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

Vsit a quirky kitchen where you can compose music with ordinary (and not-so-ordinary) objects.

Learn about the inner workings of a cell through this interactive exhibit.

Listen to internationally recognized authorities on human thought and behavior, including Temple Grandin and Paul Ekman.

Activities and History

Where is the Center of the Universe? Here, there, and everywhere.

Students become Internet researchers and learn about NASA satellites.

You can make a light painting with a light source, a darkened room, and a digital camera.

Create your own fish mummy using common baking soda!

What do you really know about what you see?

Use this desktop widget to view current science news feeds on your computer.

The more astronomy changes, the more it stays the same. This series of images juxtaposes ancient and modern study of the celestial bodies.

The three most densely populated cities on the planet where seismologists expect major earthquakes are San Francisco, Tokyo, and Istanbul. Find out why the effects in each city will be very different.

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

Nobel Laureate Symposium

Make a fantastic toy that shimmers when you shake it.

Professional development resources for teacher educators.

Show yourself how a pinch of salt can take the bitter taste away.

Tour a hydroponic greenhouse in frozen Antarctica.

Not all bubbles are made with soap!

They're a menace to ships, but life thrives in these frozen oases.

Music, fear, sadness all can cause goosebumps. But why?

Design and build a musical instrument that responds to changing light.

Far north in the night sky, a faint glow appears on the horizon. Green and red flames of light stretch across the sky.

What do you really know about what you see?

Here's how you can model the use of X rays for medical examinations with some sand and a piece of screen.

Art/science teams explore the underlying systems that give the San Francisco Bay Area its unique character.

Get outside and explore geometry (and other math) all around you.

Build a bridge from a piece of paper and explore ways of making it stronger.

There's more to polar ice than just frozen water. Learn about the many varieties of ice found at the poles and how and where they form.

Your thumb and index finger can help you test a steak's degree of doneness.

Can you cover your kitchen tracks?

Exploring the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans

Explore the places, people, tools, and ideas behind the origins of matter, the universe, and life itself.

Wind tubes are a playful and inventive way to explore the effect that moving air has on objects.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at activities and ideas we’re exploring.

Spin the bottle to see beautiful swirling shapes

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

Can a gum wrapper have a story? Discover just how important and meaningful an object can be.

Do hot water and cold water mix?

The earth moves in mysterious ways

What's the difference between white meat and dark meat? Which animals have which and why?

Explore the deadly beautiful world of carnivorous plants.