Field Trip: National Museum of Natural History

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, October 20, 2024:

In the temporary "Cellphones: Unseen Connections" exhibit, several different presentation techniques were used to convey important information engagingly. First, the display that stood out most to me in this exhibit was the case of old cell phones. Showcasing actual cellphones, from the earliest models to the latest smartphones, gives the audience a personal feel for the evolution of the cellphone. They get to see what physically changed to get to the advanced world we live in today. Second, the floor was scattered with tall interactive touchscreens that mimicked large cellphones. These were effective because each museum patron could move through the information at their own pace and feel comfortable using a familiar platform like a cellphone screen. Third, and similarly, the exhibit made use of short informative video clips. These are effective because they require minimal effort to engage and understand as a museum visitor.

The exhibit's creators included a large display case with all the minerals necessary to create cell phones. The display was called "From the Universe to Your Pocket" to emphasize that these rare minerals were once a collection of particles released in star explosions that eventually collected and formed within the Earth. This exhibit is meant to demonstrate the many materials used in cellphone production, as well as the rarity of those materials. Presenting these many expensive-looking minerals in one display case provides the audience a chance to visualize the effort that goes into making each one of these phones. When I first saw this display, I began thinking of the incredible volumes of land that are mined to obtain these materials. Then I pictured the incredible industry this feeds into. Not only the production of the phones themselves, but the transportation of these phones to consumers all over the world, creates a massive carbon footprint. Also, as mentioned previously there was a large case of old cellphones. When looking at this display, especially the older plastic phones, I pictured the vast amount of pollution caused by disposed, old cell phones.

The evolution of cell phones has had many technological impacts on our world today. Detailed in the exhibit is the massive advancement of camera technology. Due to the advancement of the smartphone, and even the cameras themselves, anyone with a device can take pictures at any moment and edit them to their pleasure with ease. The exhibit also discusses the social impacts of the growth of cell phones. First, mining for minerals is incredibly dangerous. One display in the exhibit, called "Everything in your cellphone is extracted from the Earth." gives primary source information from real-life miners from different countries. Here we are introduced to Leonard and Justine from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While describing his work, Leonard wrote "We face various challenges: pit collapses and landslides, and a lack of motorized water pumps and necessary equipment for washing." Mines are a hazardous work environment, but many people in the world must work in these conditions to support themselves. However, in this vein, Justine speaks highly of mining, writing "But thanks to our work at the mine, we have managed to buy two motorcycles...With the generated incomes, we can pay the school fees of two of our younger children and one of our cousins." Mining is a massive industry that produces a lot of jobs. Although dangerous, these plentiful jobs provide the wages needed to survive and thrive for many worldwide.

In the "Humans Change the World" section of the Hall of Human Origins, the exhibit's creators include a section that indirectly references the "Anthropocene Event", the geological epoch in history in which humans began to have an impact. Several ways humans have impacted the world during this epoch were described. First, the human population has been growing since the dawn of man, and continues to grow rapidly. They displayed this data using various timelines and curves that correlate to the growth rate of humanity. They portrayed the information this way to display the massive growth our species has made in a relatively short period. This is almost directly tied to the next topic discussed and that is the growth of agriculture. The creators of the exhibit included a statistic that one-quarter of the Earth's surface is reserved for agriculture. This puts into perspective the massive dependence of humanity on the Earth and is a direct example of how humans have impacted the globe on a truly massive, encompassing scale. Finally, the impact of the advancement of technology on animals. In this exhibit, there was a display of fishing technology that allowed humans to begin hunting in the ocean. This, and other advancements that followed, introduced a new predator into the world's rivers and oceans. I would say that this exhibit did a fine job of portraying human impact in the Anthropocene. The exhibit's designers included a section that compared directly rising CO2 levels in our atmosphere, and a timeline of human advancement. This, in my opinion, is the paramount figure needed when analyzing the Anthropocene, so I was glad to see it included.

I watched two informational videos in "The Changing Ocean" section of the museum. The first video was titled "Ghost Ships Off the Golden Gate." This video talked about analyzing shipwrecks outside of the Golden Gate Bridge since they're well-preserved. Analyzing the shipwrecks using sonar can be like looking into the past. The information provided in the video was easy to interpret since they clearly explained how they ran the scans, as well as a timeline of the missions conducted. The second video was "Deep Ocean Creatures", which described various organisms that reside in areas of the ocean devoid of all light. I believe the video was accessible because the creator included the names of each of the species shown, as well as described the conditions they live in and how they survive clearly.

In the "Science on the Sphere" video, the exhibit's creators did an excellent job of simplifying information about the Earth's crust and plate tectonics. The designers put the video on a globe-shaped screen so all the images they displayed were easy to interpret. The screen's shape also allowed the creators to show changes to the globe over time. They used the screen to show the history of tectonic movement, as well as what happens when plates converge or diverge. Overall, the exhibit was easy for audiences to interpret, mostly due to the design of the screen.

Throughout the "Hall of Fossils," there were many pylons that held dioramas of different paleoenvironmental moments in time. The first pylon I explored depicted what would be the Midwestern USA today, 320-299 million years ago. In this setting, the average global temperature was four degrees Fahrenheit lower than today, global sea levels were 0-40 meters higher, and CO2 levels were very similar. The second pylon displayed an area that's now northern Texas, 299-270 million years ago. In this area and time, the average temperature was between eight and twelve degrees Fahrenheit higher than today, the global sea level was 40-80 meters higher than today, and the CO2 levels had a massive range from less than today to three times today's level. These pylons were both effective for the same reasons. They provided relevant data that made the exhibit easy to interpret, but they also depicted areas of the world we can visualize, like states in our own country. This makes the differences between 300 million years ago and today more evident.

Along a long wall in the "Hall of Fossils," exhibits described past and present climate changes from five hundred million years ago to the present. Throughout the length of the wall, demonstrations of the vastly changing oceanic and global temperatures were displayed, along with changes in biodiversity and polar ice caps. The wall also mentioned how data from polar ice cores and fossils can be examined to determine data from these eras millions of years ago. Inclusively, these data and analyses provided a clear scope of what was happening during these periods of climate change.