Masks are required for all visitors 2+. Vaccines recommended. Plan your visit
Materials & Matter
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.
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: Crossroads: Getting Started
Geysers
The timing of the eruptions of these geysers depends on water temperature and pressure.
Where: Gallery 4: Living Systems
Icy Bodies
Like comets, these chunks of dry ice slowly disintegrate as they move, leaving a visible trail of condensed water vapor.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Liquid Litmus
See the chemical reactions taking place in an electrolytic cell, as electricity flowing through a tank of salt water and pH-indicating dye creates zones of acidic (yellow) and basic (blue) solutions.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
Rust Wedge
Rust is a major issue in waterfront buildings, as water enters cracks in masonry structures and rusts the underlying steel reinforcement. This exhibit shows the expansive force of rusting steel. A piece of iron placed in the cleft of a block of concrete is beginning to rust—it will expand over time and eventually fracture the block.
Where: Koret Foundation Bay Walk
Water-Drop Photography
Here you can select and photograph a precise moment—to within a millisecond—as a water droplet falls into a small pool of water. Freezing the action reveals both the complexity and the beauty of fluid motion.
Where: Crossroads: Getting Started
