For Immediate Release
June 1, 1997

What is a pink Blepherisma and what does it have in common with a long-nosed Dileptus? They are both swimming in a single drop of water, alongside other algae, protozoa, and bacteria. They are part of the world of hidden kingdoms that are everywhere and on everything: kitchen counters, hands, soil, water, snow, in the desert sands and in the Arctic Ocean. Hidden Kingdoms: The World of Microbes, the nation's first interactive exhibition on microbiology, is a new exhibition at the Exploratorium from June 1-September 7, 1997. See the normally invisible world of the microbe.

Open your view to the many thousands of varieties of microorganisms, some that defy the definitions we use in the visible world since some microbes gain energy fron sunlight (like plants) and move (like animals) -- all in one diatom. Find out more about everything from penicillium to E. coli to yeast and all the other protozoa, amoeba, algae and bacteria -- as they use their cilia, pseudopods and flagaellae to get around, reproduce and sense and respond to their environments. Some are helpful. Some are harmful. But before this exhibition, they were all invisible to the general public.

E-Z View microscopes allow you to see the real thing magnfied from 140 to 1440 times, while large scale models, interactive exhibits, zoetropes, demonstrations and workshops in microbial life take you further into their world. Find out about good and bad microbes, their diversity, size, scale and whatever else you ever wanted to know about these mysterious creatures, called "animalcules" by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the lens-grinding hobbyist in Holland who first spotted microbes by accident 300 years ago. He was looking through his homemade microscope at a mixture of water, saliva and some "stuff" he harvested from his back teeth!

Throughout the months of July and August, programs on the weekends will explore the many ways we harness the power of microbes. Guest professionals will demonstrate everything from sourdough bread-making and home-brewing to backyard composting. Film/media programs will provide other lenses for seeing the unseen.

Play the part of an unfriendly virus, like an invading cold virus (rhinovirus). Experience the process by which viruses invade a cell, burst them (releasing an army of new viruses) and cause a cell to die. Symptoms are the result of the irritating process of getting rid of all those dead cells and our immune's sytem response to the virus infection. See the body's defense system zap invading germ cells. Find out what happens in AIDS, a disease caused by HIV. See how that virus attacks and kills immune system cells, the very cells which defend against invading microbes.

Despite some microbes' deadly effects, others are healing. Penicillin is an antibiotic made by a microbe, a mold called Penicilliuim. In the case of penicllin, science has borrowed its poison to kill other microbes.

Discover the friendly bacteria that makes our lives livable by helping to digest what we eat or cleaning oil spills from our beaches. E. coli is one of a vast number of bacteria present in our large intestine; but why when it is introduced into our systems by other food products, can it be so deadly?

People have been using microbes without knowing it to make their own food and beverages for thousands of years. Bread, beer and wine all take advantage of the same microorganism: a type of yeast known as Saccharomyces. More than 2000 years ago Greek wrestlers were eating cheese for endurance and Roman soldiers carried the same "fromage" across Europe as a portable meal. Microbes are essential to the first step in making cheese -- sour milk -- the work of bacteria. Adding particular bacteria and fungi creates the hundreds of fine cheese that exist today. At the exhibit, open the door of fridge filled with moldy food and then later, learn about other kinds of molds, the ones that make food tasty.

When you're done looking inside, get a better look at what's really there on the surface of your body too, and magnify your own lock of hair or the patterns on your fingertips, even lint on your clothes.

CONTACT: LINDA DACKMAN/Reena Jana (415)563-7337