No food in the tactile dome!

But, if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to indulge in some tasty food in an otherwise sensory deprived environment, a new branch of the restaurant Opaque will soon open in San Francisco. I read a lonely planet article about the hip trend of ‘dark dining’ restaurants. Apparently, restaurants that serve full course meals in [...]

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The Fine Line of Intelligence

Hey everyone! How’s it going?  I hope that you’re all having a wonderful summer.  Last night, while browsing the internet, my, dear, David, came across a really interesting online documentary video called, “The Boy with the Incredible Brain”.  I was flabbergasted.  It follows Daniel Tammet, a high functioning autistic savant who can calculate huge sums [...]

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Magic of Science or Science of Magic

One question that we always get during field trips is “Why do you do magic tricks at the Exploratorium?” I think that many people have a hard time connecting what goes on during the magic show to some sort of scientific expectation that they have at the museum. But a lot of us explainers [...]

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Artichokes, bees, and mics

That’s very purple! (Click to enlarge)
A few weeks ago in Napa I saw, for the first time, an artichoke flower! Doesn’t it look absolutely fantastic? I mean, it’s positively wild. And to think that we eat them, and discard the pesky choke that, if left to bloom, will become such a stunning inflorescence. As I [...]

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When we were young

Just a quick Friday post as I finish my marathon 13 hour day working at summer camp and event reception. Today we had a little break in the action at camp and to fill the time, we asked the kids to make up fake biographies of their counselors, explaining who they were and what they [...]

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Pineapple Princess

 Just back from a week in Maui with Sam, and one of highlights of my trip was most DEFINITELY eating all the fresh pineapple I was allowed to get my hands on.  After a glitch in scheduling, Sam and I got a private, free tour of the Maui Gold Pineapple fields.  It was like being [...]

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Autobots, roll out!

Have you ever been walking about the back on the museum when you get the sneaking suspicion that you’re being watched? Luckily most of the time it’s just Albert, the resident ExploratOrium motion detecting scary face.
Have you ever had a conversation with a computer? Or told a secret to a fish for that [...]

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Make and Break Exhibits

 We’ve debuted some cool temporary exhibits at the ExplOratorium over the past few months. The kids at our summer camp made the first exhibit which hangs from the circle of lights in the middle of the museum. For one of our activities, the campers dissected computer keyboards and made flying “cy-birds” from the plastic sheets [...]

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Rats on the brain

At tapas with the explainers at Cha Cha Cha in the Mission after some good old experimental theater, Luigi and I naturally started talking about lab rats. After watching Ratatouille, it seems like a common thing to ask questions of whether rats have human qualities or whether is it disgusting to see a swarm of [...]

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