McWane Science Center

Audubon Society Workshop

2010-09-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

If you have visited McWane any time over the last few months, you have seen the majestic tree filled with birds that dominates the middle of the second floor. The tree is the centerpiece of the NatureScope exhibit which was created as a partnership between McWane and the Birmingham Audubon Society (BAS). The exhibit includes educational displays, a stage with seating for group shows, and the BAS office itself, cleverly camouflaged as a rustic cabin. BAS Education Director Helena Uber-Wamble and Administrative Director BJ Allen share space in the BAS office. According to BAS President Maureen Shaffer, “With Helena’s professional efforts and our partnership with McWane Science Center, we are reaching a whole new audience.”

This Saturday, September 11, from 10 am-1 pm, McWane and the BAS are offering a Bluebird Box Workshop! Bring your family to learn about bluebirds together. Following a presentation on the cavity nesters of Alabama and their nesting requirements, each participant will build their very own Bluebird Box to take home! The cost for the workshop is $10.00 per person. Please call 205-714-8414 to make a reservation by Friday, September 10.

“Our partnership with the McWane Science Center has helped us launch a great series of programs at the NatureScope exhibit,” said Helena. “NatureScope offers a closeup view of birds and the chance to learn their songs. Our presence on the stage to educate visitors has inspired many folks to stop and share stories of their experiences with birds in their back yards and on their journeys. The enthusiasm is contagious!”

After visiting the new exhibit, one Mom wrote this on her blog: “On Tuesday we went to the McWane Center, our hands-on childrens' science museum. We go there regularly, but on Tuesday, we got to do something we have never done before. The Birmingham Audubon Society has recently opened an office inside the McWane Center. Along with their office, they have built a fabulous exhibit about birds commonly found in Alabama. We spent about thirty minutes with the Audubon Society's educator, who taught my daighter eight common bird calls and how to listen for them in our yard. She was fascinated, and has been reading a book about birds we got at the library. She just told me she wants to go outside tomorrow morning between 6:00 and 10:00 because that's the best time to listen for the birds. Helena, the Audubon educator, offered to come to our house to do a homeschool program about the birds found in our yard. We are so excited!”

In addition to the Audubon programs and bird exhibits, new bug exhibits are now crawling inside McWane Science Center! The new exhibits include—Bug Scope, Ant Casting, and What’s Bugging You. These fun and interactive new exhibits join the environmental area that already includes live bugs like the giant millipede, the hairy Tirantula and an Emperor Scorpion. The new additions are sure to give you the creepy crawlies as well as teach about the friends that share our big back yard.

Come see what all the excitement is about. Make plans to attend the Bluebird Box Workshop, or come visit the NatureScope exhibit at McWane this weekend!

By Dana Crisson, Manager of Community Relations

The New Space Race: Um, Where are We Headed Again?

2010-05-24T10:02:00.002-07:00

By Ben Moon, Manager of Space and Technology

If you take a look at NASA’s proposed budget over the next 3 years years, you’ll see several things that stand out.

1. We’re retiring the Space Shuttles and sending them to museums.

2. We’re not going back to the Earth’s moon.

3. We’ve got nothing to take people into space immediately after the Shuttles retire.

Things are up in the air right now (no pun intended) as Washington and lawmakers battle over NASA’s Constellation program (which was going to replace the Shuttles with the Ares rockets) to try to save it or scrap it completely in favor of private industry taking over America’s push into space.

Some disagree with the changes the current administration is proposing and believe that NASA needs a clear, stated target and not a nebulous “further into space” idea. Some argue that it’s the right move, that Constellation was over budget and behind schedule, that private industry is what space exploration needs, and that the new plan is a game changer, not unlike the moon race of the 1960’s.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said during a February NASA budget press conference that federal funding for near-term robotic missions “will pave the way for later human exploration of the moon, Mars and nearby asteroids.” Notice he used the word “later,” meaning the U.S. won’t be sending any Americans up on American-made spacecraft for the next few years.

Meanwhile other countries are still sending people into space. The Russians and Chinese are sending people into space on their Soyuz rockets and Long March rockets respectively. It’s a possibility that Americans may rent a ride on Soyuz rockets, but the Russians have already begun increasing the cost to do so dramatically.

So as the battle plays out, only time will tell exactly what the landscape of U.S. manned space flight will look like.

NASA’s vision has been “To understand and protect our home planet, To explore the Universe and search for life, and To inspire the next generation of explorers... as only NASA can. But let’s say you want to go into space now and don’t want to wait on NASA or congress or anybody. Well, there may actually be hope for you.

There are some private companies that are about to begin sending people into space, for different reasons than NASA. For the company XCOR Aerospace, its vision is the “dream of spaceflight for its founders who recognize that the only way for them to get to space is to make it affordable for private citizens.” For the company SpaceX, the goal is “revolutionizing the cost and reliability of access to space.” Virgin Galactic seeks to lead the industry of “space tourism.” Whatever the reasons may be, these pursuits are good for the industry as a whole.

For a private company, the bottom line is one of the biggest concerns. They don’t want to waste money on unnecessary pursuits or time, and certainly not mission anomalies (accidents). They take their work very seriously and this work could pave the way for new scientific discovery and better ways of doing things. It’s time they got their piece of the pie.

So what does the immediate future of U.S. manned spaceflight look like? Possibly something like this:

Or this:
Or this:
Tell us what you think....

2009-11-19T17:06:00.000-08:00

Post by Ben Moon, Space & Tech Manager at McWane Science Center

Okay, so I own a telescope. Actually I own 2 telescopes. Nerd alert, I know. But I really like astronomy. It’s so much fun to find the thousands upon thousands of things in the night sky. There is an endless supply of things to see, especially if you have a dark sky.

Vestavia, where I live, doesn’t exactly have the darkest skies. There is a lot of “light pollution” which is an amateur astronomers worst enemy, next to clouds that is. If you want to find the darkest skies you’d have to go to the middle of a desert or just leave Earth altogether. Well, as it turns out, NASA has several telescopes that have done just that.

To name a few: the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope are all floating around in space, orbiting Earth, minding their own business. And their business is serious. They are doing some complicated science as they take images of the farthest reaches of the known universe. The images are not just pretty pictures for us to enjoy in forwarded emails or the occasional news story, but they reveal startling and revealing things about the space around us.

This Saturday. November 21st, McWane is unveiling never before photographs taken by these three amazing space telescopes of the central region of our galaxy, The Milky Way, to commemorate the International Year of Astronomy. The International Year of Astronomy 2009 celebrates the 400th anniversary of Galileo turning a telescope to the heavens. Boy, have we come a long way since then!

The images are absolutely beautiful. A giant 6-foot-by-3-foot image presents a unique view that showcases the Galaxy in near-infrared light observed by Hubble, infrared light observed by Spitzer, and X-ray light observed by Chandra. Its’ the most wide ranging view you’ve ever seen of our galaxies core.

My friends and fellow members of Birmingham Astronomical Society will be here as well for the celebration, complete with their telescopes and space knowledge. The festivities begin at 10:00 am and the images will be unveiled at 1:00 pm. Don’t miss it!

Want more? Click here to learn about the Hubble Space Telescope, scope out the Spitzer Space Telescope, check into the Chandra X-ray Observatory and above all click here to learn what NASA’s celebration of the International Year of Astronomy is all about,

Hope to see you Saturday!

The Word is Out about the McWane Science Center, Part II

2009-10-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

By Dana Crisson, Educator

In my previous blog, I wrote about the fact that the McWane Science Center is popping up in internet articles written by visitors from around the world. A number of “mommy” blogs have also been singing the praises of the McWane Science Center. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal stated that these mommy blogs are “usually written with an emotion and personality which connect with readers in ways that other niches often can’t. Moms are the ones who are trusted for their opinions and who pass along information on what products, services and ideas are the best. Moms want to know which products work and which don’t; they want to give an opinion on what’s worked for them and share their experiences with other.” I completely agree; I read several mommy blogs regularly, and as a mother of two, I really appreciate their reviews.

Birminghammom and Geekdad both gave McWane glowing reviews for summer fun, and their advice can be extended into the fall and winter months, too. From birminghammom.com: “The hunt is on for the best summer in Birmingham can offer, and McWane Science Center has to be on your list. You have no doubt visited the halls of McWane Science Center or attended a party there. But let me bring you in on a little secret: McWane is one of the best values for summer activities, hands down. Besides the regular favorites like the bed of nails or the giant piano keys, there are rotating exhibits of all sorts to keep things interesting. If you're a city girl with no intention of wading in a creek or riverbed, take the kids to the lower level's Cahaba River Tank so you know you've at least introduced them to aquatic life. Let them touch a horseshoe crab while you keep your distance.”

On the technology news website www.wired.com, contributor Doug Cornelius wrote about McWane in a post on the GeekDad blog titled “100 Geeky Places to Take Your Kids this Summer.” He said, in part: “Boredom may already be settling in around the house. So what are some fun, geeky places to take your geeklets? Even better, what are some fun, geeky places that kids AND adults will all enjoy? Try the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama. It features four floors of interactive exhibits, celebrating science and wonder - from an amazing collection of dinosaurs to innovative environmental showcases, imaginative early childhood playgrounds, and an awe-inspiring aquarium.”

Birminghammom gave our new Smart Café a thumbs-up: “You don't have to leave the building for snacks or lunch. Pizza Hut and Subway are here but there are also deliberately healthy choices like smoothies. Burgers are broiled and fries are prepared with a hot air fryer which doesn't use oils or grease to produce equally crispy results. Yum!” The gift shop also got a positive mention when she added that “the gift shop isn't full of the usual allowance-scamming souvenirs” but offers science-related toys and games at all price points.

In this blog, posted in September, another Birmingham mom not only wrote about how much fun her son had in our museum but also acknowledged the accommodating staff in our Smart Café. Here are some of her comments:

“Last Saturday we decided to take Miller to the McWane Science Center for the day. WOW is all I have to say. We arrived the around 11:15 and we were concerned about what we were going to feed Miller, considering he would be getting hungry soon. Little did we know that the McWane Science Center has a lunch room for all of their visitors…and they are big on nutrition there. While we were in line to order, one of the workers overheard us trying to decide what to get Miller because of his food allergies. She said, it is our job here to get him what he needs to eat, and we try our hardest to provide for those that have food allergies. So we ordered him something and we did not have to pay full price considering it was not a full meal. It was very nice (because) it is very hard to find places that will help you out on food. After we ate we bought our tickets and headed in to the museum. It was amazing all the different things that Miller could do…he could do everything and it was really fun. After going to ALL four floors, we headed back home around 4:30 and Miller fell asleep on the way home. We had a great time and can't wait to go back.”

Contributor Profile:
Dana Crisson is a Recruitment Specialist in the Education Department at McWane. She brought her two daughters to visit the science center regularly, and although her oldest child is in college and the youngest is preparing to go away to college next fall, they continue to visit as often as possible. And her entire family loves eating in the Smart Café.

The Word is Out about McWane Science Center, Part I

2009-09-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

By Dana Crisson, Educator

Good news: the McWane Science Center continues to pop up in internet articles and blogs written by visitors as close to home as Southside and as far away as London, England.
Gocitykids.parentsconnect.com, Nickelodeon’s city guide for parents, gave McWane Science Center their highest rating of five out of five stars. Their comments included: "Itty Bitty Mini Golf, in the mini-sized Magic City, helps children learn their ABCs and 123s while practicing the science of their swing. And birthday parties are a hassle-free experience – the museum staff handles all the details."

A writer from hiddenvacations.com posted: "McWane Science Center is Alabama’s premier science center, aquarium and IMAX Dome Theater. It features four floors of exciting interactive science exhibits and displays: visitors can make their own animated movie, build a roller coaster or ride a bicycle along a wire 30 feet above the ground. One of the Center’s main attractions is World of Water exhibit, where visitors can make waves on an eroding shoreline, investigate salt marsh creatures, and explore the awesome story of water and its importance to life on our planet. In addition to permanent exhibits, McWane Science Center constantly features traveling exhibits from other famous museums around the world."

Three satisfied travelers recently wrote the following posts on the travel site tripadvisor.com. First, a Washington D.C. traveler wrote: "McWane is really a fun place! It has a wide range of things to do. Very interactive. Designed for a range of ages: lots for toddlers, lots that appeal to the kindergarten set and quite a bit for older kids as well as adults. Our daughter (4-1/2) had a terrific time and was talking about it the rest of the day. I wasn't sure she'd be entertained long before getting there, but she could have spent an entire day there (we might not have been able to keep up that long though). We'll definitely be back. I'm surprised (and disappointed) we don't have something like this in DC."

According to a visitor from Toronto, ON: "This place is absolutely awesome! We had the best time here. There was a lady on the staff named Betty who was the sweetest lady and made a big fuss over us after she found out we had come to see McWane all the way from Toronto, ON, Canada. The exhibits were amazing, and the new shark and manta/sting ray tank was something else!! My 10 year old had a blast at this place and so did we!!! And for the price, you can't go wrong!"

Then, a visitor from London, England wrote: “We brought our 4 year old & 6 year old daughters here. They had a fantastic time. There were so many fun things for them to see and do that we were not able to get to all of them. Our girls were fascinated by the many interactive exhibits that the museum had to offer. If we lived nearby, we would join the McWane Science Center so we could visit often. Our visit was one of the highlights of our trip to Alabama. We'd highly recommend it!!”

A writer named Krista Tannahill wrote the following on helium.com, a website billed as a knowledge co-operative: “With over fifteen interactive scientific exhibits and an IMAX Dome Theater, the McWane Science Center children are encouraged to become engaged in various thought provoking and imaginative scientific activities and experiments. The center has four featured floors each with a variety of unique and interesting scientific exhibits. From an impressive and in-depth dinosaur collection to various detailed environmental showcases, the science center provides numerous daily activities, demonstrations and learning opportunities throughout the day."

Tannahill takes special note of the Alabama Dinosaurs Exhibit and the Shark & Ray Touch Tank. "Alabama Dinosaurs Exhibit is an in-depth visual and tactile exhibit showcasing various dinosaurs species found in and around the state of Alabama. The newest exhibition at the McWane Science Center, the Touch Tank, allows visitors to view and touch a variety of species of sharks and rays. Visitors are educated and guided by trained staff who will teach you about various underwater creatures and their unique habitats."

