Event name: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Event time and place: October 20, 2024 at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC


Holding Hands with the Past

The Cellphones: Unseen Connections exhibit is an eye-opener on how something we use daily has a deeper impact on the world. This exhibit uses several types of media to get its message across, like interactive screens, videos, and physical models. For instance, the interactive screens let us explore things like the lifecycle of a cellphone, which helps us understand the resources involved in making and disposing of them. Videos show the process of manufacturing cellphones and the environmental effects of cellphone disposal. The videos are effective since they are short but pack a lot of information in a simple way. Lastly, physical models, like deconstructed cellphones, show the actual components, making it easier to see what is inside our devices. These methods are really effective because they make us interact with the information in different ways. This exhibit also touches on the environmental issues tied to cellphones, focusing on rare minerals like lithium and cobalt, which are mined in ways that pollute land and water. It shows these issues through data visualizations, like graphs and maps, which help us see the big picture. When it comes to the impacts of cellphones, the exhibit highlights how they changed communication, which is a major technological impact, and then covers social issues like privacy concerns and increased connectivity. These points are explained using interviews and digital timelines, showing how cellphones have made connecting easier but at a privacy cost.

In the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, the Humans Change the World exhibit focuses on how we have influenced the planet during what is often called the Anthropocene. Three key topics include urbanization, deforestation, and fossil fuel use. Urbanization is shown with maps that change over time, showing the growth of cities and their environmental impacts. Deforestation is illustrated with satellite images, which show the forest loss over the years due to expanding human settlements. Lastly, fossil fuel use is covered with graphs showing the rise in carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution. These displays are impactful because they use clear visuals to show the changes, making it easy to see how we have affected the Earth. Some people think this exhibit does not focus enough on human-caused climate change, and I agree a bit. While it covers our impact, it sometimes feels like it is just listing these things as facts, rather than as urgent problems we need to fix. Adding more urgency could make visitors understand that our actions today will really shape the planets future.

In the Sant Ocean Hall, the Changing Ocean section provides several interactive videos that explain how climate change affects oceans. I watched one video about Coral Bleaching and Ocean Warming, which covered how warming waters are killing coral reefs, and another on Rising Sea Levels and Coastal Erosion, which showed how rising seas are threatening coastal cities. These videos were easy to follow because they used visuals and simple terms, making complex science understandable to almost anyone. The Global Ocean Video display, shown on a spherical screen, uses animations to demonstrate issues like global warming and CO2 levels, displaying how these things affect ocean currents and temperatures around the world. I thought the spherical display format was super helpful because it made it easy to see how all the ocean areas are connected and how a change in one area can impact the rest of the globe.

Finally, the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils Deep Time exhibit has displays that make you think about how Earths climate has changed over millions of years. Scattered throughout the hall are paleoenvironmental dioramas, which are mini-reconstructions of life from different times in Earths history. I looked at two of these dioramas: one representing the Jurassic period, showing high CO2 levels, warm temperatures, and higher sea levels than today, and another from the Ice Age, which had much lower CO2 and colder temperatures. These dioramas are effective because they mix visual models of plants and animals with data, helping us understand what the climate was like and how life adapted. Along the walls, there are also displays explaining past climate changes using data from ice cores and sediment layers, which help scientists study ancient temperatures. These exhibits do a good job of explaining how we use the past to make predictions about future climate change by combining real data with visual models.