Take a virtual tour of the Exploratorium

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What if you could make colorful abstract designs without any art supplies? What if you could just use soap and water? Exploratorium Senior Scientist Paul Doherty explains how white light and a soap-molecule sandwich produce dreamy, flowing colors in the exhibit Soap Film Painting.

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Explore ethical and philosophical questions about the first "immortal" cell line with Exploratorium science writer Kevin Boyd. Are HeLa cells merely cells, or are they part of the self of Henrietta Lacks?

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The colored areas in this exhibit are different types of bacteria. The colors come from different pigment molecules that the bacteria use to capture energy from light. All these bacteria were in the pond mud Exhibit Developer Denise King used to make this exhibit—but bacteria in a pond don't look like this. We've added nutrients such as carbon and sulfur to encourage the growth of a colorful diversity of organisms.

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Step in front of this wall, and you’ll make shadows of various colors—yellow, magenta, cyan, red, green, blue, and yes, even black—that wiggle, jump, and dance along with you. What’s going on? When lights of different colors shine on the same spot on a white surface, the light reflecting from that spot to your eyes is called an additive mixture because it’s the sum of all the light.

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Plankton, the tiny organisms that fill our oceans, produce half of the oxygen we breathe and soak up more carbon dioxide than all the world's rain forests combined. Our Plankton Populations exhibit models worldwide plankton populations using special "lenses" on a digital ocean display, allowing visitors to come to their own conclusions using real data.

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Exhibit Developer Sally Duensing explains the principles and mechanics behind the exhibit Gray Step, which demonstrates how clearly humans see edges and how poorly we see gradients.