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  • Tinkering at Home

    Try this collection of prompts for tinkering at home.

  • Learning Toolbox: Engage in activities about the science of coronavirus and explore our online resources for learning at home.

  • Explore water's crucial role in food and cooking.

    Science of Water: Food   Explore water's crucial role in food and cooking.

  • Shadow Box exhibit

    Browse our growing online collection of interactive exhibits.

  • Global Climate Change Explorer • Discover how researchers study climate change and examine the latest scientific data.

  • Science Snacks

    Low-cost, teacher-tested activities for the classroom and the curious.

  • Wired Pier Environmental Field Station • Explore weather, air quality, and water conditions from San Francisco Bay

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

Dive into websites, activities, apps, and more.

Drives & Gears
Drives & Gears

What is a gear ratio? And how do gears help make the bicycle so efficient?

If You Rob a Bank, Wear a Wig
If You Rob a Bank, Wear a Wig

Just how do we remember a face?

A Dangerous Time
A Dangerous Time

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

Curious Contraptions

Explore small, surreal worlds through Curious Contraptions automata.

Seasons and Alignments
Seasons and Alignments

Does the sun rise in the east? Not exactly.

Candy-o-Matic
Candy-o-Matic

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

Ice Balloons
Ice Balloons

What can you do with a frozen water balloon? Plenty!

The Making of a Bell

Follow the process of designing and casting our new bell.

Solar Images
Solar Images

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

Antarctic Food Web
Antarctic Marine Ecosystem

The Antarctic food web is the simplest on the planet, and krill are at its hub.

Penguins
Penguins

Living along the continental coastline of Antarctica are the emperors and the Adélies.

Organ Builders

Get to know the grandfather of all instruments: the pipe organ.

Preserving our Wild Fish

Check out efforts to restore California’s native steelhead and salmon. 

Bird Call Quiz
Bird Call Quiz

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

Finding the Sweet Spot
Finding the Sweet Spot
Antarctic Exploration
Antarctic Exploration

The lure of Terra Australis Incognita begins with the Ancient Greeks and ends with modern cruise ships.

Dry Valleys
Dry Valleys

The nearly ice-free Dry Valleys are an Antarctic anomaly, and Earth's closest equivalent to Mars.

The New Buchanan Mall

Follow the process of revitalizing the Buchanan Mall in the Western Addition.

Diving into the Gene Pool
Diving into the Gene Pool

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

Geology for Fossil Hunters
Geology for Fossil Hunters

Search a geological map of Ethiopia for fossils.

Bulk up your understanding of the "muscles" that move Theo Jansen's strandbeests.

Exposición de tarjetas postales
Exposición de tarjetas postales

Cuatro exposiciones lo suficientemente pequeñas para caber en tarjetas postales.

Polar Geography
Ice

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.

Bird in a Cage: More experiments to try

Explore the afterimages your eyes and your brain create. 

The Secret Lives of Flowers
The Secret Lives of Flowers

Take a peek at the colorful world of plant sex.

A Dangerous Time
A Dangerous Time

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

Blood
Blood

Learn about the body's vital defense force.

Getting Started with Science Journal
Getting Started with Science Journal

Turn your phone into a pocket science laboratory with tools to measure light, motion, sound, and more.

Tiny Pants Photo Challenge
Tiny Pants Photo Challenge

Using a simple trick of perspective, you can dress your friends in tiny cutout clothing.

Double Trouble
Doubling Pennies

It's easy to fold a sheet of paper in half. But can you fold a sheet of paper in half ten times?

The Amazing Water Trick
The Amazing Water Trick

Do hot water and cold water mix?

Meat is Muscle
Meat is Muscle

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

Zebrafish Embryo
Zebrafish Embryo

Watch this timelapse video to see a zebrafish develop from a single cell into an embryo

The South Pole(s)
The South Pole(s)

Will the "real" South Pole please stand up?

Science Explorer
Science Explorer

Get messy with ExploraGoo and Outrageous Ooze! Get airborne with the Fabulous Foam Flyer! Get loud with the Water Gong or Straw Oboe!

Remembering Nagasaki
Remembering Nagasaki

In Observance of the 50th Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Seismic Science: Damage Control
Seismic Science: Damage Control

We can't predict when an earthquake will occur, but we can avoid some potential disasters.

Using the Wired Pier Web App

by Mary Miller • April 19, 2017

Launch our new web app to explore environmental data. 

Cable Cars
See what makes San Francisco's cable cars go...and stop.
Long Now Rosetta Project
Discover how we shot 1,500 languages into space.
Chichén Itzá

Explore the ancient knowledge of the Maya, who built sophisticated monuments to the sun.

Plate Tectonics
Plate Tectonics

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

Bronx Cheer Bulb
Bronx Cheer Bulb

Your CRT screen may appear to wiggle when you give it the raspberry, but the only thing wiggling is you.

Timeline
Timeline

Take a timeline tour of our past and present.

Prime Obsession

by Paul Dancstep • August 25, 2015

Do prime numbers "feel" different than the other numbers?

Any Little Patch of Dirt
Any Little Patch of Dirt

A trash-filled median blossoms into a community oasis.

Exploratorium Video

Explore our media collection

Your Body in Your Mind's Eye
Your Body in Your Mind's Eye

Can you take a sip of water from a cup with your eyes closed?

Live Eye on the Earth
Live Eye on the Earth

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.

I M O K. U R O K.
I M O K. U R O K.

You can make sentences without words!

Solar Images
Solar Images

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

Cylinders and Scale
Cylinders and Scale

What happens to a cylinder when you scale it up?

Greeting Card Boxes (pdf)
Greeting Card Boxes (pdf)

Make cool boxes out of old (or new) greeting cards and postcards.

About Chaco Canyon
About Chaco Canyon

What brings archeologists and astronomers alike to this ten-mile canyon in remote New Mexico?

Ancient Observatories
Ancient Observatories

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

Live Eye on the Earth
Live Eye on the Earth

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.

Candy Around the World
Candy Around the World

What kinds of candy are made and enjoyed in where you live?

Electric Guitar

Shred like Jimi or twang like Johnny? Find out how.

Flying Tinsel: What's going on

Flying tinsel isn't magic—it's repelling electrostatic charges.

Peter Whitehead
Peter Whitehead

Peter Whitehead is an instrument builder, performer, and composer.

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