After Dark: Ice Cream

Thursday, July 12, 2018 • 6:00–10:00 p.m.
Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery

Buy Tickets

Adults Only (18+)

Note: The Tactile Dome and some programs have limited capacity and are available to visitors on a first-come, first-served basis.

Lose yourself in over 650 interactive exhibits exploring perception, art, and science at our adults-only After Dark. Grab your friends and a drink and get immersed in mind-bending experiences and unique, thought-provoking programs.

Featured Program

Pairings: Ice Cream

To reserve a seat and something to eat, pick up free tickets onsite at the Observatory. Seating and tastings are limited to 140.

7:00 p.m.
Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6

Join us for robust presentations, refreshing conversations, and sample tastings designed to inspire your scientific palate. Learn more about the series, Pairings: Cultivating a Taste for Science Through Food.

People throughout the world have tinkered with different means of perfecting ice cream—especially here in San Francisco. Get the scoop on ice cream chemistry with Dr. Maya Warren and find out how its microstructure affects the way ice cream melts, feels, and tastes.

Please note: Seating and tastings are limited to 140 ticketed guests.

SCHEDULE

Pairings: Ice Cream
7:00 p.m. | Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery 6

Learn to make your own ice cream with Chef Jerrel KeyAuthor and Exploratorium Senior Scientist Julie Yu. Then join Dr. Maya Warren for a tasty tour of the microstructure of ice cream and how structure affects the behavioral properties of all kinds of frozen aerated desserts, as well as the history of ice cream and how innovation is changing the ice cream game. Finally, get a grown-up dose of history with house mixologist Clay Reynold—he'll cover floats (boozy and not) and the history behind the soda jerks of the 1940s and 1950s.

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING—NO TICKET REQUIRED

Five-Minute Ice Cream Making Demo
6:30 and 8:30 p.m. | Gallery 4 Explainer Station

Work for your dessert: Join Amelia Chen in mixing the ingredients and shake-shake-shaking the mixture into cold and decadent ice cream. Celebrate your efforts with samples of the homemade stuff.

Ice Cream Up Close
6:30–9:30 p.m. | Gallery 4, Bio Bar

What's in your cone? Get the scoop on what's inside your ice cream with Exploratorium staff scientist Denise King. She'll give quick tours of your frozen treat on a microscopic level—before it melts!

Pimm's Cup Ice Cream Float
Serves 1

2 oz. Pimm's No. 1
½ oz. fresh lemon juice
½ oz. mint simple syrup
Seltzer water
Cucumber ice cream*

Place one small scoop of cucumber ice cream in a chilled highball glass. In a shaker, combine Pimm's, lemon juice, and mint syrup. Shake, then strain over ice cream. Top off with cold seltzer water. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

*If you don't have cucumber ice cream, you can substitute vanilla ice cream. In that case, muddle fresh slices of cucumber in the shaker with the other ingredients before shaking.

Sewn Scenarios with PNosa

6:30–9:30 p.m.
Gallery 2

Think of any scenario. Put it into five words or less. Now watch as artist PNosa interprets your words and uses a sewing machine to draw the resulting image on fabric.

Embroidered patches will be available for purchase.

PNosa is a sewing artist who draws with a sewing machine (without a computer or a template) powered by a solar panel and a bicycle electric generator. Paul is on a sewing tour across America facilitating people's creativity and demonstrating alternative energy sources.

Tactile Dome

$10; purchase tickets onsite at the Information Desk

6:15–10:00 p.m.
Osher Gallery 1

Take an excursion through total darkness in our Tactile Dome. Crawl, slide, and bump your way through the pitch-dark Dome using your sense of touch as your only guide through its chambers and mazes.

Please Note: Due to the nature of this experience, certain restrictions apply. Guests who are afraid of the dark; claustrophobic; have back, neck, or knee injuries; or are in their third trimester of pregnancy should not participate. Guests wearing casts are prohibited. Also, please wear comfortable clothes.

Learn more about the Tactile Dome.

Explainer Demonstrations

6:00–9:45 unless noted
Various locations throughout the museum

Drawing Board
Ticketing at 6:00 p.m., first come, first served
Osher Gallery 1

Draw hypnotically flowing patterns with a swinging table, and watch friction cause the patterns to slowly shrink along a spiral path. Pick up a ticket to reserve your spot in line for this popular activity.

Speaker Dissection
Bechtel Gallery 3

Tune in to surrounding sounds by experimenting with strings and vibrations, and use electromagnets to build a basic speaker. Learn how to listen with your bones, and explore the workings of the inner ear.

Cow Eye or Flower Dissection (alternating)
Gallery 4

Do cows see color? How does a lens work? Examine the intricate structure of a cow eye to learn about similar structures in our own eyes, as well as some key differences.

Stigma, stamen, pistil, anther, style: Uncover the beautiful architecture of flower anatomy, and gather some surprising strategies that plants use to reproduce.

Magic Demonstration
Osher Gallery 1

Everything is not as it seems—at first. Pick a card, any card, and watch the Explainers reveal some surprising aspects of human perception.