The secret is out: Come to the McWane Science Center for undisputed hands-on fun and learning. But then, you knew it all along!

Next week in Part II—Mommy blogs spread the news about the McWane Science Center

Contributor Profile:
Dana Crisson is a Recruitment Specialist in the Education Department at McWane. She brought her two daughters to visit the science center regularly, and although her oldest child is in college and the youngest is preparing to go away to college next fall, they continue to visit as often as possible.

McWane brings science to Children's Hospital!

2009-09-04T08:36:00.000-07:00

By Kathy Fournier, Director of Science Education

Outreach is a very important part of the Education Department here at McWane. With our Outreach program, we take our science programming on the road, visiting schools, churches and other facilities throughout the area. One of the regularly scheduled stops for our Outreach program is Children’s Hospital.

In the fall of 2007, our Vice President of Education, Jan Mattingly talked with staff at Children’s Hospital and developed a structure for a partnership between our two organizations. Since then we have been going to Children’s Hospital each month. This opportunity has been amazing. First, we visit the Dialysis Clinic. These children are there at least 3 times a week for 4 hours to receive their treatment, so we come in and provide some fun and educational distractions for them during their treatment. I certainly feel that the kids enjoy our visits, but what I did not expect was how it would affect me, other educators and docents who assist with these outreaches. In the Dialysis Clinic we often see the same children month after month, and as the months go by, we have been able to form relationships with these kids. I look forward to seeing them at each visit to see how they are doing.

At one of our monthly visits one of the regular patients was not there; it turned out he had received his kidney transplant and no longer needed dialysis treatment. What bittersweet news! Obviously I was thrilled that he was now healthy and no longer needed these long and uncomfortable treatments, but sad that I would no longer be able to talk with him at each visit. This particular young man had also come to McWane Science Center on a field trip from the hospital recently and was thrilled to have the opportunity to see our exhibits and educational programs. As I was as leaving Children’s Hospital that morning, I happened to see him in the lobby of the hospital--he was there for a check-up after his transplant and was happy that he had gotten a great report. I got to meet his mother, and as we talked about our visits, she told me that he now wanted to have his birthday at McWane. She said, “He can’t stop talking about McWane Science Center, about how much fun he had on his field trip there and how much he enjoyed doing the activities you brought with you when you came to visit him in the hospital.” We gave each other big hugs, and I told him to be sure to find me when he came for his birthday.

The second part of our outreach at Children’s Hospital is to provide the same programming in a room where patients and their parents can come and have a break from the hospital routine and have some educational fun. Here we do not often see the same patients each visit, but we know that the kids enjoy having an entertaining and educational activity to break up their day. Go Green, Weather Watchers and Sticky Icky Science are just a few of the programs we have been able to present to these children. I think the parents enjoy it as much as the kids! I know from experience that the days spent in the hospital with a sick child can be long, tedious and stressful. I am honored to be able to provide an opportunity for these families to give them some relief from their situation and that is both enjoyable and educational.

Children’s Hospital does a great job offering a variety of opportunities for their patients. I appreciate the fact that they value an educational experience in addition to the movie nights and the other fun activities on their schedule. This hospital outreach has been such a rewarding experience that I plan on participating in as many as possible. I value the relationships that we are building with these families, and I look forward to seeing them here at McWane Science Center when they are able to come and visit us.

From Parking Deck to Adventure Halls – the Grand Lobby Experience

2009-08-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

By: Ruth Terry, Manager of Ticketing

It is very difficult to convince a three year old that there are more fun things to see and do after being introduced to the flying, chiming, zooming, and leaping balls of Vulcan’s Dream Machine. The art piece is the first sight you see when you step from the elevators from the parking deck into the Grand Lobby. It is sometimes difficult to convince older children (and even adults) that more levels of exciting activities wait around the curve of the spacious lobby.

Once you are able to pull away from “The Ball Machine,” other distractions pull you farther into the center. High screens of constantly changing information about what the McWane Science Center offers may catch your eye with a robot talking about having a birthday party at the McWane Science Center. Or you might see information about the latest exhibit or an upcoming exhibit.

A few steps on are three larger screens, displaying a variety of information. You might see lightning streaking across a stage while an unseen audience screams with delight; or a balloon exploding in light, the audience gasping with excitement. “Where and when can I see THAT?” you want to know. The center board has a map of Level One and the times of the day’s programs listed. On the final screen are the IMAX® films with their current show times. If you miss the IMAX times on the information screens, they are posted behind the ticketing counter.
The screens at ticketing keep up the flow of information and excitement. The prices are listed and the robot is there too, piquing your children’s interest while you receive all the vital information about your visit from the ticketing representative. On one screen, the robot will let you know about birthday parties and membership at the McWane Science Center. On the other, your child will be watching for him to pop up, sneaking peeks over and around the prices. The robot, by the way, is MAC, McWane Science Center’s robot who will occasionally roll around Level One, greeting visitors and talking about what is happening at the McWane Science Center that day.

Past the ticketing counter are more interesting distractions before you step into the Adventure Halls. First there is the IMAX® Concession Stand, where the smell of fresh popcorn wafts, tempting you to grab a bag (please remember though, there is no food or drink allowed in the Adventure Halls.) Then there is the MAXFLIGHT 2000, where you are turned topsy-turvy in a simulated roller coaster ride, if you are at least 48 inches tall. Above MAXFLIGHT 2000 is a net. Why is there a net above our lobby? It’s under the High Cycle to catch falling objects, not falling people (no matter what a ten year old might tell his little sister.) And there is the vortex, the amazing gravity powered coin spin which is not only fun to do, but helps fund the fun!

If you can resist the pull of Really Cool Stuff, our gift store, you are finally in the Adventure Halls. Four levels of fun and educational exhibits. The long journey from Parking Deck to Adventure Halls is complete. Now you only have to decide what to do first!

Science Fiction to Science Reality

2009-08-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

By: Ben Moon, Director of Space and Technology
Technology is like the brother of magic. At least it seems that way. Everyday humans are making scientific leaps and bounds, turning science fiction into science reality. It’s really quite fun to follow the progress. Let’s talk about some recent advancements shall we?

We can turn oily algae into fuel. We can grow plastics from plants. We can slow down a beam of light and stop it in its tracks. We can grow diamonds in a lab in just a few days. We can video chat with people on the other side of the world, for free.

While it’s interesting to talk about this stuff, it’s more fun to see it in action. So I will present to you some new technologies with video and pictures to showcase them.

First up: Touchable Holography. This technology utilizes a concave mirror to create holographic images, Wiimotes to track the user, and and “Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display” that allows you to actually feel the holographic images. Crazy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-P1zZAcPuw

Eyeborg. Rob Spence, a one-eyed Canadian filmmaker and Kosta Grammatis, his engineer friend have created an eyeball camera that fits into Spence’s empty eye socket. They’re making a movie from that perspective. Weird. http://eyeborgproject.com/home.php

Super computing (for real). Graphene is an extremely strong experimental material with extremely high conductivity. It's essentially a one-atom-thick honeycomb fabric of carbon. It’s better than silicone for computer chips and MIT researchers claim that it may be able to boost the clock speed of computer chips into the 500-GHz to 1,000-GHz range. You’re overclocked 8-GHz silicon chip in liquid nitrogen just shed a tear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YbS-YyvCl4&feature=related

Electromagnetic Railgun. Current naval ship guns generate about 9 megajoules of muzzle energy. The electromagnetic railgun developed at Naval Surface Warfare Division in Dahlgren, Virginia is an 8-megajoule prototype, but the one to be used on Navy ships will generate a massive 64 megajoules. The top-secret gun the Navy used to destroy Devastator in Transfomers: Revenge of the Fallen was not science fiction. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y54aLcC3G74 and http://www.nswc.navy.mil/ET/railgun/

DARPA is developing something their calling “Silent Talk” for soldiers. Using an EEG to read brain waves, they’re attempting to analyze "pre-speech" thoughts , map people's EEG patterns to his / her individual words, then see if those patterns are common to all people. If they are, then the team will move on to developing a way to transmitting those patterns to another person. It’s basically telepathy! http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/pentagon-preps-soldier-telepathy-push/#comments

The Sun…On Earth! There is a laser housed at the National Ignition Facility (or NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, that is the size of three football fields. It will aim to create a "star" on earth by focusing 192 beams at a pea-sized target, generating temperatures over 100 million degrees and pressure over 100 billion times the earth's atmosphere. The process will create nuclear fusion -- the reaction that powers the sun and the stars. Hot! http://www.physorg.com/news162827599.html and https://lasers.llnl.gov/programs/nif/about.php

Allow these things to mystify you until mid November when the Large Hadron Collider creates a mini-black hole that will swallow the Earth. Cheers!

Contributor Profile:
Ben Moon is the Manager of Space and Technology at McWane. He is a total geek and loves space, shiny things, technology, gadgets, video games, sci-fi and zombies. He is married and just had his first child! His favorite movie is The Rocketeer. He wishes he had telekinesis.

Birds of a Feather - Part 3

2009-08-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

We have now arrived at a very interesting point where the discoveries of the past two decades have illustrated how difficult it is to define exactly where feathered theropod dinosaurs leave off and birds begin. Many of the features once thought to be unique to birds, like a wishbone, for example, have been identified in a variety of dinosaurs. Even teeth are still found in many otherwise normal-looking Late Cretaceous birds such as Ichthyornis from the chalk deposits of Alabama. At the moment, the acquisition of fully powered flight appears to be the dividing line between theropods and birds, although even that is tentative. At least one lineage of theropod dinosaurs, the alvarezsaurids, that includes the bizarre Mononychus and Shuvuuia, each sporting a single finger on each tiny but powerfully built arm, have the appearance of “vestigial” wings that belonged to a once flighted bird that has re-adapted the wing into a warped sort of arm. This implies that flight may have evolved more than once within the theropods because the alvarezsaurids are not closely related to the lineage of theropods that share the most features with birds. Essentially, you should think of birds as flighted theropods that survived the extinction event 65 million years ago (the K/T boundary extinctions). After the K/T boundary extinctions, birds had finally evolved to the point that they had a more bird-like appearance, having lost teeth, the long tail, and the hind foot sickle-claw.

But birds didn’t quit being scary with the disappearance of the rest of the dinosaurs. At least two groups of birds became top predators after the K/T extinctions in the absence of any competing large mammal carnivores. Diatryma (Gastornis) was a large, seven-foot-plus tall flightless bird that dominated North America and Europe for several million years after the K/T, eating the ancestors of horses and whatever other mammals they could catch. Later, the flightless phorusrhacids, otherwise known as the Terror Birds, ran the plains of South America between about 62 and 2 million years ago, eating llamas and pretty much whatever else they wanted. One phorusrhacid, the nine-foot-tall Titanis walleri, made it across Central America and its fossils have been found in Florida. As a personal note, this is one of my “paleo daydreams”. You can’t get from Central America to Florida without crossing through southern Alabama. Every time it rains, I get this mental image of a Titanis skeleton eroding out of the bank of some stream in south Alabama,…

We call the Cenozoic, the time period dating from the end of the dinosaur era 65 million years ago to the present, the “age of mammals”. And it’s true that the top predators in the terrestrial realm today are mostly mammals. But there are 10,000 species of living birds, and only 4600 species of mammals, so dinosaurs are still doing quite well (although a recently released report suggests that human activities may be accomplishing what the dinosaur-killing asteroid collision could not – namely driving many species to extinction). There’s even the chance that traditional-looking dinosaurs could make a comeback. Several times over the past 20 or 30 years various research groups have shown that some of the primitive characteristics of birds ancestors are still locked away in a birds DNA. Now there are people trying to use our increasing knowledge of genetics to “reverse engineer” a dinosaur, or at least a bird with some very dinosaur-like characteristics, from a bird. I’m going to refer to such a creature as a “dino-bird” in the following paragraphs.

For example, there is a mutation in chickens known as talpid, which has teeth and jaws, not a beak. There is also a stage in embryonic chicken development with a long tail containing 16 vertebrae, very dinosaur-like, very un-chicken-like. The genes that control these mutations can be identified and theoretically, if they can be “turned on” during the development of the embryo in such a manner that they do not kill the chick embryo by interfering with later developmental stages, one could get a chicken with teeth and a long tail. Then there’s the Hoatzin, an odd-looking relative of the cuckoos that nests in the seasonally flooded forests of the Amazon. Hoatzin chicks are born with 3 claws on their hands that project off the front edge of the wing that they use to climb up small trees to escape snakes. They later lose the claws, but obviously the genes for hand claws in birds are still locked away in their genetic code, it’s just that those genes have been repressed. Of course whether or not bioengineering such an animal is ethical is another story, but my prediction is that someone somewhere is going to do it. And this raises all sorts of questions of a profound nature that scientists and perhaps society at large should begin to ponder, and here I offer but a few:

What exactly will a dino-bird look like, will we call embryonic dino-birds “chicks” (somehow when I think of the fuzzy little yellow duck chick I got one Easter when I was about 5 years old, I can’t quite reconcile the two images), will we have to redo the old expression about something being “rare as hen’s teeth”, will they get along well with house cats (my prediction is no), could they be house-trained, and what would that be like (ever smelled a chicken house?), how much will the vet charge to “declaw” your dino-bird?

Finally, a couple of closing thoughts; the next time you look at that bird on your feeder that you’ve let run out of food, or cast a disparaging glance at that scruffy-looking pigeon on the sidewalk, just remember – there’s a little of T. rex in them. Show some respect. And if we ever do invent a time machine and travel back to the age of dinosaurs I have one last prediction – dinosaurs will taste like chicken.

Contributor Profile:
James Lamb is a native Birminghamster with a nearly life-long interest in fossils. He collected his first fossil when he was 5 years old. Friends and family members assure him he has not matured much since then. James is curator of paleontology at McWane Science Center, and would like to one day see the absolute treasure trove of Alabama's fossil heritage revealed to the public. When not at work he wishes he were in the field digging up fossils. At home he enjoys reading, jogging, woodworking, and carving. He has been informed that he is in the habit of telling atrocious puns, but this comes as a surprise to him. James describes himself as a "science nerd".

