The ages of science
Boston museum must keep following and also keep up
By David Filipov, Globe Staff | July 17, 2009
When officials at the Museum of Science realized that the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing was fast approaching, they had another realization that was more alarming than celebratory: Their exhibit of space modules was 45 years old and, given the onslaught of millions of children, looked every day of it.
The urgent push to update the exhibit over the last several weeks, with a coat of fresh paint, refurbished interiors, and flat panel televisions airing rare footage of Neil Armstrong?s descent onto the moon, vividly highlights the challenge for a venerable - and still popular - institution that is very much showing its age. Like other science museums across the nation, Boston?s is trying to maintain a following in a world where scientific breakthroughs happen at breakneck speed and expectations for entertainment are geared to three dimensions rather than narrated videos.
Sometimes it is hard just to keep up. ?Science changes, our audience changes, they?re more sophisticated in how they acquire information,?? said Paul Fontaine, vice president for education at the museum. ?And the institution changes.??
To make that change happen, Fontaine said, the museum is completing an audit to see which exhibits to remove - the ones he referred to as ?orphaned?? exhibits ?whose time has drawn near to the end.??
The ravages of time are visible all over the 58-year-old building. Grimy earphones, scratchy audio, blurred video, and crotchety computer graphics betray the advancing years of many of the 700 exhibits. A fascinating film about Navajo code-talkers in World War II features a statement by President Reagan. Monitors that explore extraterrestrial intelligence look terminally clunky. The development of a thunderstorm is explained with wallpaper and speakers.
But nothing highlights the age of the Museum of Science quite like the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford, a $165 million facility that opened in June, and mixes science with state-of-the-art technology in an approach that feels as much like a theme park as a museum.
There, the space exhibit lets visitors program their own narrated flight around planets, black holes, and the sun, and over the surface of Mars. The health and sports wing features an interactive board game where players make choices about how various foods, behaviors, and activities affect their life expectancy. Viewers take lessons on stretching and strength building from a flat screen video that stars a physical trainer who looks like one of the cadavers from ?Body Worlds?? come to life.
Even the glass elevators are part of the experience, allowing visitors to see the mechanics of the lift as well as sweeping views of the Connecticut River. It is like the fireballing young hurler who shows up the ace of the staff and his declining skills. In science, as in baseball, age matters.
?Science is a subject matter that is intimidating,?? said Matt Fleury, president and chief executive officer, explaining the center?s approach. ?Let?s create something that expresses enthusiasm for science that is compelling for people to say, ?Let?s go see what?s in there.? ??
The Museum of Science in Boston - where 1.5 million people pour through the doors every year - is also trying to create an entry point into scientific discoveries, just without many of the whiz-bang gizmos of a newer museum. To attract children and adults who come looking for cool things to do - and not just to look at cool things - the museum is relying on live presentations by in-house educators and visiting scientists, and traveling interactive exhibits about what is going on now, rather than large replicas of what once was. It is an approach from which other museums - including the one in Hartford - have borrowed, and it is wildly successful.
Accompanying the opening of the renovated ?To The Moon?? exhibit is a traveling exposition, ?Black Holes: Space Warps and Time Twists,?? which simulates a space mission and educates visitors about recent discoveries about how black holes behave. A lecturer will give the latest about missions in search of water or possible life on Mars. Another presentation will describe potential missions to send humans back to the moon.
The museum?s partnerships with research universities and companies that employ groundbreaking science allow it to learn about breakthroughs and interpret them for the public. For example, in response to a recent report that showed how certain plastics interact with the body, the museum produced a live presentation within days. An exhibit on nanotechnology draws on the expertise of a network of science and research institutions to show how the manipulation of atoms and molecules can create a wide range of new materials and technologies, from stain-resistant clothes to therapies that kill cancer cells without harming nearby cells.
?You do have that obligation if you want to be current,?? said Wayne M. Bouchard, chief operating officer of the Museum of Science. ?It?s going to be your reputation for quality of what you do on the floor, the kind of interactions that you have, the educators that are walking the floors. That?s what?s going to keep people coming.??
Museums comparable to Boston?s face the same conundrum as they try to stay ahead of the curve. ?This question of how you maintain relevancy in an era when science and technology change at such a rapid pace is really the Holy Grail of science at this time,?? said Kurt Haunfelner, vice president of exhibits and collections at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. He said new exhibits can accommodate the fast-changing and interactive nature of science - such as a frequently updated 2,600-square-foot home made entirely of eco-friendly products, where browsing visitors can pick up ideas for making their homes greener.
The key, science museum leaders say, is to develop exhibits that can be updated as quickly as science progresses.
?If we were to discover new form of life on Mars we could have an exhibit exploring those ideas within hours,?? said Eric Jolly, president of the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul. Within 24 hours after the tsunami hit Indonesia in 2004, the museum had retrofitted its 40-foot wave tank and its seismophone - a massive musical sculpture that chimes when there is seismic activity anywhere on earth - to explain what happened.
At the same time, museums feel an obligation to maintain the iconic exhibits that have drawn in customers for decades - the ones Bouchard calls ?the classics.?? In Boston, these include the planetarium, the massive Van der Graaf generator in the electricity theater, and the dinosaur exhibit. ?Some people will come looking for the thing that was here 25 years ago,?? Bouchard said. ?If we were to lose that exhibit, we would hear from families saying, ?How dare you?? ??
These, the museum tries to fix up rather than throw out. The electricity show now features the latest theories on lightning. And when the museum received on long-term loan Cliff the Triceratops - one of the most complete skeletons of the Cretaceous-era herbivore - it took the opportunity to update the rest of its dinosaur section.
Then again, some installations, no matter how out of date, still captivate young audiences.
A hopelessly dilapidated one that teaches about the sense of smell requires visitors to sniff from unsavory-looking canisters and then match the odors with storefronts on a 1970s-style display.
It does not look very inviting, but on a recent rainy day, children streamed to it, inhaling the smells, pressing the buttons, and pointing to the tired graphics with delight.
David Filipov can be reached at
filipov@globe.com.
