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Exhibits from A–Z
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A Cell in Motion
Turn the crank and watch a moving cell model. Different parts of the cell extend and retract, and the cell’s internal bulk sometimes shifts from one area to another.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
A Drop to Drink
Getting a drink of water would be very different if you were the size of a doll.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
A Pendulum Clock
At first glance, the giant see-through-erector-set-like structure seems to be a realization of one of Leonardo da Vinci's mechanical inventions.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
A Sip of Conflict
Would you, could you, will you drink from a water fountain fashioned from an actual—but unused—toilet? Porcelain is just porcelain . . . right?
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Adapting to Color
Change your perception of color by flooding your eyes with colored light.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Aeolian Harp
An eerie orchestral chord floats on the breeze; it’s the shimmering sound of a 27-foot tall harp being strummed by the wind.
Where: Gallery 5: Outdoor Exhibits
Aeolian Landscape
Aeolian Landscape presents a swirling storm of sand inside a large chamber covered by a plexiglass top. A knob on the top of the exhibit rotates a sturdy fan set in the base of the chamber.
All Eyes on Me
Situate yourself at just the right place in space in front of this parabolic mirror array and you’ll see dozens of your own eyeballs peering back at you.
Ames Chairs
What we see can depend on what we expect to see.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Anamorphic Bench
A cylindrical mirror turns a curved bench into something quite different, taking a Renaissance-era illusion into the third dimension. The installation encourages playful interactions among users, bringing people together both visually and socially as they explore the unexpected effects.
Where: Plaza
Animation Station
A stop-motion animation is made of many pictures, each slightly different from the last.
Where: Gallery 2: Tinkering
Animation Tower
Quick-changing views create the illusion of motion.
Anti-Gravity Mirror
Here’s an exhibit where watching is at least half the fun. You can create any number of gravity-defying illusions that will amaze you and your friends: Levitate, fly, swim though the air, grow limbs (and dissolve them), crawl straight up the wall like a lizard—the sky’s the limit.
Archimedes
Archimedes is comprised of two 8-foot diameter dish-like chairs placed 80 feet apart. Each dish’s parabolic curve collects and focuses sound waves and reflects them to participants seated within them. Even whispers uttered from one dish can be clearly heard by the surprised listener seated in the opposite dish.
Where: Plaza
Are Your Cells You?
Examine living HeLa cells—the first “immortal” cell line—and explore ethical and philosophical questions about these historic and controversial cells.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
As One
As One invites two participants to partner, and take turns in the roles of leader or follower as they mirror one another’s movements.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Aurora
A reflector stretches light from colored tiles into long bright ribbons.
Bacteriopolis
Thousands of distinct species live and breathe (or not) in this colorful bacterial terrarium. Look for green cyanobacteria, orange iron oxidizers, and gray cellulose eaters. What you see today will be gone tomorrow in this living artwork in a perpetual state of change.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Balancing Ball
Levitating on an invisible stream of air, a beach ball seems to defy gravity. If you try to pull the ball out, you can feel a force pulling it back in—the same force that keeps an airplane in flight.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Bay Lexicon
Bay Lexicon is a visual dictionary made up of illustrated flash cards, exploring the landscape visible from the Bay Observatory’s windows as well as places and phenomena along the shoreline between Fort Point and Hunters Point.
Where: Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6: Observing Landscapes
Bay Windows
Five clear, rotating disks provide beautiful windows onto the motion of sediments in the Bay. Spin them to compare the behavior of gravel, sand, and fine silt—how the currents carry them and how they settle out of the swirling waters.
Where: Koret Foundation Bay Walk
Bicycle Wheel Gyro
Tilt a spinning bicycle wheel while you’re sitting in a swivel chair and—surprise—you’ll start spinning in circles, too. You can also witness the same phenomenon here by hanging a spinning wheel from its axle.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Big Chair, Little Chair
Each of the chairs in this series has dimensions that are twice that of the smaller chair. But doubling the dimension of a chair doesn’t double its strength.
Big Tuning Fork
Distinct tones combine in the hum of this tuning fork.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Big Wood: 300 Years of Photosynthesis
Developed by artist Michael Brown in collaboration with reclaimed wood specialist Evan Shively, a several-hundred-year-old Douglas fir was split down the center to reveal its rings, immersing visitors in a fascinating study of dendrochronology.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Bike Rope Squirter
These upside down, bike-powered machines are built to throw ropes twenty feet into the air. Acting a bit like water and a bit like rope, the loops dance along the ground as visitors play an Exploratorium-style game of jump rope.
Where: Gallery 5: Outdoor Exhibits
Bird in a Cage
Stare at a bird’s eye for 30 seconds, then look into the empty cage. You’ll see a ghostly bird—of a very different color—inside the cage
Black Sand
At this simple but ever-popular exhibit, black sand from nearby beaches make spiky patterns that reveal the invisible magnetic field between the poles of two giant magnets.
Where: Ray and Dagmar Dolby Atrium
Blood Cells in Your Eye
Gaze into the eyepiece at the blue light, looking for bright specks moving in short bursts against the background, and feeling your pulse as you watch them.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Braided Stream
This artwork features air bubbling up through a fine powder constrained between two glass plates tilted at a 45 degree angle. The tilting creates a continually changing landscape evocative of aerial photographs of river drainage networks on Earth and on Mars.
Bright Black
At this exhibit, find out how subjective brightness can be as you struggle—and fail—to correctly decide whether the squares you see are black or white.
Bronze Hand
The combination of past experience and the sight and feel of being touched seems to change your brain's definition of your body's boundaries. You may even feel as if the fake hand is part of you.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Café Wall Illusion
These tiles aren't really crooked–they just look that way.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Chaotic Pendulum
The visitor gives an initial twist to the pendulums with a protruding knob. Intuition says that the resulting motion of this system should be, if not simple, at least predictable. Intuition, however, does not work with this device since its motion is chaotic, extremely complicated and long-lived.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Chladni Singing
Sand scattered on a large metal square vibrates and jumps in response to the sound of your voice. When you hit just the right note(s), the sand spontaneously migrates into elegant geometrical patterns.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Christmas Tree Balls
There are captivating reflections in a box of ornaments.
Circles of Magnetism
Electricity moving in a wire makes a circular magnetic field.
Where: Gallery 2: Tinkering
Circling Wave Umbrella
Fluttering waves whirl around the edge, creating patterns of evenly spaced ripples.
Where: Entrance
Circuit Workbench
Try building these circuits found in everyday objects.
Where: This exhibit is not currently on view.
Cloud Chamber
Look down into the chamber and you’ll see an ongoing cascade of thin white trails appearing and disappearing. These are cosmic ray tracks, created by high-energy subatomic particles from space.
Color Conflicts
When can reading get in the way of speaking?
Colored Circles
Overlapping pools of red, blue, and green create a Venn diagram of additive color.
Colored Shadows
Step in front of this wall, and you’ll make shadows of various colors—yellow, magenta, cyan, red, green, blue, and yes, even black—that wiggle, jump, and dance along with you.
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