True Joy Means Making a Difference

2009-07-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

Joy.

The world needs more of it. You can provide it.

When I first got into fundraising, I thought it would be great helping people live better lives. The best part of my job, however, is witnessing the joy donors and volunteers experience when they shared their resources to help others.

I hear the sounds of joy every day at McWane Science Center. Sounds we wouldn’t hear if it weren’t for generous donors who provide exciting, fun, educational exhibits and programs.

If you have been a part of providing this joy for the 11 years that McWane has existed, thank you. We have depended on corporations, foundations, government entities and some individuals who have made major gifts. But Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore.

McWane is a thriving organization in terms of the experience, attendance and memberships. April and June of this year saw record attendance. Memberships are growing, yet there’s room to grow. Might I unabashedly say it’s a great deal if you come just twice a year?

Lots of folks don’t realize that McWane Science Center is a nonprofit. It costs us about twice as much to serve visitors as we charge. We want to remain affordable for everyone to enjoy the benefits of hands-on science education.

Science literacy is important. Our kids must grow up knowing how to solve problems with the environment, energy, technology, etc., McWane supports families and teachers in our mission “to change lives through science and wonder.”

True joy is watching another delight in something. Knowing a person is learning skills and that we are igniting a lifelong love of learning is icing on the cake. By donating to McWane Science Center, you can experience the joy of being a part of something really big - you can provide joy for thousands of kids.

From outside my office, I can hear hundreds of kids excited as they get off of school buses. In the lobby, I hear kids crying that they don’t want to leave. It’s in those moments that I know what we are doing is working. Kids love experiential learning. AND THEY NEED IT if there’s to be hope for our future.

We need your financial support more than ever. If you don’t have a membership, buy one. Tell others what a great value memberships to McWane are - give them as gifts. A donation of any size - $25 to thousands of dollars - will help our community. You can provide hope for the future. And when you do that, you can experience great joy.

l’ll step off of my soap box now.

Contributor Profile:
Linda H. Baker is the vice president of development and marketing for McWane Science Center and mother of three boys. After a tour in corporate communications and print media, she found her purpose for existing: to help people find true joy.

Birds of a Feather - Part 2

2009-07-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

by James Lamb, Paleontologist

There are to date at least 21 different types of dinosaurs that are known to have had feathers. Even Velociraptor, a well-established dinosaur, appears to have had a feather coating, as a recently discovered specimen shows that it had the bumps on one of its forearm bones called “quill nodes” that indicate where feathers attach in modern birds. In fact, it appears very likely that all carnivorous dinosaurs (the group called theropod dinosaurs) had feathers, at least as juveniles. It also seems that the dromaeosaurs, the specific group of theropods that Deinonychus belongs to, are the closest relatives to birds. Many of the feathered dinosaur skeletons have the switchblade claw on their hind feet. Recently, there have been discoveries such as the “bristles” on the back on the small Triceratops relative Psittacosaurus, and just two months ago of what appear to be feathers on the heterodontosaurid dinosaur Tianyulong, that indicate that perhaps all dinosaurs had feathers, at least originally (although they may have been lost later by such groups as the hadrosaurs (duck-bills) which we know from skin impressions did not have feathers). This is because Psittacosaurus and Tianyulong are plant-eating dinosaurs that are not close relatives to theropods, and in particular heterodontosaurids are near the base of the dinosaur family tree.

So what did a dinosaur need with feathers?

The key question about the origins of flight in birds if dinosaurs are indeed their ancestors, is how did ground-dwelling animals become flying animals? Looking at the range of feather types in modern birds, Dr. Alan Brush has worked out the probable sequence of the evolution of feathers from a reptilian type scale. The problem is that the intermediate stages in feather evolution, say, halfway between a scale and a feather, are not capable of sustaining flight. That means that feathers were originally evolved for a purpose other than flight, a purpose for which intermediate grade feathers provided some useful function. It appears that the answer to this riddle is that feathers originally were for insulation. We now know from a variety of evidence that dinosaurs almost certainly had some form of warm-blooded metabolism, and the earliest dinosaurs were all small animals. Small warm-blooded animals lose body heat more rapidly than a large animal with the same metabolism. To prevent the loss of body heat, small warm-blooded animals need insulation. Dinosaurs had feathers for the same reason that mammals have hair – to stay warm. Indeed, birds and mammals are the only warm-blooded animals. Mammals inherited fur from their ancestors, birds inherited feathers from their ancestors. The intermediate stage of a feather may not work for flight, but it does work as insulation, at least better than a scale. Only later were they co-opted for use in flight. For many years though there hasn’t been a satisfying explanation for how theropod dinosaurs made the transition into the air. The final piece came a few years ago with the work of Dr. Ken Dial, and is known as WAIR, or wing-assisted-incline-running. I’ll give an example from personal experience how this works.

Some years back, while searching for dinosaurs, umm, fossil ones, in central Alabama, I was walking through a stretch of woods to get to a site, when I scared up a wild turkey in the underbrush. I’m not sure which of us was more surprised; turkeys generally rely on camouflage, and will hide quietly in a bush and let you walk right past them. Evidently, this one decided at the last instant the camouflage wasn’t working because the turkey exploded out of a bush within arms reach in a cloud of leaves and feathers and with a noise equivalent to what I thought of at the time as a charging rhino crashing through the underbrush. The turkey sprinted across the clearing, heading towards a large cedar tree. And then it did the oddest thing – it waited until it was right at the tree and then flew vertically up it, it’s chest just inches away from the trunk. Heart pounding, still checking to see if my pants were still dry recovering from the initial surprise, the whole thing having taken less than 2 seconds, I began to wonder why it had waited until the last instant to fly up the tree instead of taking off and flying in a shallower trajectory into the tree. What WAIR proves is that in fact the turkey did not fly into the tree at all, it RAN into the tree – vertically up the trunk.

Dial has spent many hours filming birds running up the trunks of trees. He has shown that a bird can run up a tree quicker from a short distance than it can fly into the tree. In fact, this happens so quickly that it can only be seen in high-speed video footage, which is why the turkey appeared to me to have flown up the tree. Further, birds only a day or two old exhibit this behavior, and also sometimes run up inclined surfaces and use it as a launching point to glide away from danger long before their wings are developed enough for flight. He has documented that birds can run up completely vertical surfaces in this manner, flapping the wings both as a propulsive assist and to help keep the feet pressed against the tree. It also turns out that they move their arms/wings in exactly the same manner that they do during active flight. This is almost certainly the origin of flight in dinosaurs – small dinosaurs with feathers evolved for insulation modifying a predator-escape behavior for a new purpose.

Next week: Birds of a Feather Part 3

Contributor Profile:
James Lamb is a native Birminghamster with a nearly life-long interest in fossils. He collected his first fossil when he was 5 years old. Friends and family members assure him he has not matured much since then. James is curator of paleontology at McWane Science Center, and would like to one day see the absolute treasure trove of Alabama's fossil heritage revealed to the public. When not at work he wishes he were in the field digging up fossils. At home he enjoys reading, jogging, woodworking, and carving. He has been informed that he is in the habit of telling atrocious puns, but this comes as a surprise to him. James describes himself as a "science nerd".

Birds of a Feather - Part 1

2009-07-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

by James Lamb, Paleontologist

The pair of fighting dinosaurs tumbled across the sidewalk in front of me, bringing me to an abrupt halt. Screeching, flipping tail over talon, grasping at each other with their sharp, three-toed hind feet and stabbing at each other with their mouths, they didn’t even pause when they rolled over a vertical drop twice their own body length. Finally they separated, each lying on its back, and continued to screech ferociously at one another. It was just in time too, as the drop off the curb had brought them perilously close to the street. Well, at least I didn’t have to jump in and break them up before they got in traffic. Then, as the two White-throated sparrows flew off to nurse their wounds in relative safety, I couldn’t help but think how glad I was that these little feathered dinosaurs were so tiny compared to their now extinct cousins. Imagine if they were the size of Deinonychus, the villains of Jurassic Park (incorrectly called Velociraptor in the movie) - no one would ever go outside.

At this point you are perhaps wondering if you read the previous paragraph correctly. Did I really mean that birds are little feathered dinosaurs? Well, yes. As amazing as it seems, birds are essentially the only group of dinosaurs to survive the global catastrophe 65 million years ago when something like 65% of all life on Earth became extinct. Dinosaurs had been the most successful terrestrial vertebrates ever; a group that dominated terrestrial ecosystems for 150 million years. And, except for birds, they’re all gone. But – dinosaurs? Really? Let me start the story at the beginning, always a good place to start.

The oldest known bird, Archaeopteryx, lived about 145-150 million years ago. The first specimen was discovered in 1861 and right from the beginning stirred controversy because of its mixture of avian (bird-like) features such as feathers, and more “reptile-like” features such as teeth and clawed, three-fingered hands. There were scientists even then who thought that the best match for bird ancestors were the dinosaurs. At the time though, there was only the one Archaeopteryx specimen and no particularly good match amongst dinosaurs for many features of the skeleton then known only in birds. The ancestry of birds remained in a sort of limbo for the next 100 years, with various groups of reptiles favored by different paleontologists. All that changed in 1969 with the publication of the formal description of Deinonychus. Deinonychus broke the mold of the old stereotype that dinosaurs were slow, lumbering, dim-witted animals with “extinction” stamped on their bony foreheads. Not only does the skeleton imply speed and grace, they had a sickle-shaped claw on the second toe of each hind foot that could be rotated through 180 degrees. The claw was held off the ground when running and then rotated into slashing/killing position once the prey had been captured. One of my college professors used to refer to Deinonychus and its kin as “Bobcats with a switchblade on each foot”. Perhaps equally as interesting were the skeletal similarities to birds.

One of the things that is unique about birds is the special arrangement of bones in the wrist that allows them to fold their hand, that is, the wing, which is mostly formed from an elongated hand, up against their body, and rotate the hand/wing properly to achieve the flight stroke. Deinonychus had this same feature. Deinonychus also possessed what until then was a uniquely bird characteristic called the “triosseal canal”, a trough formed by three bones in the shoulder region that allows the flight muscles that attach to the sternum, the breastbone, to loop over the shoulder like a pulley and power the recovery stroke of the wing during flight. Deinonychus appears to have evolved these features to use its long and mobile arms in capturing prey. Finding these features in Deinonychus started a flurry of renewed interest in the dinosaur/bird connection, and over the next couple of decades, as new dinosaur discoveries were made, and more Archaeopteryx and other early birds were found, paleontologists documented over 100 skeletal features shared uniquely in the animal world by only dinosaurs and birds.

Then came the fossils from dinosaur-aged lake deposits in China. The chances of any particular organism being preserved in the rock record are not good. The main reason for this is that most animals don’t die in an environment where they will be quickly covered up by rock-forming sediments such as sand or clay. The ancient freshwater lake deposits in China are an exception. Animals were buried quickly in fine-grained sediment that not only preserved the skeleton in near life position, but also so effectively sealed the fossil from the air that traces of soft tissue are often preserved. Many of the fossils coming from these deposits are of feathered dinosaurs. That is, traces of feathers, in some cases surrounding the skeleton in a sort of halo are preserved as a carbonaceous film. Not only did scanning electron microscope images show that these have the highly distinctive structure of modern bird feathers, they also have the same chemical signature as feathers. Feathers are made from a tough structural protein called keratin. Hair, fingernails and claws are other examples of biological structures made from keratin. However in the animal world only feathers are made solely of a single type of keratin, called beta-keratin.

Next week: Birds of a Feather Part 2

Contributor Profile:

James Lamb is a native Birminghamster with a nearly life-long interest in fossils. He collected his first fossil when he was 5 years old. Friends and family members assure him he has not matured much since then. James is curator of paleontology at McWane Science Center, and would like to one day see the absolute treasure trove of Alabama's fossil heritage revealed to the public. When not at work he wishes he were in the field digging up fossils. At home he enjoys reading, jogging, woodworking, and carving. He has been informed that he is in the habit of telling atrocious puns, but this comes as a surprise to him. James describes himself as a "science nerd".

Summer Camps are in full swing at McWane!

2009-06-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

By Dana Crisson, Educator

“It’s HOT.” “I’m BORED.” “What can I do today?”

Do those phrases sound familiar? Not here. The halls at the McWane Science Center are filled with excited day campers this summer. Here, the budding scientist can travel into outer space, explore a bug’s world, discuss the origins of mythical creatures, dive into marine biology, or pretend to be prefects like Harry Potter at Hogwarts or padawans in the Star Wars universe. Over fifty different camp themes allow children to experience something new each day. When you are having this much fun, it is impossible to be bored.

These camps are just as entertaining for those of us who work here as they are for the children who attend them. We have been planning and plotting for weeks, decorating classrooms (“Can you help me hang the ‘brick’ curtain for the secret entrance to Platform 9 ¾ for Hogwarts camp?”), collecting props and costumes (“Have you seen my Darth Vader mask?”), and hoarding supplies (“Who moved my stash of shoe boxes for my dioramas for Weird Wacky Science?”)

In Crazy Cool Chemistry camp we made copper pennies shiny again and we concocted bright green slime. We filled jars with heavy cream and shook the jars as we danced to music until the cream magically turned into butter, and the next day we explored the properties of yeast and the children ate their butter on fresh baked bread. “We are going to make butter like this at home,” said one excited student. “I’m going to tell my mother never to buy butter again.” The last day we feasted on delicious liquid nitrogen ice cream. “I LIKE science,” said one happy camper with an ice cream mustache.

