Learn with us online while the Exploratorium is temporarily closed. You can help us reopen—donate today.

Gallery 4: Living Systems

Explore life from DNA and cells to organisms and ecosystems.

Sometimes life is hard to observe, because it’s too tiny or fast or is hidden underground or in the ocean. Discover what you’ve been missing: use scientific tools to investigate living things of different sizes, the ecosystems they inhabit, and the processes they share.

Read the Curator Statement

 

Gallery Highlights

Cells to Self
Cells to Self

Exploring how human cells move, communicate, and respond to their environment.

Living Systems Explainer Station
Living Systems Explainer Station

Explainers do biology and botony demonstrations.

Plankton Populations
Plankton Populations

Different types of phytoplankton multiply or die off in response to changing ocean conditions.

Tidal Memory
Tidal Memory

Twenty-four columns record twenty-four hours of tide water levels.