Explore, Play, Discover: Websites, Activities, and More

Decorate your desktop with some of the most intriguing pattern and perception images from the Exploratorium.

Discover the secret colors hidden in black ink. With a paper towel, a black marker, and a cup of water, create a rainbow of colors while exploring capillary action and chromatography.

High energy prices got you down? Discover how pickles can ease your troubles.

Make a scale model of the Solar System and learn the REAL definition of "space."

Your brain is always looking for blank spaces and filling them in. Sometimes, your brain leaps to the wrong conclusion. Then you get a surprise!

Spin the bottle to see beautiful swirling shapes

Use dominoes to model a nerve cell's transmission of a signal

A model for heart development

Explore graphing, angles, and storytelling by building a seesaw for your smartphone.

Imagine yourself in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean. You've been sailing for weeks, and there's no land in sight. Do you know where you are? Do you know which way to go?

Uncover the everyday origins of some extraordinary instruments.

The 1906 earthquake jolted geologists into focusing on how and why faults break loose.

the Fudge House on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco!

The Science Information Infrastructure (SII) is a collaboration among teachers and scientists. The SII at the Exploratorium is developing educational resources using NASA images and datasets.

In an earthquake, some older structures collapse and others stand tall. The difference is usually retrofitting.

Find out how different kinds of candy are made in the Candy-o-matic!

Sometimes we can learn about outer space when space objects come to us.

Play a memory concentration game: Listen closely then match pairs of sounds.

Richter and beyond

Share some secret sounds with a friend.

Learn more about the process of making Champagne.

Students become Internet researchers and learn about NASA satellites.

See a map of recent earthquakes in the United States, and learn why earthquakes happen so frequently on the West Coast.

Explore the surprising side of sound

Create your own fish mummy using common baking soda!

An introduction to the concepts and theories that contribute to contemporary complexity research.

Join us as we crunch our way through everything from our San Francisco sourdough to Injera and Pugliese.

Close your eyes – and open your ears.

Want to see where the biggest quakes have been this week? Follow a few of the links below to see what's shaking in your neighborhood and around the world.