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

Why do teens take risks, and what do our notions of risk tell us about the dangers of growing up?

Explore the scientific, historical, and cultural context behind a new opera about the first atomic bomb test.

How does drafting help a cyclist? What is skin friction?

Share some secret sounds with a friend.

Each webcast, the Exploratorium staff and teachers demonstrate their science projects and compete for the title of IRON SCIENCE TEACHER!

Discover secret colors hidden in a black marker!

A naked egg is an egg without a shell. Using vinegar, you can dissolve the eggshell without breaking the membrane that contains the egg.

Will the "real" South Pole please stand up?

Check out ColorFest, a two-month extravaganza celebrating color at the museum from July 1 to September 5.

Grow spikes of crystals in the sun.

The Instruments Aboard the Mars Exploration Rover

Dig into the succulent science of making things grow.

How many objects can you follow at once?

Make a spinning disc called a stroboscope, which lets you create your own animated cartoon.

In celebration of Albert Einstein's work in 1905, science laboratories and museum around the world (including the Exploratorium) participated in a twelve-hour webcast that explored Einstein's influence on current physics research.

With just mud, paper and an egg, you can grow colonies of multi-hued microbes!

Gather and compare real data about sunspots and solar x-ray activity.

Using a spectroscope, you may see that what appears to be a single color of light is really a combination of colors called a spectrum.

What happens when two hockey players collide? Try our hockey collision calculator!

Make it grow . . . bigger, lusher, juicier.

A comprehensive tour through the weird and wonderful world of frogs.

Learn how changes in genes over generations created the modern goldfish.

Remote sensing allows geologists to peek under the ice – and find a big surprise.

Tinker with electricity using common objects: batteries, lights, buzzers, motors, switches, etc.

Gather and compare real data about sunspots and solar x-ray activity.

Listen to bird songs and try to figure out which are songs, which are companion calls, and which are alarms.

Take an animated tour of Antarctica's variety of ice formations, which give it a beauty unrivaled anywhere on Earth.

Zoom into a fossil chimp tooth.

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.

Nobel Laureate Symposium

Complete an electrical circuit with your body and explore ways to control the flow of electricity.

What does it take to block gamma radiation?

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!

Students become Internet researchers and learn about NASA satellites.

Find out why biodiversity benefits plants and people alike.

Enjoy the early memories of some of the visitors to this website.

Use printable images from our time-lapse movies to make flipbooks–handheld animations that you can make at home.

Explore the science behind food and cooking with recipes, activities, and archived Webcasts.

Journey into Chaco Canyon, where ancient people built monuments to the cosmos. Journey to Chichén Itzá, where the Maya built monuments to the sun.

Listen to the sound of a rainstorm – anytime, anywhere.

Learn about the search for life elsewhere in the universe.

Why is the bicycle the most efficient way to travel? Explore bicycle science and culture.

How do you stop and steer a bicycle? What forces keep the bicycle from falling over?

Learn the science behind bad hair days, and learn how hair increases its length when humidity increases, making curly hair frizz and straight hair go limp.

A multifaceted exhibition that explored genetics and the Human Genome Project from a variety of perspectives from April 8 to September 4, 1995.