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Exhibits

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Exhibits from A–Z

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A Cell in Motion
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
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
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
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
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
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

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.

Where:   Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6, Mezzanine

Albert
Albert

A mechanical object may seem alive if it responds to you.

Where:   Entrance

All Eyes on Me
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.

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Ames Chairs
Ames Chairs

What we see can depend on what we expect to see.

Where:   This exhibit is not currently on view.

Anamorphic Bench
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
Animation Station

A stop-motion animation is made of many pictures, each slightly different from the last.

Where:   Gallery 2: Tinkering

Animation Tower
Animation Tower

Quick-changing views create the illusion of motion.

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Anti-Gravity Mirror
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.

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Archimedes
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?
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

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
Aurora

A reflector stretches light from colored tiles into long bright ribbons.

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Bacteriopolis
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
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 Bridge Model
Bay Bridge Model

Every bridge has built in rhythms.

Where:   Koret Foundation Bay Walk

Bay Lexicon
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
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
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
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.

Where:   Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon

Big Tuning Fork
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
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
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
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

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Black Sand
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
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.

Blood-o-Meter
Blood-o-Meter

How many blood cells do you have?

Where:   Gallery 4: Living Systems

Braided Stream
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.

Where:   Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6, Mezzanine

Bright Black
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. 

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Bronze Hand
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.

Buckyball
Buckyball

Comprised of 4,500 LED nodes arranged along a series of pentagons and hexagons, Leo Villareal's Buckyball is animated by custom software programmed by the artist to display over 16 million distinct colors.

Where:   Plaza

Café Wall Illusion
Café Wall Illusion

These tiles aren't really crooked–they just look that way.

Where:   Crossroads: Getting Started

Career Criminal
Career Criminal

Do you trust your partner in crime?

Where:   This exhibit is not currently on view.

Chaotic Pendulum
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
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
Christmas Tree Balls

There are captivating reflections in a box of ornaments.

Where:   Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon

Chromoscope
Chromoscope

A color photo is three pictures in one.

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Circles of Magnetism
Circles of Magnetism

Electricity moving in a wire makes a circular magnetic field.

Where:   Gallery 2: Tinkering

Circling Wave Umbrella
Circling Wave Umbrella

Fluttering waves whirl around the edge, creating patterns of evenly spaced ripples.

Where:   Entrance

Circuit Workbench
Circuit Workbench

Try building these circuits found in everyday objects.

Where:   This exhibit is not currently on view.

Cloud Chamber
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.

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Cloud Rings
Cloud Rings

Launch a ring of fog.

Where:   This exhibit is not currently on view.

Color Conflicts
Color Conflicts

When can reading get in the way of speaking?

Where:   Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon

Colored Circles
Colored Circles

Overlapping pools of red, blue, and green create a Venn diagram of additive color. 

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

Colored Shadows
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.

Where:   Bechtel Gallery 3: Seeing & Listening

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