Throughout McWane Science Center, other educators are helping their students have hands-on fun, too. To borrow a phrase from Art Linkletter, some of our camping kids say the darnedest things. The children at Science and Music camp were studying musical instruments all week and on Friday they were asked to bring in instruments to play for the class, so one child brought a guitar and one brought bells. Another child didn’t bring an instrument, but brought a bowl and spoon. As she flipped the bowl over and began to play her homemade drum, the educator asked the other campers what kind of instrument the child was playing. After a moment of thoughtful silence, another camper said, “I don’t know, but it looks like a chicken casserole to me!” The Star Wars campers had food on the brain last week as well. Throughout the week, the kids studied the science behind making the Star Wars movies. They were divided into groups where they actually wrote scripts and made props for their very own Star Wars movie, which was acted out, filmed and then screened in our Rushton Theater on the first floor. The group named the Starbucks scripted a scene involving frappuccino. The Mental Ewoks wrote a script called “The Last Sandwich of Darth Vader,” and the script from the TonTons of Hoth group had Darth Vader repeatedly calling for hot chocolate. (Hmmm, I’m sensing a theme here….) And lastly, overheard at craft time in Rock On Camp: “These are baby scissors—and I’m SEVEN!”

So, as the temperatures continue to soar into the upper 90s and the allure of the neighborhood pool begins to wear thin, think about reserving a space for your child to attend one of our camps. Today at lunch I watched a group of first graders from the Science of Superheroes camp shouting excitedly as they dashed about on the front plaza wearing yellow fabric capes. Several camps in July and the first week in August are still open; campers can explore the ocean floor in Under the Sea, dig paleontology in Dino Discoveries, discover kitchen chemistry in Science Attack on Food, along with a number of other unique camp themes.

McWane summer camps make learning an unforgettable adventure that kids will never forget. At the “world premiere” of the newest Star Wars DVD from last week’s Star Wars camp, one child exclaimed as she was watching the campers on the screen re-enacting very own battle scene with light sabers and blasters, “This is wicked awesome!”

Contributor Profile:
Dana Crisson, her husband, Dwight, are huge fans of both the Harry Potter and Star Wars series. Their daughters, Rachel, 20, and Christina, 17, are also huge fans and regret that they are too old to attend any of the camps at McWane this summer, but unfortunately their parents made them get paying jobs instead.

Dinosaur Escaped Downtown!

2009-05-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

May 22, 8:00 a.m.

As the sun came up this morning over downtown Birmingham, it revealed that strange things had happened at McWane last night. Dinosaur tracks were discovered on the corner of 19th Street and 2nd Ave North. McWane Science Center Security Guard Tony Akins discovered tracks coming out of the museum onto 19th Street. “I was making my rounds, when I noticed the rather large, green footprints coming out of the door.” Despite the evidence that a dinosaur escaped from the museum last night, it was located back on the 2nd floor inside the Alabama Dinosaur exhibit when officials checked this morning.

Tim Ritchie, McWane Science Center President and CEO said, “We have no explanation for where the tracks came from, but we suspect it might have something to do with the opening of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian in the IMAX® Dome Theater today.” McWane Science Center is asking media to alert the public about this strange occurrence. The center is requesting that the public come see Night at the Museum in the IMAX® (May 22 – June 23) and keep an eye on the exhibits in McWane’s museum this summer! McWane is also inviting the public to spend a night in the museum and find out what happens when the lights go out on May 30 & June 6.

Peering into the Universe

2009-05-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

By Ben Moon, Space and Technology Director

The universe is well…huge. Mind bogglingly huge. So huge, it’s hard to grasp really how big it is. Let me try to put it into perspective.

Our sun is a medium sized star and it’s 93 million miles away. One million Earths could fit inside the sun. A medium sized star. Sunlight takes 8 minutes to get here.

The next closest star to us is Proxima Centauri, which is 4.2 light years away. That means it takes light from that star 4.2 years to reach us. If you owned a Millennium Falcon from Star Wars and engaged your light speed drive, it would take you over 4 years to reach Proxima Centauri!

That’s just the closest star. We live in a galaxy called the The Milky Way, and the next closest major galaxy, M31 a.k.a. the Andromeda Galaxy, is over 2 million light years away. That Millennium Falcon of yours traveling at the speed of light would take over 2 million years to reach the Andromeda Galaxy. To say that it’s REALLY far away would be supreme understatement.

That’s just the closest major galaxy. Currently the furthest known galaxy from us is on the other side of the known universe at 12.88 billion light years away. That means that it takes light from that galaxy 12.88 BILLION years to get here. Don’t forget, light is fast. Really fast. Like, 670,616,629 miles per hour fast.

So if there is intelligent life on other planets in other star systems, they won’t be traveling to good ol’ Earth any time soon, unless they’ve found a way to bend time and space in such a way as to teleport here. The “light-speed road” is a theoretically long and lonely one that they’d most likely not take. Nor would we.

So for now, we must be content with exploring our solar system and gazing through our light-gathering telescopes. Speaking of, astronauts just launched last week in what could be the last Space Shuttle mission ever. They went to repair the Hubble Space Telescope to extend its life for at least 5 more years. This may seem sad as Hubble has given us so many beautiful images and wonderful data over the years, but there are new telescopes being built and put into space which will continue Hubble’s trend of capturing our imaginations. You can find Hubble’s final farewell image from its decommissioned Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) here.
Here are a few of the new space telescopes that have recently launched or are planned for launch in the next 5 years:

The Kepler Telescope was successfully launched on March 6th this year on its mission to search out Earth-like planets orbiting other stars in the Milky Way.

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer or WISE will take nearly 1,500,000 pictures covering the entire sky as it orbits the earth from pole to pole after it launches in November this year.

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide after it launches in 2014. The Herschel and Planck spacecrafts, which are European Space Agency missions with significant participation from NASA, hitched a ride together on an Ariane 5 rocket May 14th this year and will begin their separate, but ambitious missions to attempt to unveil the secrets of the darkest, coldest and oldest parts of the universe.

WOW: All About Eels!

2009-05-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

By Adele Fowler, World of Water Aquarist

Welcome back to the World of Water! Let’s head over to the Gulf Tank and answer a few questions about one of our most interesting animals: Buddy the eel! Buddy, a green moray eel, may look vicious and intimidating, but it is mostly just for show. He’s actually very tame, and loves having his back scratched!

Moray eels are remarkable animals and are not as dangerous as many people believe. In fact, in ancient times, eels were held in high regard. Julius Caesar once had six thousand morays on display at a party! Wealthy politicians used to decorate their pet eels with jewels. Their savage reputation may very likely come from one particular legend of a wealthy Roman who used to feed disobedient employees to his pet moray eels. In the present day, there have been very few instances where divers have been bitten, and in those cases, it was an accidental bite from human-initiated interaction. Morays are very shy and secretive, and would much rather flee than fight.

Another common misunderstanding is that the moray eel’s bite is poisonous. While they are not poisonous, morays can inflict a nasty bite, since their sharp teeth are covered with bacteria that may infect the wound. The only way that we could be poisoned by a moray eel is if we ate one. Eels, along with certain fish, can cause a bacterial infection known as ciguatera poisoning. Remember, Buddy doesn’t want to eat you and you don’t want to eat Buddy!

Moray eels are fish, and are found in the family Muraenidae, which is the family of “true eels.” There are 200 species in this family, and the average length of a moray eel is around five feet. The largest moray eel (the Giant Moray) can reach a length of up to 10 feet and weigh over 80 pounds! They are found in all tropical seas, and live in crevices in reefs, where they lie in wait for their prey, which consist of animals such as other fish, squid, octopuses, clams, and crustaceans. Their jaws and teeth are even specially adapted to eat these types of animals.

Moray eels have long, thin teeth, and the larger teeth are hinged to permit the smooth passage of prey into the stomach. The teeth also point backwards, so that when a moray catches its prey, it makes it more difficult for the animal to escape. They even have a SECOND set of jaws in the throat to aid in swallowing prey! These are known as pharyngeal jaws, and morays are the only type of animal that use them to actively capture and restrain prey. When feeding, morays launch these jaws into the mouth, where they are able to grab struggling prey and transport it into the throat and down to the rest of the digestive system. Eels are known as ambush predators- instead of actively searching for their prey, they lie in wait until a potential food item comes along, and then attack. Since eels can not see or hear very well, they rely mainly on their highly developed sense of smell to detect prey.

Our eel, Buddy, is almost 6 feet long and weighs about 65 pounds. We estimate him to be about 12 years old. Buddy may appear green, but believe or not, his skin is actually blue! Eels secrete a thick mucus over their skin, and the color of the mucus that is secreted over Buddy’s skin is yellow. And since yellow and blue mixed together make the color green, this is what gives Buddy his color! Buddy is nocturnal, meaning that he is most active at night, so you can normally find him napping during the day in the tank. The only time he will really come out during the day is at feeding time –he is trained to hand feed at the top of the tank. And everything that Buddy eats is carefully recorded.

If you have visited Buddy in the World of Water, something that you may have noticed is that he constantly opens and closes his mouth. While it may seem that he is being aggressive, it is actually his way of breathing! When he opens his mouth, he is actually passing water (and oxygen) over his gills. The water exits through two vent-like openings at the back of the head.

Next time you visit the World of Water, take a look at the Gulf Tank and try to spot Buddy. He is fed on Monday, Wednesday and Friday around 1:30, so come by and watch! The World of Water’s next blog, in honor of the new Shark and Ray Touch Tank, will be all about stingrays!

Contributor Profile:

Loretta and Adele's backgrounds are in the life sciences. They both love their jobs as well as all animals. Adele grew up here in Birmingham and is into yoga and gourmet cooking. Loretta grew up in Florida and just had her first child!

Wish for Fish

2009-05-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

Make a donation today and help stock McWane Science Center’s all-new Shark & Ray Touch Tank, coming this July to our World of Water! An experience like no other in Alabama, our Shark & Ray Touch Tank promises hands-on interaction with sharks, rays and even guitarfish that will fascinate you and your family.

Ways to give the gift of fish:
1. Give on Facebook! http://apps.facebook.com/causes/283015
2. Give at our ticketing counter at McWane Science Center!
3. Give on our website! http://www.mcwane.org/pages/wishforfish

Thanks for your support, and may the fish be with you! :D

The Science of Golf

2009-05-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

by Bob Levine, Exhibits Project ManagerOn May 23rd, little learners will be able to try their hand at our newest exhibit, Itty Bitty Mini Golf. In this pint-sized mini-golf course, our smallest visitors can practice their putting and learn their ABC’s on gigantic letters and numbers. While fun is the name of the game, there’s science behind every stroke…after all, this is the McWane Science Center.

Have you ever really thought about the physics of striking a golf ball? What seems like the simplest action in the world, hitting a ball towards a hole, is actually a complex chain reaction rife with scientific principles.

First, the eyes and brain perform intricate calculations as they size up the situation. How far is the hole? At what angle should I strike the ball? What is the grade of the putting surface? How hard should I hit the ball? All of these questions are estimated based on past experience, muscle memory, instinctive knowledge, and good, old-fashioned guesswork. The brain comes up with its best estimate and sends nerve impulses down the spinal cord and into the limbs.

In order for the limbs to function properly, the muscles must contract and extend, joints must twist and turn, oxygenated blood must pump through arteries, veins, and capillaries, and tendons and ligaments must stretch and bend. All of this requires energy which comes in the form of calories from the carbohydrates, protein, and fats contained in your food (hopefully from a healthy meal in our Smart Café!). Your body burns the appropriate amount of energy to perform the physical action dictated by your brain and, hopefully, your body responds in kind.

Energy in the form of force is transferred from the body’s core, into the arms, and down the shaft of the golf club into the club head. This force generates an impact with the golf ball. Newton’s first law of motion states that a body persists in a state of rest unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force. In this case, the force of the club head impact serves as the external unbalanced force. Since a force is now acting on the ball, the ball responds to Newton’s second law of motion by accelerating relative to its mass.

The ball will continue to roll at a steady velocity forever if no other forces act upon it…but of course, this is never the case on Earth. In our mini-golf example, a number of forces will eventually stop the ball from moving. First, gravity is always acting on the ball, pulling straight down towards the Earth’s core. Second, the friction of the turf is always slowing the ball’s velocity as it travels. Third, the mini-golf holes are enclosed by barriers and the ball, if struck hard enough, will eventually ricochet off a wall which will change the ball’s vector. Of course, if you’re lucky and/or good, the forces you impart on the ball will keep it rolling until it comes to its final resting place at the bottom of the hole you were initially aiming for.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg! Every action we take, no matter how minor it seems, is brimming with science. Think about the physics, chemistry, and biology inherent in every step we take…every word we speak…everything we do! The world is full of scientific principles and the only way to truly understand them is to explore and learn!
Contributor Profile:

Bob Levine is the Exhibit Project Manager at McWane. He is an avid reader, history and film buff, mediocre guitarist, and die-hard Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots fan. He lives with his beautiful wife, newborn baby girl and their two rambunctious dogs, Abigail and Quincy.

Robots are Taking Over!

2009-04-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

By Ben Moon, Director of Space and Technology

Everyone knows (or should know) that robots will one day become autonomous, overpower man, and take over the world. We’ve seen it in movies like The Matrix, The Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, Eagle Eye, and I, Robot. With each real-world advancement and discovery in robotics and artificial intelligence, we edge ever closer to this fate.

Okay, maybe that’s a little science fictiony, but our metallic companions are becoming smarter, more lifelike and creepier every day.

Take for example, Robonaut: http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/ . Robonaut is a humanoid robot designed by the Robot Systems Technology Branch at NASA's Johnson Space Center in a collaborative effort with DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). This centaur-like robot has a Bobba Fett mask-wearing torso of a man attached to a 4-wheeler and has ground breaking dexterous hands which have been developed over the past two decades. *Author’s note: Luke Skywalker hand eminent.* Watch the videos on the site and you’ll understand why I think it’s creepy.

DARPA has other creepy robotic collaborative efforts with robotics company Boston Dynamics (http://www.bostondynamics.com/). This company has developed several robots, one of which is a pack mule robot for the military named “Big Dog.” This thing will throw your brain through a loop as its movements and balancing ability look much too lifelike. Trust me when I say that Big Dog can walk on ice better than you can. Scary. There are many videos of Boston Dynamics’ robots on YouTube if you’re interested.

