animal bones, ivory, and shells, was showcased as a reflection of individual identity, signaling age, gender, and social status. Another section addressed the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, caused by fossil fuel burning and deforestation, with graphs illustrating its correlation to rising global temperatures. However, I do believe that the exhibit under-emphasized human impact on the environment. While the exhibit's primary focus was on human history, how humans have shaped and altered the world around them is a crucial part of that story. Understanding this connection is essential to understanding human evolution itself.

Next, I visited the “Sant Ocean Hall”, which focuses on ocean biology. At the interactive video stations, I watched two videos: “No Sunlight? No Problem!” and “Deep Ocean Creatures.” The first video explored microbes that rely on chemosynthesis to survive, while the second delved into sea life that thrives at greater ocean depths, such as certain species of fish, starfish, and sponges. Both videos were accessible to a broad audience, presenting key concepts like chemosynthesis in a clear and engaging way. Another highlight of the exhibit was the “Global Ocean Video,” which focused on the global impact of hurricanes. This spherical video display functioned both as a globe and a screen, offering a 360-degree view that presented visuals in an innovative way. The globe format was particularly effective, as it allowed viewers to better understand the global scale of hurricane impacts, something that might be harder to understand on a traditional flat map.

Lastly, I visited the “David H. Koch Hall of Fossils – Deep Time”, which features a stunning collection of fossil displays. I visited two paleoenvironmental dioramas, each representing a different era: the Harrison Formation in Nebraska (24–16 million years ago) and the Willwood Formation in Wyoming (66–50 million years ago). The first diorama depicted a time when carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were 50% higher than today, temperatures were 5 to 12 degrees Fahrenheit warmer, and sea levels were 330 feet higher. The second diorama showed an even more dramatic shift, with atmospheric carbon dioxide levels five times higher than today, temperatures 14 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit hotter, and sea levels rising by 650 to 720 feet. These dioramas were effective in illustrating the stark differences between past and present conditions, making it easier to grasp the scale of climate changes over millions of years. I also explored several exhibits, including “Agriculture Changes the World,” “Trades Change the World,” and “Energy Use Changes the World.” The Agriculture exhibit detailed how selective breeding of plants and animals has led to the decline of wild species, waterway pollution, and significant contributions to climate change. The Trades exhibit explained how the global movement of goods has facilitated the spread of invasive species, increased disease transmission, and contributed to global warming through fossil fuel consumption. Finally, the Energy Use exhibit explored how the harnessing of fossil fuels has resulted in ocean acidification, climate change, and poses a growing threat to future generations and ecosystems. These exhibits were effective as they simply gave us the facts without any extraneous words.