Sunday, November 20th for the Science and Global Change scholars program i attended the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences. The Museum was opened in 2004 as a window into the current scientific issues our World is dealing with. It was named after Marian Koshland a famous immunologist and molecular biologist who made great headway in the research of antibodies and their behavior. The information presented are all studies underway by the National Academies of Sciences which is a private nonprofit organization that produces groundbreaking reports on current scientific issues. The museum was organized into three main galleries these being Infectious Disease: Evolving Challenges to Human Health, Global Warming Facts and Our Future, and the Wonders of Science.
The Infectious Disease exhibit explored the microbial world that surrounds us and the diseases that have been prominent both in our history and current day and their demographic implications. One presentation within this exhibit was the history of studies on disease, giving a timeline for the discovery and cure for smallpox and polio. This display was very interesting showing the development of the cure along with the studies and people that were part of this. The set up of this segment of the exhibit was extremely organized while being presented in an interesting way that grabbed the onlookers attention and included many pictures and audio to complement the information presented. Another component of the exhibit was the interactive visual on infection spread. This exhibit demonstrated how computer programs can simulate epidemics and the spread of diseases by modeling social interactions between both sick and susceptible people in a community. The model considers when each person is contagious, the number of people whom they contact through work, school, shopping, entertainment, health care and recreation. This interactive visual was extremely demonstrative because you were able to see the speed of the spread and the exponential infection that the disease takes. The education level was lower than that of the climate change exhibit being more accessible to younger audiences in middle school. Because of the breadth of information presented younger audiences than middle school would not have the background information and knowledge to be able to fully take advantage of the information presented. The interactive components make up a large part of the exhibit and really add to the information. One example of this is the emergence of drug resistance bacteria such as Tuberculosis. The interactive worked where you would go through and pick a human from a continent and go through 18 months of the humans life and the development of Tuberculosis. The treatment for TB takes 6 months before it is cured and the interactive brought up issues of access to drugs and how often the medication needs to be taken by the observer actually having to give the infected victims their necessary doses by pressing a button. The interactives completed the exhibit by adding not only interest but a further level of understanding of the topics presented, putting the observers in the disease ridden situation and making them go through the different outcomes of the disease spread as well as its cure.
Another exhibit in the museum was Global Warming Facts and Our Future. This exhibit explored the current issues our Planet it dealing with with climate change and global warming both natural and anthropogenic and its implications. This exhibit had great visuals such as an actual tree segment to exhibit the measurement of tree rings as well as a model of an ice core and bleached coral. On top of these visuals there were many interactives throughout every segment of the exhibit. One example of this was the computer generated pie chart that showed the distribution of US CO2 emissions and their sources. In 2007 97% of Co2 emissions that the US added to the atmosphere were from energy related uses and amassed to 6 billion tons of Co2. The distribution was 34% from transport, 27% from industry, 18% from commercial and 21% from residential. Another part of the exhibit showed the area specific effects of global warming and was presented as a touchscreen. This touchscreen showed the effects on ecosystems, oceans, coasts, society and weather. Under each of these categories different examples of the effects were given and such as for the ocean there will be effects from climate change on decrease in marine productivity, increases in ocean acidification, increases in oxygen depleted dead zones and increase in coral bleaching. The education level this was presented to was high school and up. Lower levels would not have a prior knowledge of science to be able to support the information presented such as poxy measures of temperatures and Co2 levels. The interactives made the subject mater extremely interesting and being able to actually see movies and hear audio on the social effects of climate change made the problem more relatable and interesting.
The third exhibit in the museum was the Wonders of Science. This section presented curent and past questions in science and the information we have on them. One piece of information was on safe drinking water. This was set up as an interactive information session of safe drinking water and its treatment. This was extremely accessible to the public and was offered in alternative languages. The interactive went through the contaminants - both anthropogenic from industry and natural from arsenic and bacteria, and the current treatment processes we are using. Another part of the exhibit showed the satellite images of Earth of electric lights at night from light sources created by people. This was extremely interesting showing the distribution of the energy use across the World and allowed the observer to see the energy efficiency of different countries and how our population as a whole is extremely wasteful of our energy resources. On the display the US and Europe had the highest levels of energy use while the Korean peninsula showed an interesting distribution of close to zero energy use in the North and high energy use in the South - showing the implications of the government and culture on energy use. Energy use over time was also shown and from this certain countries economic booms can be shown such as Japan and the change in energy use from 1993 to 2003 and the fast increase in energy use. This exhibit was put toward a broader audience Middle School and up given that the way the information was presented was easy to understand and was extremely informative based on the videos and interactives given. The interactives made the information accessible and were effective in presenting the information by leading the observer through the different subjects.
These exhibits are not static there is constantly more and more information being put out on these subjects so it is up to the museum to add or take away certain parts that they feel best represent the current scientific consensus on these topics. A basic museum does not have to deal with these changing data sets and their exhibits remain relatively static in the information presented. This uncertainty can be seen in the design of the museum with much of the information on computer based interactives as well as writing and images where information can easily be changed and kept up to date with current science. One issue with this museum is that the information and topics that are presented are not easily understood even to the scientific word so how is this information to be made accessible and understandable to the general public. The information needs to be presented in such a way where it is informative to not only the general public but also the academic world so balancing these two things can be a subject of issue. I think the museum did a good job of this task with making the exhibits have both lower and higher levels of information presented. There were segments of the climate change exhibit that were more accessible to people who were coming into the exhibit with pre-acquired knowledge as well as to people that did not necessarily have that good of a background. Overall this was one of my favorite museum fieldtrips of the colloquium and i thoroughly enjoyed the experience of attending this museum.