While these robots are pretty harmless on their own, there are robots in the battlefield that can pack a punch when needed. Foster-Miller’s SWORDS and TALON are remote controlled robots on tank treads and are armed with shotguns, machine guns and explosive charges which you can see in action at http://www.foster-miller.com/lemming.htm . The MQ-1 Predators are remote controlled, unmanned aircraft systems that have been taking out targets with laser-guided AGM-114 Hellfire missiles in Iraq and Afghanistan for years now. Check the stats here: http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=122 and a video of Discovery Channel’s Future Weapons special on the Predator: http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/futureweapons-predator.html .

Other weird robots include Japan’s “Fashion Model” humanoid robot HRP-4C that walks, talks, recognizes speech and looks like a human (in silver Storm Trooper attire); the FESTO Airjelly http://www.festo.com/cms/en-us_us/5890.htm ; water-walking robots http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/waterstrider/ ; and a host of other robots inspired by animals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq8Yw19bn7Q.
But I suppose we’re okay as long as there isn’t a company called Cyberdyne working in the field of cybernetics….oh wait… http://www.cyberdyne.jp/english/robotsuithal/index.html or a satellite’s linked to Skynet….oh…wait again… http://www.loralskynet.com/template.asp?p=co_overview&m=m_co&sm=

Are we tempting fate here?

Contributor Profile:

Ben Moon is the Manager of Space and Technology at McWane. He is a total geek and loves space, shiny things, technology, gadgets, video games, sci-fi and zombies. He is married and is about to have his first kid! His favorite movie is The Rocketeer. He wishes he had telekinesis.

DON’T PROCRASTINATE LIKE DA VINCI!

2009-04-20T08:16:00.000-07:00

By Dana Crisson, Educator

Only one more week remains to tour our fascinating exhibit, Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion. Since it arrived February 7, over 40,000 visitors have toured the exhibit and marveled at his intricate machines. Visionary inventions such as the armored tank, the drive transmission, the printing press and the bicycle are on display, made with wood, rope and glue and other materials that were available in da Vinci’s era.

A number of special events have been scheduled for the final days of the exhibit. “Dads, Daughters and da Vinci,” a special Dad-Daughter Discovery Day held on April 11, featured Da Vinci’s parachute and glider, two of his inventions that focused on air and flight. And, since April is also National Kite Month, participants in this special program also built a kite to take home with them. Then on April 19 McWane hosted a “Happy 557th Birthday Leonardo!” party to celebrate his birthday on April 15, 1452. Visitors tested their invention and problem solving skills in the "What Would da Vinci Do?" Design Challenge; and in “Da Vinci Dissection,” visitors got the chance to think like Leonardo and dissected items like cameras and radios to find out how they work.

So, if you have put off touring the exhibit until now, don’t worry—there is still time. Actually, the fact that you procrastinated gives you something in common with da Vinci himself. According to W. A. Pannapacker, a professor at Hope College, da Vinci was a world-class procrastinator. In his article in The Chronicle Review titled “How to Procrastinate Like Leonardo da Vinci,” Pannapacker describes Leonardo as a man whose mind was so filled with new and exciting ideas that he rarely had time to complete one project before he was racing ahead with another. We know that Leonardo spent over 35 years writing in his notebooks, drawing designs and schematics for thousands of revolutionary designs and inventions, so his home must have been crowded with half-finished projects. “Some of Leonardo's entries are short jottings; others are lengthy and elaborate. The notebooks give the impression of a mind always at work, even in the midst of ordinary affairs,” Pannapacker writes. “He returned to some pages intermittently over many years, revising his thoughts and adding drawings and textual elaborations.”

Unfortunately, Leonardo rarely found the time to actually complete many of the great projects that he sketched in his notebooks. “Not only did Leonardo fail to realize his potential as an engineer and a scientist,” Pannapacker continues, “but he also spent his career hounded by creditors to whom he owed paintings and sculptures for which he had accepted payment but — for some reason — could not deliver, even when his deadline was extended by years.”

Missed deadlines? Demanding creditors? This small tidbit of information was very comforting to me. If Leonardo da Vinci, arguably one of the most famous and gifted minds of all time, was plagued by looming deadlines and angry creditors, then I feel much better about my own stack of unfinished projects and unpaid bills. This knowledge is almost enough to make be want to join the local chapter of Procrastinators Anonymous (if and when I get around to it). Hey, if procrastination was good enough for daVinci, it is good enough for me!

Pannapacker sums up da Vinci’s amazing talent this way: “If there is one conclusion to be drawn from the life of Leonardo, it is that procrastination reveals the things at which we are most gifted — the things we truly want to do. Procrastination is a calling away from something that we do against our desires toward something that we do for pleasure, in that joyful state of self-forgetful inspiration that we call genius.”

So, if you haven’t had a chance to visit the exhibit yet, don’t be a procrastinator like its namesake—come appreciate the wonders of Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion, by April 26.

Contributor Profile:
Dana Crisson is a former Discovery Guild member who clocked many volunteer hours at the science center before joining the McWane staff in the Education Department. She and her husband, Dwight, a CPA, and their entire family follow in the proud Leonardo da Vinci tradition of procrastination. Their garage and basement are both filled with unfinished projects, and their daughters, Rachel, 20, and Christina, 17, routinely wait until the last minute to finish their term papers and other assignments.

WOW: Jellyfish!

2009-04-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

Hi there! My name is Adele, and I am one of the other aquarists in the World of Water (aka "WOW"). The jellyfish is one of my favorite animals. What normally comes to mind when you think of a jellyfish? A dangerous predator, or perhaps a memory of a bad sting? Well, while jellyfish do sting, there is actually much more to them than that. They are beautiful, graceful animals and have a fascinating life cycle.

Jellyfish, along with corals and anemones, are found in the Phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are not really fish, they are actually invertebrates, like corals and anemones.The name Cnidaria comes from the Greek word “cnidos,” which means stinging nettle. While all jellies have the ability to sting, there are very few species that can actually harm us. All jellyfish have stinging cells known as nematocysts which are found in the tentacles and outer surface of the jellyfish bell. These nematocysts are harpoon-like in structure and contain a neurotoxin. When something brushes up against the tentacles of the jellyfish, the nematocyst is triggered and neurotoxin is injected into the jelly’s prey. Luckily, the stinging cells of most jellyfish often do not have the ability to penetrate through our skin, since these types of jellies use their stingers to feed on very small invertebrates and other soft bodied animals. Jellies with powerful nematocysts, strong neurotoxins, and long tentacles, such as the Portuguese Man-of -War, are the ones we need to look out for. Their prey consists of adult fish and crustaceans, so it would make sense that they need a sharper “harpoon” to penetrate these animals. Unfortunately, however, these animals can not see who or what they are stinging- they do not have eyes.

Jellies have a very simple body type - they do not have circulatory, respiratory, or nervous systems. What passes for a nervous system consists of a bundle of nervous on the outside of their bodies known as a “nerve net,” and only a few jellies have light sensitive organs, known as ocelli, which can detect light. Their digestive system is what scientists describe as an “incomplete gut,” meaning that they have a mouth but no anus. So, any food that the jellyfish eats that is not digested is actually expelled back through the mouth. Yuck! The jellyfish’s reproductive system, however, is fairly well developed.

Jellyfish are dioecious, meaning that there are male and female jellyfish. The jellyfish’s gonads, or reproductive organs, are located inside the bell of the jellyfish, next to the baglike stomach. When mature, the eggs or sperm break into the stomach cavity and exit the jellyfish through the mouth. If the jellyfish is female, she will store her eggs on the outside of her body until they are fertilized. The males will release their sperm into the water. After the eggs are fertilized, they will start their unique life cycle.

The life cycle is fairly complicated. In the first stage after fertilization, the free swimming larva is small, oblong, and fuzzy. This is known as a planula. It then settles onto a hard surface on the ocean floor and becomes a polyp. The polyp is non-swimming and begins a process of growing into a stack of small disks. This process is known as strobilation, and each of these small disks will become a jellyfish. Each of these small disks will break off and swim away. The newly released jelly is known as an ephyra, and takes the form of the jellyfish that we are the most familiar with.

If you have visited McWane Science Center recently, you have probably noticed our display of jellies in the World of Water. These are moon jellies, or Aurelia aurita. They are found all over the world, from the North Pole to the South Pole, and are quite numerous in the Gulf of Mexico. If you have been to the beach and saw a jellyfish, it was probably this species. It’s most distinguishable characteristic is the four horseshoe shaped rings that are on top of the bell. These are gonads, and they even change color depending on what type of food the jellyfish is eating. A moon jelly’s diet consists of plankton, which are tiny animals found in the water column. We feed our moon jellies a type of plankton known as brine shrimp, and occasionally they will also receive Cyclopeez, a red frozen plankton. And believe it or not, other aquatic creatures such as sea turtles, the ocean sunfish and even other jellyfish consider the moon jelly a delicious meal! This species is almost completely harmless to us. Contact with one of these guys will cause a mild itchy rash that will go away in a couple of hours.

So what does it take to keep jellyfish in captivity? Jellyfish require specialized equipment and excellent water quality. In the simplest jelly system, there is a reservoir for holding water, known as a sump, and then a display tank for the jellies. In the wild, jellyfish require water currents for feeding, movement, and oxygen intake. We are able to replicate this environment in captivity by using a U-shaped tank known as a kriesel, which allows a constant flow of current throughout the tank. Water re-enters the display tank through two spray bars found at the very top of the tank, and flows downward creating a circular current. The speed of the current must be very carefully adjusted- jellies need a “lava lamp” speed current, not a “washing machine” speed!

When water circulates out of the display tank, it leaves through a hole at the top that is covered by a screen, and then pumped into the sump. Water in the sump is then sent to various parts of the life support system just like a heart pumps blood to different parts of the body. Some of the water is sent to a chiller, which is used to cool the water, and some is also returned to the jellyfish display tank. And still some is sent through mechanical, chemical, and biological filtration, and then re-circulated back to the sump. All of these components together help not only to maintain excellent water quality, but also make our work much easier. We carry out small water changes and scrub the tank for algae on a weekly basis, in addition to maintaining our brine shrimp colony to feed to the jellies. As you can see, keeping jellyfish is a lot of work! If you would like to learn more about jellyfish husbandry, there is a wonderful book written by the senior jellyfish aquarist at Monterey Bay Aquarium. How to Keep Jellyfish in Aquariums: An Introductory Guide for Maintaining Healthy Jellies is written by Chad L. Widmer.

So the next time you visit McWane Science Center, be sure to make a stop in the World of Water to check out our jellyfish tank. Keep an eye out for the next blog from the World of Water- all about Buddy the moray eel!

Contributor Profile:
Loretta and Adele's backgrounds are in the life sciences. They both love their jobs as well as all animals. Adele grew up here in Birmingham and is into yoga and gourmet cooking. Loretta grew up in Florida and just had her first child YESTERDAY!

Educator's Perspective: HIGH CYCLE HIJINKS

2009-03-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

By: Dana Crisson, Educator at McWane Science Center

For those of you who have never experienced the fun of the High Cycle, it is quite a trip, giving riders a birds-eye perspective of the world for a few moments. The High Cycle a high-wire bicycle attached to a cable stretched across McWane’s grand atrium. After you are securely strapped on the bicycle, you pedal backward out of the loading platform until you are suspended 20 feet in mid-air across the lobby. A 210-lb counterweight underneath the bicycle allows you to experience the center of balance first-hand; if you want, you can stop in the middle of the cable and slowly shift your weight from side to side causing the bicycle to rock. The swaying is offset by the counterweight, which will straighten you up, bringing you right back to the center.

This ride brings a little bit of an adrenaline rush to everyone. After manning this ride for awhile, it is fun to try to predict who will enjoy the ride and who won’t. Every day I see surprises.

Riders must be at least 45” tall, and weigh less than 225 lbs. to ride the High Cycle. There is no age limit—all you need is a willingness to hop on and enjoy the adventure. Some of the smallest, youngest children are absolutely determined to ride; I have seen these kids stand on their toes and fluff up their hair in an effort to make themselves “big enough” to meet the height requirement. Once we know you meet all the requirements, we strap you in and the fun begins.

Children usually run up in big groups, many boasting to their friends about how fast they are going to pedal and how far they are going to sway on the cable. Some kids are completely confident, pedaling out and back with swift assurance. Other riders are a little timid at first, pedaling very slowly, but by the time they reach the middle of the wire they relax and enjoy it. Most really enjoy the sensation; as they pedal out, a big smile will creep across their faces; they relax, wave excitedly to their friends, look down at the lobby full of visitors below them, and pose for cell phone pictures.

Some kids have the opposite reaction; they think they will enjoy it but then they suddenly freeze mid-pedal. “Do I have to go any further?” a shy little girl asked me, adding in a very timid voice, “I’m kind of afraid of heights. “Of course not,” I assured her, telling her to pedal back in and bragging on her bravery. Another little boy pedaled out to the middle of the wire and listened dutifully to the instructions on how to make the bike sway; most kids move too jerkily, but he finally mastered the gentle rocking motion. Once he started rocking, he kept it up for several minutes, rocking back and forth as his friends cheered him on—then all of a sudden his face turned pale and he said, “I think I’m going to be sick.” As soon as he pedaled back in, however, his color returned and he boasted to his buddies, “I wasn’t really feeling sick--I was just teasing you.”

“How many people have fallen?” asked a swaggering 10-year-old boy as I strapped him in. “This ride is completely safe. There is no way you can fall,” I told him. “Oh yeah? If you can’t fall, why is there a big net under the ride?” he shot back. “To catch flip-flops, sunglasses, cell phones, and other items that might accidentally fall,” I replied. That is a story in itself. We have long hook to retrieve dropped items from the net. Shoes are pretty easy; cell phones require a wad of duct tape and a very steady hand.

Of course, this ride isn’t just for children and teens; adults love it too. Sometimes it takes a little coaxing, but many times after watching their children ride, the mother or father will ask to ride, too. One of my favorite moments happened when a charming gray-haired grandfather, looking dapper in a sport coat and navy-striped tie, walked up with his three grandchildren and asked if they could ride. The grandchildren peered down at the lobby below and decided they didn’t want to ride, but to their complete surprise he said, “I do!” I strapped him in and he pedaled out as his grandchildren watched, open-mouthed. He stopped in the middle of the wire and shifted his weight, swaying from side to side, with his navy tie swinging to and fro. “Be careful Granddaddy!” piped up his youngest granddaughter. He grinned broadly and said, “You don’t have anything to worry about--this is great!” When he got off the bicycle, I saw his grandchildren look at him in awe, seeing him in entirely new light.

