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

Explore the surprising side of color.

For accuracy, it's best to use both a candy thermometer and the cold water test when making candy.

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

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

Get a taste of how the earth's plates move.

Tour a hydroponic greenhouse in frozen Antarctica.

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

Get down and dirty with the surprising science of soil.

Bone conduction is another pathway to listening.

Learn about origami, make your own paper, and find out the best way to fold a paper airplane.

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

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

Why is baseball so popular in Japan?

Think you have a lot in common with a kiwi fruit? Genetically speaking, you do.

Can you trust your own memory? Find out with this activity.

Pick one and guess the source

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

The common ground between pickles, cheese, bread, wine, and many other foods.

Activities and workshops for playful invention, investigation, and collaboration

Heat-trapping gases play a major role in polar climate change.

Come along as we explore the cool, dark world of cheese.

Activities and History

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

Use the Science Journal mobile app to investigate movement.

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

Tiny shrimplike crustaceans, krill play a critical roll in many marine food webs, even feeding huge baleen whales.

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

Get a taste of how the earth's plates move.

The only continent without any countries or government . . .

Investigate the interior angles of polygons with your feet.

See astounding musical instruments made by Bart Hopkin

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

Meet the robotic explorers that landed on Mars in 2004, and check out their tools and instruments.

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

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.

Do hot water and cold water mix?

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

See living stem cells and find out why they are the "stem" from which all other cells develop.

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