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Exploratorium
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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.

Middle Ground
Middle Ground

Explore new social science exhibits at San Francisco’s Civic Center.

Spring 2015 Update

What can a comet in space tell us about Earth's oceans?

Chichén Itzá

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

About the Arctic
About the Arctic

A brief introduction to the land of the midnight sun.

Auroras: Paintings in the Sky
Auroras: Paintings in the Sky

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

Jin Hi Kim Part 2
Discover the rich life and career of musician Jin Hi Kim.
Greenland
Greenland

Land of ice and people

Swell Swell
Swell Swell

Want to understand how to predict when the good waves are coming to your shore? It helps to start with the basics behind the formation of ocean waves.

NOAA PMEL carbon buoy
Science and the Federal Shutdown

by Mary Miller • January 18, 2019

Science lost in a government shutdown. 

Science of Sugar
Science of Sugar

Get up close and personal with a sucrose molecule.

Seymour Papert Lecture
Seymour Papert Lecture

Learn how to bridge the digital generation gap

Building for the Big One
Building for the Big One

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.

Cardboard Automata
Cardboard Automata

Explore mechanical elements such as cams, levers, and linkages to create your own moving sculpture.

The Higgs Boson Particle
The Higgs Boson Particle
Sunspots
Sunspots

Map sunspots and build an apparatus for safe sunspot viewing!

Dan Deacon: Performance

Baltimore-based musician Dan Deacon connects the audience to the player-piano.

Getting Started with Light
Getting Started with Light

Use the Science Journal mobile app to investigate the light around you.

Energy from Death
Animals are a source of energy-rich food even after they die.
Quake Basics: Waves
Quake Basics: Waves

The earth moves in mysterious ways

Bird in a Cage: Materials and assembly

Do the Bird in a Cage experiment with some basic materials.

Center of the Universe
Center of the Universe

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

Your Stuff, Your Stories
Your Stuff, Your Stories

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

The Great Satellite Search!
The Great Satellite Search!

Students become Internet researchers and learn about NASA satellites.

Tim Hunkin's Tinkerer's Clock

Get caught up in the whimsy of the Tinkerer's Clock.

Soap Film on a Can: Materials and assembly

Prepare to experiment with soap film by getting the necessary materials.

Science in the City
Science in the City

The Exploratorium is taking it outside to explore natural and human-made phenomena in and around San Francisco. Look for new episodes twice each month.

Earth's atmosphere
Global Climate Change Explorer

Discover how researchers study climate change and examine the latest scientific data.

Guillermo Galindo: Interview

Experience Guillermo Galindo's thoughts on his boundary-breaking musical works.

Exploratorium at Pier 15: Green Machine

Get to know Pier 15, one of the greenest buildings around.

Blood
Blood

Learn about the body's vital defense force.

Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know?
Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know?

For most of us, science arrives in our lives packaged neatly as fact. But how did it get that way?

Nautilus
Nautilus

Follow along with expedition leader Bob Ballard and his crew on the exploration vessel Nautilus as they search for hydrothermal vents, underwater volcanoes, and ancient shipwrecks.

It's Alive
It's Alive

Bring movie, TV, and cartoon images to life.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Bernie Krause: Performance

Get mesmerized by choreographer Alonzo King and soundscape artist Bernie Krause.

Subzero Gardening
Subzero Gardening

Tour a hydroponic greenhouse in frozen Antarctica.

Memory Artist
Memory Artist

An artist paints his childhood home from memory.

Light and Landscape: The Science and Art of Perception
Light and Landscape: The Science and Art of Perception

Explore the mysterious interactions between light and geography through the eyes and works of artists Charles Ross and James Turrell.

Meet the Makers - Toys
Discover the minds and hands behind some innovative toys.
Rock Paper Scissors Tournament
Celebrate the allure of Rock Paper Scissors—in all forms.
Braking & Steering
Braking & Steering

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

Pi Day isn't just a day—it's a way of life.

Dinner Party Fix-its Quiz
Dinner Party Fix-its Quiz

Can you cover your kitchen tracks?

The Exploratorium Shop

Visit the beating heart of the Exploratorium—our shop.

2nd Skin
2nd Skin

Imaginative Designs in Digital and Analog Clothing

Vocal Vowels
Vocal Vowels

Hear vocal tract models transform the squawk of a duck call into vowel sounds.

Visible Spectres | Cinema Arts Installation by Kerry Laitala | 2015
Do you see ghosts?
Unwinding DNA: Life at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Unwinding DNA: Life at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

The untold stories behind scientific discovery.

Molecular Meat
Molecular Meat

What happens to meat when you cook it?

The Nobel Prize: 100 Years of Creativity
The Nobel Prize: 100 Years of Creativity

Nobel Laureate Symposium

Look Inside a Tooth
Look Inside a Tooth

Teeth are the most common fossils found. What can they tell us?

External Content: The Amazing Adaptable Frog
The Amazing Adaptable Frog

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

Bird in a Cage: Introduction

Make a bird appear in a cage using only your eyes. 

Extended Cinemas 2018

Contemplate the continuum of cinema at After Dark. 

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.

Tim Hunkin's Tinkerer's Clock

British artist Tim Hunkin discusses his whimsical Tinkerer's Clock.

Douglas Gayeton talks at the screening of his machinima film.
Machinima Screening With Audience Mashup: Behind the Scenes

by Rob Rothfarb • January 22, 2009

A screening of a machinima--a film made entirely in a virtual world, shown both in the real world and in Second Life.

What on Earth? Life in Extreme Environments

What does it take to support life—or to prevent it?

Impressions of Life Sciences at the Exploratorium

Take an impressionistic journey through the Exploratorium's Life Sciences area.

The Wheel
The Wheel

Why do road bikes have thin tires, while mountain bikes have fat tires?

Experience the thrill of Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen.

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