The next time you visit the McWane Science Center, be sure to save time for a ride on the High Cycle. It is guaranteed to be an experience you will never forget.

Contributor Profile:

A Birmingham native, Dana Crisson remembers visiting the McWane building in its original incarnation as the former Loveman’s Department Store. She has a BA in English/Journalism from UAB and has worked as freelance writer for The Birmingham News & Over the Mountain Journal for over 15 years. She is also a former Discovery Guild member and has clocked many volunteer hours at the science center before joining the McWane staff in the Education Department. She is an avid reader, a cat lover, a concert junkie, and a part-time backup singer in a local cover band. She and her husband, Dwight, a CPA, have two daughters, Rachel, 20, and Christina, 17.

Awesome Money-Saving Deals – Just for McWane Science Center Members!

2009-03-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

By: Lara Wheeler, Memberships

I know I’m always looking to stretch a buck. Buy-one-get-one night at local eateries, my pet food purchase point card, and just about any dry-cleaning coupon I can get my hands on – these are incredibly meaningful savings to my household budget. So I want to remind you how as a McWane Science Center Member, there is much more value in your membership than just free admission to Adventure Halls. Or even free parking.

Here are a few perks you may want to take advantage of over the next few months…

· With our current Member- Get- A- Member offer, we will give you an additional two free months of membership for each nonmember friend you successfully encourage to join. No limit!

· Our new member benefits include 20% off purchases in the Smart Café and gift shop.

· Another new benefit is that Family and Grandparent members get $2 off all IMAX and simulator tickets (except on Sundays, when IMAX tickets are already discounted to $5!)

· Don’t forget about camp discounts! Members get anywhere from $25 to $50 off each week-long summer camp. Plus, lunch and snacks are included in the camp price.

· And if you do have some happy campers, keep in mind that before and after care (both with supervised activities with McWane Science Center staff) is absolutely FREE to members! That’s a $25 value!

· On Member Day, coming up on July 18, you will be able to get in free to other local attractions, such as the Birmingham Zoo, Vulcan Park, The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, even the Jazz Hall of Fame! Show your McWane Science Center member card!

· Members save too with discounts on fun-for-the-family special activities like Dinner and a Mission, Daddy-Daughter Days, and Camp-Ins!

· Feel like a road trip? Our members get free general museum admission to both the US Space and Rocket Center and Sci-Quest in Huntsville, and the Gulf Coast Exploreum in Mobile plus free or discounted admission to more than 250 other museums in the U.S.

· Last but not least – take advantage of our Free Members-Only Preview Parties! Snacks, awesome activities, and a very special look at our latest exhibit make for a great night for the whole family.

And of course, if there are other benefits you value, let me know about them here! We’re always open to suggestions…thanks for your support that helps us continue to offer these exponential experiences!

All About IMAX – Part 1: The Projector

2009-03-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

By: Jeff Smith, IMAX Theater Director

Hi Everyone! I'm Jeff Smith, the IMAX Theater Director here at McWane Science Center. Today we're going to learn some things about the IMAX Projector, and what makes it special.

First off, most of you have probably heard a thing or two about IMAX recently, but did you know its actually been around since 1967? That's right, 40 plus years ago, a trio of Canadians wanted to make a giant movie screen. Up to this point, the only way to get a gigantic picture on a giant screen was to use several smaller projectors, align them perfectly, and point them at different parts of the screen. You can guess just how bad of an idea this is to try and keep all of the projectors running at the same speed, aligned properly, etc.

Once they decided they wanted a single projector solution they decided to use 70mm film running through the projector horizontally in a "rolling loop" motion that had been patented in Australia a few years earlier. The rolling loop is very kind to the film as it advances each frame into position, and its not uncommon for a single copy of an IMAX film to be shown 3000 times without noticeable wear. This is good, since each copy of an IMAX Film can cost up to $25,000!

Over the years, the mechanics of how the IMAX Projector runs have changed very little. The film runs through the projector the same way, but it has better lenses, and is now controlled by a computer instead of relays and switches. Other than those minor changes, everything is very similar to the very first IMAX system. The first IMAX System premiered at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan, and my projector here in Birmingham, can still show Tiger Child just as that system did all those years ago.

Stay tuned: Next time we'll learn about the IMAX Sound System, and its ties to Birmingham.

NOW SHOWING: Under The Sea & To The Limit

Contributor Profile:
Jeff is an all around techno-geek. He went to college to become a rocket scientist, but is now an IMAX Theater Director. If it plugs in, or has moving parts, he wants to rip it apart and learn more about it! He doesn't read books, but will read anything online or watch it on TV. His wife was his opposite, but now has all the modern necessities, like a cell phone and MacBook, and doesn't understand how she lived without them.

Back to the Cheese…er…the Moon

2009-03-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

By Ben Moon, Space and Technology Director

Earth’s Moon is made of cheese. There is a man in the Moon. We never actually landed on the Moon. My name is Ben Moon.

Only the last statement above is true. However, my last name is not why I am interested in the Moon. The Moon is quite interesting all by itself, and NASA agrees. As a matter of fact, NASA agrees so much that manned missions to the Moon are being planned as we speak. This July they’re actually going to test-launch a nearly full size version of the rocket that will take us there.

But why go back to the Moon? We know there is no life there, it’s not exactly “comfortable” with temperatures ranging from -387°F to +253°F, we’ve already sent over 70 spacecraft and 12 men there, and we’ve even brought back 842 pounds of moon rock to earth. Well, the old saying “It’s what’s inside that counts,” rings just as true for the Moon as it does for people.
The Moon is not just a stepping stone on our way to a manned voyage to the planet Mars;, it might just play an important role in helping solve our energy crisis here on Earth.

Under the Moon’s surface are two very important things: water ice and helium-3. Water ice is important not only because astronauts can drink it (after melting and purification of course), but also because we can split the H20 into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for rocket fuel. Harvesting this valuable resource from beneath the lunar surface is a great alternative to shipping the water to the Moon which would cost $2,000 - $20,000 per kg. Ridiculexpensive. Can you imagine drinking a $10,000 bottle of water? If we ship water to the Moon, that is about how much it would cost. Using the hydrogen from the water as a fuel source also means you can launch from Earth with less fuel on board the spacecraft, which leaves room for more food, experiments, etc.

While the water on the Moon is very valuable, it’s nothing compared to helium-3. Helium-3 is an isotope of helium, which means the helium-3 atom consists of two protons but only one neutron, in contrast to two neutrons in ordinary helium. It’s very rare on Earth, but the Moon is estimated to have around 1 million tons of it trapped in the outer layer of its soil (it was implanted there by solar winds). Why is it so valuable? Well, helium-3 is not radioactive and can be used in nuclear fusion reactors with almost no radioactive waste. In other words, helium-3 could give us nuclear power with almost no radioactive waste! It’s potent energy too. One space shuttle load (25 tons) of helium-3 could power the United States for one year! The Moon contains 10times more energy in the form of helium-3 than all the fossil fuels on earth. It will last lifetimes.

Commercial-sized helium-3 nuclear fusion reactors are most likely 50 years away, but at a projected value of $40,000 per ounce, investors should see the profit-potential of mining helium-3 for our future energy needs. Startup costs, including rockets, mining and constructing fusion plants, would be about $25 billion. America spends 17 times that much during Christmas.

Contributor Profile:
Ben Moon is the Manager of Space and Technology at McWane. He is a total geek and loves space, shiny things, technology, gadgets, video games, sci-fi and zombies. He is married and is about to have his first kid! His favorite movie is The Rocketeer. He wishes he had telekinesis.

WOW: Giant Pacific Octopus!

2009-03-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

By: Loretta Joyce, Head Aquarist

Been to McWane Science Center lately? If you have you probably saw our Giant Pacific Octopus. Maybe she was active, or maybe you just saw her sitting in a ball. The first thing you notice when you walk up to the tank is how dark it is compared to the rest of the exhibits. Why is this? Well she is a nocturnal animal, meaning she sleeps during the day is active at night. Keeping the exhibit dark increases the chance of her being active. And you may notice a large No Flash Photography sign. But the tank is dark, how are you supposed to get a good picture? I assure you we are not trying to be difficult, we are merely trying to keep her healthy and happy. When Octopi feel threatened they will shoot out ink toward their predator and make a quick getaway. This works great in the ocean where there is a lot of water. In captivity there is no way for the octopus to escape the ink, and toxins in it can cause illness or death if not immediately cleaned.

Next you may ask why is there a jar, or even Mr. Potato Head, in the tank. We put her food in these objects so she has to work to get them and does not get bored. She will eat squid, clam, small fish, whole Butterfish, crab still in a shell, and many other types of sea life. She has not eaten any of the sea stars or the two Giant Chitins which share a tank with her.

Octopi are known for their intelligence, but that is just a small portion of what makes them so interesting. They have the largest brain of any invertebrates, but more interestingly it is donut shaped and their stomach passes through the middle of it. Think that is impressive? They have three hearts and blue blood. Two of the hearts pump to their gills, while the other one circulates their blood through their body. You probably already know they have eight arms, but did you know there are about 280 suckers on each arm, giving them a total of 2,240 suckers. So three hearts and all those arms probably has you thinking, "Wow these animals are so different from us." Well their mouth, also called a beak, is made out of the same material as a fingernail.

Octopi in general have very short life spans, only living on average 1-2 years. The Giant Pacific Octopus will live slightly longer with a life span of 3-4 years. The female will lay her eggs, which can be up to 200,000 and care for them until they hatch out at the size of a grain of rice. Of all those eggs only 1-2 will survive to adulthood and the female octopus will die shortly after they hatch.

So did you come to McWane and not see the octopus? She was here, but she has the ability to blend into her environment so she can hide from possible predators. She is able to do this with the help of tiny pigments in her cells called chromatophores. By expanding and contracting these pigments she is able to change color and blend into her environment. So if you didn’t see her come back and try again. We feed her on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday so those are the best times to see her in action. Want to learn more cool facts? Just ask one of the many knowledgeable staff members in blue at McWane Science Center.

Octopus tank photography tip: Turn flash OFF, and take lots of photos until you get the shot you are looking for. Delete any unwanted excess photos.

Contributor Profile:
Loretta and Adele's backgrounds are in the life sciences. They both love their jobs as well as all animals. Adele grew up here in Birmingham and is into yoga and gourmet cooking. Loretta grew up in Florida and is about to have her first child in April.

Building a Smart(er) Café

2009-03-11T08:35:00.000-07:00

by Bob Levine, Exhibits Project Manager

You asked, and we have delivered.

In countless surveys, one facet of the McWane Science Center experience always seemed to leave visitors wanting more -- our café. With our dedicated and professional food service staff, the McWane café experience should always be a great one, but we lacked the infrastructure to meet that goal -- until now.

Starting this weekend, the Smart Café will open with a bevy of new and healthier food options. Take an informal blog-tour with me and see what’s new…

Our first stop is Hot Off the Grill. Our old griddle and fry-baskets had reached retirement age and were sent upstate to a convalescent home for restaurant equipment. In their stead we’ve added two new pieces of equipment that will make your food tastier and far healthier than before. An automatic broiler replaces the griddle and will allow fats and oils to drip off of grilled items making your burgers and chicken sandwiches leaner without compromising flavor. The deep-fat fryer has been replaced with a hot-air fryer which uses no grease or oil. Saturated fats (the kind you don’t want) are greatly reduced but the fried items are just as tasty and crispy as they’ve always been.

Our next stop is Subway (you may have heard of them). Subway has a variety of sandwich and salad options to choose from, many of which have less than 6 grams of fat. Whether or not you’re in the mood for a sub, you’ll have no choice but to be drawn into the café by the hypnotic smell of baking bread.

If you want more “international” cuisine, come by Pasta & More. This area allows you to be the chef. You can pick and choose the sauce, meats, and veggies as you create your own Italian pasta or Asian noodle dish. There will also be some Mexican food specials, and there will always be a Mac ‘n’ Cheese dish available for our pickier, younger customers. Whatever your preference, there will be something to satisfy you!

Craving a healthy, filling option but don’t feel like chewing? Stop by Smoothie Fusion. With a variety of fruits and other mix-ins, you can create your own tasty, vitamin-filled smoothie from a score of ingredients. Smoothies make a great addition to a sandwich or salad or can serve as a meal in their own right.

And what would McWane’s café be without our ever-popular Pizza Hut? The pizza and breadsticks will still be as hot and tasty as before, but new whole-grain crusts and lower-fat cheese and pepperoni will make them even better for you.

Beyond these exciting new menu options, there will be a ton of nutritional information available to visitors to help our patrons learn about proper dietary habits and exercise. We’re also developing fun programming for guests that want to learn about healthy cooking and healthy living. But more than anything, we know it’s all about the food…and we think you’ll be very happy with the changes we’re making!

Contributor Profile:
Bob Levine is the Exhibit Project Manager at McWane. He is an avid reader, history and film buff, mediocre guitarist, and die-hard Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots fan. He lives with his beautiful wife (due with their first child in April) and their two rambunctious dogs, Abigail and Quincy.

Educator's Perspective: da Vinci

2009-03-06T12:27:00.000-08:00

by Dana Crisson

Tim Ritchie, President of the McWane Science Center, calls me a “da Vinci.” That means I am part of a group of educators who have been specially trained to guide visitors through the new Leonardo da Vinci exhibit, “Machines in Motion." But I look at it another way: I help visitors take a peek into the fascinating mind of the most famous Renaissance man in history.

We have 40 of da Vinci’s machines to play with, from a basic rolling mill used to shape metal to an elaborate hydraulic saw. My favorites? One would have to be da Vinci’s robot, an early predecessor of C3P0 from Star Wars. I love to watch families walk by the robot and jump when the 6-foot-tall metal man suddenly bends forward at the waist, politely bowing as if to say, “Nice to meet you.” Stand in front of the robot a moment longer and he will open his breastplate to give you a peek at his gears. According to da Vinci’s drawings, he designed his armored man to also open and close his jaw, wave his arms and move its head. The McWane robot is powered by motion sensors, but da Vinci most likely planned to power his early robot using water and weights.

