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Thursday, November 29, 2018 • 6:00–10:00 p.m.
Free for After Dark Members
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.
Here in the Bay Area, we are neighbors to a variety of giant marine mammals. Just before gray whales appear traveling south, join us for an evening on all things cetacean—including our shared history.
Photo courtesy of NOAA.
Schedule
Presentations
Whale Rescue
With Ryan Berger
7:30 p.m. | Gallery 3, Webcast Studio
How do first responders rescue whales when they're tangled in fishing gear or marine debris? Join The Marine Mammal Center’s Northern Range Operations Manager and NOAA-trained entanglement responder Ryan Berger to learn how responders approach and save entangled whales. These majestic animals weigh 50,000 pounds, and responders must be at a close distance to use long poles to carefully cut and remove the lines or debris from a distressed whale before it dives or swims off.
The Wisdom of the Whale: Revelations of Postmortem Whale Study
With Dr. Pádraig Duignan
8:30 p.m. | Gallery 3, Webcast Studio
Break down the remarkable knowledge passed postmortem by whales with The Marine Mammal Center’s (TMMC) chief pathologist, Pádraig J. Duignan. Find out what four decades of research has taught Duignan about large whale deaths in the Bay Area and how that data can inform our understanding and conservation of the ocean and marine mammal life.
Ongoing
Whalevolution
With Cinema Arts
6:00–10:00 p.m. | Gallery 3
Gaze into deep time, following a possible evolution of the sperm whale from terrestrial rodent to ocean giant.
Whalevolution (Jordan Collver, 2017, 10 min.) Darwin wrote: “The mind cannot possibly grasp the full meaning of the term of a hundred million years; it cannot add up and perceive the full effects of many slight variations, accumulated during an almost infinite number of generations.” Illustrator Jordan Collver takes up this challenge by morphing a lineage of common whale ancestors from one to the next at a barely perceptible pace, evoking the gradual, cumulative process of evolution.
Tales After the Whales
With Cinema Arts
6:00–10:00 p.m. | Gallery 3
Discover the afterlife of a whale with two short films that creatively document the communal encounters of a whale’s corpse: one on land, the other in the sea.
Whale Fall (Flora Lichtman and Sharon Shattuck, 2011, 4 min.) This handcrafted work, featuring paper puppets, charms in its telling of the surprising story of what happens after a deceased whale sinks to the ocean floor.
Back to Land (Tijana Petrovic, 2010, 4 min.) A meditation on the sight of a blue whale beached on a California shore, this film starkly observes the amassed group of onlookers and interrogates the nature of their curiosity and awe.
Golden Gate Cetacean Research
With Bill Keener
6:30–9:30 p.m. | Gallery 4
Get to know some of your cetacean neighbors with Bill Keener of Golden Gate Cetacean Research. Learn the results of their latest studies of the whales, dolphins, and porpoises of San Francisco Bay—plus observations about an unexpected influx of humpback whales in the Bay, how to tell a porpoise from a dolphin, and where to see either one of them in the wild. Then find out what you can do to help in the study of marine mammals.
Sharing the Science: What 3,000 Whale Watchers are Doing for Research
With Happywhale
6:30–9:30 p.m. | Gallery 4
Aspiring marine biologists, take note: Using the web platform Happywhale, citizen scientists and researchers have identified over 17,500 individual humpback whales in the Pacific Ocean, from Antarctica to Alaska. Find out what they’re doing and how you can get involved.
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.
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.