I also like his olive press, built to address one of Italy’s most important traditions: making olive oil. He used a large horse-powered lever to turn an axel, gear wheel, and worm screw attached to a cylinder downward, which would eventually squeeze the oil from a bag of olives. Focaccia bread, anyone?

Everyone knows da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, but very few people know that he also invented the first revolving stage. He is credited with designing the ball bearing, and he used it to build a revolving stage for a theater production at the court of Milan. Today ball bearings are found in everything from skateboards to computer hard drives, but 500 years ago one of their original applications was for entertainment. So the next time you buy theater tickets to see Hairspray or Wicked, remember that you have Leonardo to thank for early advances in set decoration.

He missed the mark with his webbed glove invention, however. After studying the way ducks swam in the water, he made a webbed swim fin made of leather—but he designed it for hands, not feet!

There are dozens of other machines in the exhibit, including an elaborate flying contraption called an ornithopter, outfitted with heavy mechanical wings designed to allow man to fly. That one didn’t work, either, but even when his inventions failed, they helped to lay the groundwork for many other discoveries to come.

Even a genius can have a bad day.

Contributor Profile:
A Birmingham native, Dana Crisson remembers visiting the McWane building in its original incarnation as the former Loveman’s Department Store. She has a BA in English/Journalism from UAB and has worked as freelance writer for The Birmingham News & Over the Mountain Journal for over 15 years. She is also a former Discovery Guild member and has clocked many volunteer hours at the science center before joining the McWane staff in the Education Department. She is an avid reader, a cat lover, a concert junkie, and a part-time backup singer in a local cover band. She and her husband, Dwight, a CPA, have two daughters, Rachel, 20, and Christina, 17.

Giant Snake Myths and Other Tall Tails

2009-03-03T07:43:00.000-08:00

By James Lamb, Paleontologist

As a paleontologist who works in the Southeastern United States, I have spent a great deal of time in the outdoors, and heard some truly amazing and amusing tales regarding snakes. I once had a park attendant try to convince me to sleep on top of a cement picnic table in a campground in central Alabama so the snakes couldn't "get me." Failing that, if I insisted in sleeping on the ground, he asked if I would please coil a rope in a big circle around me because snakes will not crawl over a rope. Of course, he was also concerned that if the snakes didn't eat me, the armadillos would come bite me in the middle of the night (having, what? not been able to find enough ants to eat?). I didn't loose too much sleep worrying about either the snakes or the armadillos. Other examples of snake myths include tales of the "Death Adder" that has a sting in its tail. This snake is sometimes confused with the Hoop Snake, an animal that can outrun a human by putting its own tail in its mouth and rolling like a wheel. Some variations include that Hoop Snakes once they catch you uncoil and sting you with their stinger, but informed people know these are really two completely different snakes. Then there are Milk Snakes, so called because they milk cows, the Mug-whomp Snake with its ring of fur encircling the neck, and the real life Hognose Snake (which eats toads and is completely non-venomous) that poison people with their breath. I've also been told with great veracity that the brownish foam you see sometimes floating down a stream after a rain (the result of organic compounds leached out of forest leaf litter by the rain) is "snake spit." That's a lot of spit. I don't think I want to know what they're doing to produce that much spit. Eew.

And then of course there are the impossibly large snakes always seen by the friend of a cousin's neighbor's uncle. So the other day when I heard the one about the snake that was longer than a school bus and ate crocodiles, I was understandably skeptical. Except that it's true. No, really.

Scientists have recently reported that bones of a fossil snake found in South America scale to an animal in the 42-45 foot range. Aptly named Titanoboa this animal is not just the largest snake ever discovered, it is the longest land/freshwater animal known since the extinctions 65 million years ago that took out the dinosaurs (the K/T boundary extinctions). Although, as the name suggests, it is most closely related to the modern Boa, as in Boa constrictor, due to the type of deposits it was found in it is thought to be a closer analog to the Anaconda (Eunectes). So, it appears to have lived near/in freshwater, and ate,... crocodiles? I use the term "crocodiles" here in the vernacular sense to include members of the Crocodyliformes - crocodiles, alligators, caimans, etc.

No! What? Well, I suppose a 45-foot long, 1.2 ton snake can eat whatever it wants, but before we explore that possibility let's take a step back for a moment to put this in perspective.
Sixty-five million years ago, the course of life on Earth was irrevocably side-swiped by the hammer blow of a 6 mile diameter asteroid slamming into the planet at something like 55,000 miles/hour (more or less, depending on what set of calculations are used). The energy released by this event was perhaps 1,000 times more than every nuclear weapon on Earth going off simultaneously. The resulting extinctions not only left no terrestrial animal weighing more than 50 pounds, but also hit the top of the food chain - the top predators and top herbivores - hardest. With dinosaurs gone, the newly vacant niches were filled by the survivors, and what specific type of animal ended up in those roles depended on what was available on each continent. Mammals at the time were generally small and not yet specialized into the modern groups we know today, so it took awhile for any of them to evolve into the large top predators niche.

In Europe and North America the large top predator that won out early was a bird, the 7 foot tall Diatryma (Gastornis). North and South America became isolated from one another shortly after the K/T extinctions, before the development of the placental mammal groups that gave rise to the predators we know today, such as wolves, lions, and bears. These groups developed in North America and Asia, but not until much later, when the marsupial or pouched animals like opossums branched into the role did South America get predatory mammals (yes, predatory opossums - a topic perhaps for a different blog). In South America, it appears, a giant snake became the top predator, at least in freshwater environments. With mosasaurs, the T. rexes of the oceans, gone marine snakes evolved to lengths of at least 2o feet and existed in south Alabama alongside early whales, such as Basilosaurus, the State Fossil.

Back to diet. A 45-foot, 1.2 ton snake requires a commensurate sized prey. Verifiable, documented accounts of modern Python and Anaconda indicate that their maximum size is 29.7 and 23 feet respectively. These are maximum-recorded sizes, but in the real world one almost never sees examples that large. Surveys involving a thousand or more snakes in the wild fail to turn up snakes longer than 20 feet, and yet modern Anaconda can still eat animals as large as tapirs. So did Titanoboa eat giant tapirs? Well no, since there weren't any yet. The authors of the Titanoboa paper conclude they ate crocodiles. This sounds crazy, but extant anaconda and python do occasionally eat crocodilians, and crocs also eat them. If you Google search this topic you'll find multiple videos of big snakes eating crocodiles but almost nothing for the reverse, although the only serious study I could locate documented only instances of crocodiles eating snakes. I imagine videos of big snakes eating a caiman are more interesting to most people than the reverse.

South American crocodilians of the time belong to the sebecosuchids, vertically deep skulled, long-legged animals with serrate blade-shaped teeth more like the predatory dinosaurs they partly replaced than those of extant crocs. Sebecosuchids in general may have been more terrestrial and less aquatic in their habitat preference than modern crocodilians, which might explain how they divided up the top predator niche with Titanoboa. It seems difficult to believe that Titanoboa ate only or maybe even preferentially crocs, because there are always fewer predators than herbivores, so finding a meal of top predator becomes more difficult. There are also some large lungfish known from the deposits where Titanoboa was found, and recently hints that there might also be some large herbivorous mammals as well. During the time period when Titanoboa is known to have lived, some large (1400 lbs) mammals had evolved in North America, and recently members of this group have been found in South America. Because of the spottiness of the fossil record we may just have not found any large South American mammals yet. So it may be that the discovery of a truly giant snake means that future fieldwork will turn up a previously unknown history of large mammals that formed part of their prey base. We may find that mammals got large earlier than we thought. We may also find more material of Titanoboa. Details of the skull would help solve the riddle of what it ate and inform about the animal's lifestyle.

And we might also find it had a ring of fur around its neck and a stinger on its tail.

NOTE: For everyone with giant snake stories, please see below. The Wildlife Conservation Society has, since the early 20th century, offered a cash reward (currently worth US$50,000) for live delivery of any snake of 30 feet (9.1 m) or more in length. This prize has never been claimed.

Contributor Profile:
James Lamb is a native Birminghamster with a nearly life-long interest in fossils. He collected his first fossil when he was 5 years old. Friends and family members assure him he has not matured much since then. James is curator of paleontology at McWane Science Center, and would like to one day see the absolute treasure trove of Alabama's fossil heritage revealed to the public. When not at work he wishes he were in the field digging up fossils. At home he enjoys reading, jogging, woodworking, and carving. He has been informed that he is in the habit of telling atrocious puns, but this comes as a surprise to him. James describes himself as a "science nerd".

25 Random Things About Memberships!

2009-02-27T08:26:00.000-08:00

By Clay Shannon, Memberships

McWane Science Center's Member Services decided to borrow a page from Facebook's 25 Random Things About Me to present 25 Random Things About McWane Science Center Membership:

1. McWane Science Center's 2008 Summer Camps had a record-breaking year with 1,300 campers. 82% of these campers were members

2. The members closest to McWane Science Center live only a block and a half away; the furthest members live 2,053 miles away in Hermosa Beach, California.

3. The 35242 zip code has the most members with 8.8% of our overall membership base

4. Our popular Itty Bitty Magic City exhibit is modeled after Busytown, one of our members’ favorite traveling exhibits and the only traveling exhibit to visit McWane twice.

5. McWane Science Center has a goal of 12,000 member families by December 31, 2011. [Shameless Plug: One way to assist us in reaching this goal is by participating in our 2009 Member Get A Member Campaign. Check out the latest Eureka! or Member eNewsletter for more information]

6. From the time you purchase your membership at the Ticketing Counter, we make sure that you receive your membership cards by mail in one week or less

7. According to a recent poll, members' Top 3 Favorite Areas of McWane Science Center are: (1) World of Water, (2) Just Mice Size and (3) The Itty Bitty Magic City

8. Members' Top 3 Favorite Individual Hands-On Exhibits are: (1) the interactive butterfly and sand walls, (2) Bed of Nails and (3) Bernoulli Water Fountain

9. Introduced only two years ago, our GRANDPARENT Membership is the fastest growing membership level

10. 2009's New Member Benefits include 20% off in both our gift shop and cafe as well as $2 off all IMAX tickets for our FAMILY and GRANDPARENT members

11. During the school year, the building can get pretty crazy. The best time for members to avoid these large school groups is after 1 p.m. everyday. Also, Monday and Tuesdays usually have the smallest number of school groups

12. Over the last four years, the fastest-growing zip code for members has been 35173 with an increase of 119%

13. The most grandchildren on a single GRANDPARENT membership was 15

14. McWane Science Center includes a survey when mailing membership renewals. The results and comments from these surveys are compiled and distributed to employees. So keep those surveys coming!

15. This member feedback was one of the driving forces in the current renovations to convert the Movies Cafe into our new Smart Cafe, offering healthier food options to members and visitors alike

16. The most popular membership level at McWane Science Center is FAMILY with 73% of our total membership base

17. Although McWane Science Center's most successful summer exhibit for attendance was 2007's Bob The Builder, 2008's Itty Bitty Magic City was the most successful summer exhibit for membership

18. The least successful summer exhibit for membership? 2006's Moneyville

19. Another highlight from member feedback has been the new child-proof lock on the doorway in Just Mice Size, assisting parents to thwart the efforts of our youngest escape-artist members

20. In 2009, we are hoping to expand our Member Only events, including a Sleepin' With Tha Fishes camp-in in the World of Water this summer

21. One of our most popular events, Birmingham’s Member Day, will be on July 18th this year. New to the event this year are Birmingham Children’s Theater and the Birmingham Public Library. Stay tuned for more details

22. We are currently working on forming online focus groups, a.k.a. McWane Brains, to help us in the planning of future exhibits, IMAX film selection, camp offerings and improving the overall McWane Science Center experience. Look for more information in upcoming Member eNewsletters

23. Our next members-only event is Spring Break Ice Cream Hours, March 16th – 20th at 2:00 p.m. Come join us!

24. Sleek, newly-designed membership cards arrive next month

25. On behalf of all McWane Science Center employees and volunteers, thank you for your membership!

Contributor Profile:
When not working at McWane Science Center, Clay enjoys 8-bit Nintendo, standing up to moral injustice, bowling, the purple stuff (not Sunny D), osmosis, wax museums, origami, driving 5 miles below the speed limit, atlases, mass transit, puns, subtitles, TMNT and things that rhyme with “fiscal year”.

Introduction to the "World of Water"

2009-02-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

By Loretta Joyce, Head Aquarist

Over the years I have gotten many questions about my education and what it takes to become an Aquarist. Let me start by introducing us to you. My name is Loretta and I have worked at McWane Science Center for the past 4.5 years. My love for the ocean started at a young age, thanks to my family and living in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. For those of you who don’t know where that is, Ft Lauderdale is located just north of Miami. I started scuba diving when I was 12 and loved to take pictures of the fish while I was diving. Later I attended the University of Florida and received a degree in Zoology, the study of Animals. After starting my career in the zoo community I got the unique opportunity to come to work for McWane Science Center.

My Co-worker, Adele, took a slightly different route. She grew up here in Birmingham. She attended Auburn University and actually got her degree in Marine Biology. Since she knew she always wanted to work in an aquarium she first started off volunteering here at McWane. With her slight experience she was able to get a job at The Dauphin Island Sea Lab, and then recently decided to join our staff here at McWane.

So what does it take to be an aquarist? First, in college you should choose a degree in the science field, preferably the life sciences. There are some colleges out there that even specialize in Marine Biology. Next and probably most importantly volunteer, intern, or in some way find work in the field. Yes, we offer some opportunities here. For more information check out our website or contact one of us about the requirements. Internships in this field rarely pay, but will offer great experience. Very few places will hire someone without any hands on experience. Not only can you find opportunities at local aquariums, but your college can usually put you in contact with different groups or even research at the school with different professors. Getting to work in different areas in the field will help you decide if you want to do research on a boat, work in a lab, work in an aquarium, or find another field all together.

In the future we hope to be able to bring up hot topics in the ocean community, and answer questions that your visitors may have. Let us know if there is a topic of particular interest to you and we will try and address it in future blogs. Please stay tuned to our next blog…. All about the Giant Pacific Octopus!

Contributor Profile:
Loretta and Adele's backgrounds are in the life sciences. They both love their jobs as well as all animals. Adele grew up here in Birmingham and is into yoga and gourmet cooking. Loretta grew up in Florida and is about to have her first child in April.

Exhibit Profile: "Machines in Motion"

2009-02-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

By: Bob Levine, Exhibit Project Manager

It’s been a whirlwind of activity for the McWane Exhibits team this month. With a number of new exhibits being designed, built and opened in 2009, we’re working to create the most exciting experiences possible for our visitors. While we strive to create the best permanent exhibits we can to enhance the museum, we are always on the look-out for world-class traveling exhibitions to present to our visitors. When we received a call in January asking if we’d like to host the Leonardo da Vinci Machines in Motion exhibition, we jumped at the chance!

Machines in Motion is a remarkable exhibit. With more than 40 full-scale machines (almost all of them interactive), visitors can spend hours exploring the genius and creativity of the quintessential “Renaissance Man.” Divided into four sections based on the elements of air, water, earth and fire (each an important concept to da Vinci), the exhibit has an incredible assortment of interactive activities.

Machines in Motion was as enjoyable for our Exhibits team as it is for visitors to experience. We are amazed at the craftsmanship and care that went into every exhibit element. Built in Florence, Italy, skilled woodworkers’ expertise is obvious in every detail. Almost all of the materials used to construct the exhibit were available in da Vinci’s era, and he specified most of them in his written codices. In other words, had da Vinci actually built these mechanisms, they would have looked almost identical to what you will find in the exhibit.

What is most impressive about da Vinci’s creations is the man’s extraordinary vision. Included in Machines in Motion are a helicopter, a tank, a parachute, a bicycle, hang-gliders, a printing press and a number of other inventions that wouldn’t be built for centuries. Working without the benefit of the scientific advances of the latter half of the 2nd millennium (including calculus, physics, and modern engineering), da Vinci designed elegant, functional constructs that very clearly resemble machines that we use and take for granted today.

Come celebrate da Vinci’s legacy with us and explore the amazing creative talents of one of the most brilliant minds of the Western world!

View photos of the Machines in Motion exhibit here: http://flickr.com/photos/mcwanesciencecenter/
Check out some of da Vinci's sketches on this website: http://www.drawingsofleonardo.org/

Contributor Profile:
Bob Levine is the Exhibit Project Manager at McWane. He is an avid reader, history and film buff, mediocre guitarist, and die-hard Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots fan. He lives with his beautiful wife (due with their first child in April) and their two rambunctious dogs, Abigail and Quincy.

The International Year of Astronomy

2009-02-16T07:18:00.000-08:00

By: Ben Moon, Manager of Space and Technology

2009 is the International Year of Science, but did you also know that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy as well? It certainly is, and McWane is not shying away from a celebration or two.

Sunday, February 15th was our first big celebration as it is Galileo’s birthday (he’d be 445 years old if he were still around) and it marks 400 years since Galileo first used a telescope to study the heavens.

We’ve chosen this day to reveal brand new mural-sized images from NASA’s great observatories as well. The images are of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 and were taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory. These space-floating, light-collecting instruments are champions of modern technology and they’re a far cry from the simple telescopes that Galileo first used.

The first practical telescope was invented in the Netherlands in 1608 and wasn’t much more than a spyglass. Galileo learned of this new invention and in 1609, he immediately began building a 3x telescope of his own. However, Galileo’s intentions were different than everyone else’s. He was going to point his telescope up.

The things Galileo saw through those lenses ushered in a new era of understanding about the world we live in and the universe outside. We learned our place in space. The fascination of space, along with the mission to see further and clearer remains just as strong today with plans for new space-born and moon-mounted telescopes to see into the deepest parts of the known universe.

The images we are receiving from our current technology are nothing to sneeze at though. While Hubble takes beautiful images in the visible spectrum, the Spitzer Space Telescope peers into infrared spectrum and the Chandra Observatory’s iridium mirrors observe X-rays. On Sunday, February 15th at McWane, you’ll get to see brand-new, spectacular images from all 3 telescopes, as well as a composite image from all 3 of the Messier 101 galaxy. It’s like seeing the galaxy with your eyes, night vision goggles and X-ray vision all at once!

The unveiling of these images will at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 15th with the Birmingham Astronomical Society on hand with their sun-observing telescopes to help celebrate the occasion.

Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is available at http://hubblesite.org/. Additional information about the Spitzer Space Telescope is available at http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/. Additional information about the Chandra X-ray Observatory is available at http://chandra.harvard.edu/.

Contributor Profile:

Darwin, God, a Knowable Universe, and the Limits of Science

2009-02-13T08:58:00.000-08:00

By Tim Ritchie
President, McWane Science Center

Welcome to the first installment of McWane Science Center’s blog. We hope our articles stir up discussion, excite interest in science, and make people just a little more hopeful about the future. You should expect new entries in this blog every week or so. The authors will be McWane Science Center staff and occasional guest writers. We welcome responses and will do all we can to respond in a timely fashion.

I’ve chosen evolution as the subject for the first entry for several reasons. The most important is that many of our visitors are genuinely troubled about the apparent conflict between evolution and their religious beliefs. The second is that evolution is a major organizing theory in science. Its predictive value has led to countless breakthroughs in biology and medicine. Finally, Charles Darwin was born 200 years ago yesterday. It is fitting to have his theory lead this effort to generate discussion about science.

Finding Darwin’s God

At McWane, we get questions about faith and science all the time. I am especially interested in these questions because my Christian faith is – or at least should be – the central feature of my life. So too, however, is (or should be) my love for the truth. In a life of integrity, they are two sides of the same coin. So, when I find them in apparent conflict I have to dig in and try to sort it out.

The most obvious point of conflict is evolution. People who believe the book of Genesis is the Word of God – Christians, Jews and Muslims – have a lot at stake when it comes to evolution. We have three choices:

1. Explain away the evidence for evolution in favor of a literal interpretation of Genesis;
2. Throw out Genesis altogether as a false description of reality;
3. Take a less literal view of Genesis in light of the evidence favoring evolution.

My guide in sorting this out has been a remarkable book by a cell biologist from Brown University, Kenneth R. Miller. I found his book Finding Darwin’s God utterly convincing. He too is a committed Christian. Check out his website at http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/index.html. He carefully covers the evidence regarding the age of the earth (four billion years) and the discoveries of transitional fossils (thus combating the case against “macro-evolution). He dismantles the arguments by a professor of bio-Chemistry, Michael Behe, who writes convincingly that Darwinian evolution cannot account for the complexity of the cell. Check out Behe’s book, Darwin’s Black Box (1996, 2006). There’s a great Wikipedia discussion of his book -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin.

At the end of his book, Miller points out that all scientists, including thoroughgoing atheists like Richard Dawkins, must come to grips with something very fundamental. That is, science can explain the origins of species, but it can’t explain the origin of stuff. Where did it all come from in the first place? For a Christian scientist like Miller, not to mention Francis Collins (who directed the human genome project) and legions of other accomplished scientists, a plausible explanation for the origin of stuff --- and one that simply cannot be ruled out by science --- is…well…God.

“Why are you teaching our children lies?”

One of the most amazing places at McWane Science Center is our area devoted to dinosaurs and sea monsters from the late Cretaceous period. This occurred approximately 82 million years ago. At that time, North America was divided by a great inland sea. The dinosaurs on the eastern side evolved differently from the ones on the western side. Our collection is full of fantastic fossils from the eastern side. All of our fossils were discovered in Alabama. Alabama formed part of the west coast of eastern North America.

This is our Appalachiosaurus Montgomeriensis….The terrible lizard from Montgomery County. (And to think how little has changed in Montgomery in 82 million years!)

Our dinosaurs display does not sit too well with some visitors. One day, a mother angrily asked to meet with me in my office. “Why are you teaching our children lies,” she demanded. I asked her what she meant, and she brought up what our displays say about the earth’s age and what they imply about evolution. I took a great deal of time with her, going over the evidence for a four billion year old earth. I knew that if she agreed with the evidence on that, it might shake at least her dogmatic assertion that we peddle lies. She seemed convinced. I then asked if that shook her faith. She said it did not, and she certainly did not seem upset in any way.

Ever since that encounter, I’ve discussed matters involving evolution and the age of the earth in much the same way. I tend to ask visitors, “Is your faith in God really so fragile that if you were wrong about evolution that you would give up your faith?” Invariably, the answer I have gotten is, “No. I wouldn’t give up my faith over that!”

This answer always both reassures and puzzles me. It reassures me because it seems that people are saying that they believe in God not because of a scientific proof that springs from the book of Genesis. But it puzzles me because the folks I’m talking with are generally extremely hostile to the theory of evolution. If their faith isn’t at stake, why the hostility?

The answer, quite probably, is that most folks haven’t really looked at the evidence. That’s our job at McWane. Those folks, hopefully, care enough about the truth to change. But, there is a darker side in all of us that we should be wary of. Most of us – and certainly deeply committed religious folk – cherish our views of the truth more than the truth itself. We want to win more than we want to learn. And when it comes to God, this is even more the case. We often have more at stake in our view of God than the God who is really there.

McWane Science Center’s Official Positions

Several years ago, the McWane Science Center passed the following resolutions about Science, The Scientific Method and Evolution. They are patterned after statements adopted by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Regarding Science:

“Science is a method of explaining the natural world. Scientists develop theories that explain the natural world, and:

-are internally consistent and compatible with evidence,
-are firmly grounded in and based upon evidence,
-have been tested against a diverse range of phenomena,
-possess broad and demonstrable effectiveness in problem solving, and
-explain a wide variety of phenomena.”

Regarding the Scientific Method:

“The Scientific method uses observation, hypothesis and testing to explain natural phenomena.”

Regarding Evolution:

Evolution is a major unifying concept of science. It is based on scientific theory utilizing the scientific method of observation, hypothesis and testing to explain the origins, changes and extinction of organisms.”

You have to follow the logic here. The resolutions go only as far as they need to. In sum, they mean that if evolution meets the definition of science and is based on the scientific method then it is a trustworthy explanation for why biological things are the way they are.

The Knowable Universe

The trustworthiness of evolution as an explanation of biology has led to an explosion in helping scientists solve problems. As James Watson (the same one who helped discover the structure of DNA) points out in a new compilation of Darwin’s works, molecular biologists use evolutionary thinking in nearly everything they do. It is what enables them to isolate genes and study disorders. It is what will help them cure diseases.

Scientists bank on the belief that the universe is knowable. Natalie Angier puts it beautifully in her book, The Canon: “Scientists accept, quite staunchly, that there is a reality capable of being understood in ways that can be shared with and agreed upon by others. …..To say there is an objective reality, and that it exists and can be understood, is one of those plain-truth poems of science that is nearly bottomless in its beauty.” Check out the site devoted to her book at http://www.natalieangier.com/.

This should fill us with hope. We can solve the problems we face – the physical ones anyway -- because the universe around us and within us is abundant with the answers! We should be hopeful about finding cures for illnesses because the body’s secrets are revealing themselves each day to biologists, geneticists and physicians. We should be hopeful about living in a world driven by clean energy because engineers are quickly unlocking power of clean coal, hydrogen, the sun, the wind and the earth’s heat. We should be hopeful about solving the water problems we face because we are learning each day how to conserve and manage available fresh water.

The Limits of Science

Science might be wonderful in the main, but it is limited. It helps us solve problems, but it will not make us kind or brave or wise or good. Science untempered by these things produces horrors with which we are all too familiar. Science added to our native selfishness, tribalism, greed, and fear can, and has, plunged us into deep darkness.

So, people of faith, be of good cheer. The world needs you. Even if evolution explains a lot of things, it does not explain everything. And even if science helps us solve problems, its inability to help us overcome fear and selfishness leaves plenty of room for other -- deeper -- wisdom. We should pursue the truth, wherever it leads, and be fearless about the facts. When we do that, I think we’ll find that T.S. Eliot was right: “the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.” Yes, for my part, I expect Him to be there – God .

But, I could be wrong! And that will be o.k. too.

Contributor Profile:
Tim Ritchie is the president and CEO of McWane Science Center. He has served in that position since June, 2004. During his time at McWane, general attendance has grown from 250,000 visitors per year to 350,000, and memberships have grown from 3400 member families to 8000. Earned revenue has grown from 55% to 70% of operating revenue. The endowment has grown from a few thousand dollars to $3.5 million (with $2.0 million additionally pledged). Prior to working at McWane, Tim served for six years as the president of Louisville Diversified Services, a non-profit organization in Louisville, Kentucky that runs businesses to provide jobs for adults with mental retardation. Tim lived in Birmingham from 1988 until 1997. He practiced law in the firm now known as Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff and Brandt. He left his firm to serve as the program developer for an inner-city ministry, The Center for Urban Missions. He then worked for the James Rushton Foundation, helping it buy a block in inner-city Birmingham and develop it as a community garden. It is now the principal site of Jones Valley Farm. Tim’s other work experiences have included clerking for the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, clerking in a poverty law clinic in Mendenhall, Mississippi, and representing defendants on North Carolina’s death row. Tim also spent a year in Southeastern Kentucky selling equipment for handling coal, crushed rock, corn and the like. Tim received his B.A. from Davidson College, his J.D. from Duke Law School, and his M.P.A. from Harvard University. He has completed eight marathons and will run in the 2009 Boston Marathon (having finally qualified!). One of Tim’s happiest moments was giving the commencement address for Duke Law School (having been chosen to do so by his class). He is a member of Leadership Alabama (class of 2008), Leadership Birmingham (class of 1998), the Birmingham Downtown Rotary Club, and Altadena Valley Presbyterian Church. He plays the trumpet and leads a brass quintet where he is the only old guy among the five (everyone else is in college or high school). His wife Christine is the director of the Center for Palliative Care at U.A.B. They have two children, Ivy (16) and Ramsay (13).

Blog Launch Set for February 15th

2009-02-12T11:13:00.002-08:00

Stay Tuned!