Museum Of Science
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The Museum of Science (MoS) is a
science museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...
and indoor zoo in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...
, located in Science Park, a plot of land spanning the
Charles River The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...
. Along with over 700 interactive exhibits, the museum features a number of live presentations throughout the building every day, along with shows at the Charles Hayden Planetarium and the
Mugar Omni Theater The Mugar Omni Theater is a domed IMAX theater at the Museum of Science, in Boston, Massachusetts. Description The Mugar Omni is named after Stephen P. Mugar, the founder of Star Market, and his wife Marian G. Mugar. The Mugar Omni is non-prof ...
, the only domed
IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme F ...
screen in
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
. The museum is also an accredited member of the
Association of Zoos and Aquariums The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), originally the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1924 and dedicated to the advancement of zoos and public aquariums in ...
(AZA) and is home to over 100 animals, many of which have been rescued and rehabilitated.


History


Origin and early years

The museum began as the
Boston Society of Natural History The Boston Society of Natural History (1830–1948) in Boston, Massachusetts, was an organization dedicated to the study and promotion of natural history. It published a scholarly journal and established a museum. In its first few decades, the s ...
in 1830, founded by a collection of men who wished to share scientific interests. Their first meeting was held on February 9, 1830 with seven original members in attendance: Walter Channing, Benjamin D. Greene, George Hayward, John Ware, Edward Brooks,
Amos Binney Amos Binney (October 18, 1803 – February 18, 1847) was an American physician and malacologist."Amos Binney" http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~ksc/Malacologists/BinneyA.html accessed 31 May 2012. Biography His son was William G. Binney. He was a ...
, and
George B. Emerson George Barrell Emerson (September 12, 1797 – March 14, 1881) was an American educator and pioneer of women's education. Biography He was born in Kennebunk, Maine. He graduated from Harvard College in 1817, and soon after took charge of an acad ...
. It was more commonly called the Boston Museum of Natural History in the 19th century, and this name occurs frequently in the literature. In 1862, after the society had gone through several temporary facilities, a building was constructed in the
Back Bay Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and t ...
area of the city and dubbed the New England Museum of Natural History. The museum was located next to the original Rogers Building of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
(MIT), and both neoclassical structures were designed by
William G. Preston William Gibbons Preston (September 29, 1842 – March 26, 1910) was an American architect who practiced during the last third of the nineteenth century and in the first decade of the twentieth. Educated at Harvard University and the École des ...
. The original MIT building was demolished in 1939, but the Natural History Museum building survives today, as a home furnishings showcase. A great deal of scientific work was done by the society, especially around geology, and the results of this work can be found in the ''Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History'' which are now freely available online. A library and children's rooms were added to the museum around 1900. It was renamed the Museum of Science in 1939, under the directorship of Henry Bradford Washburn, Jr., a renowned American mountaineer. The Boston Museum of Natural History of 1830/1864–1945 should not be confused with the private Warren Museum of Natural History (1858–1906, formerly on Chestnut Street in Boston). The contents of the latter collection, including the first intact
mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...
, were relocated to the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
of New York City in 1906. ''Museum Then and Now'', an exhibit of artifacts from the early years of the society, is located near the second floor Blue Wing entrance to the Theater of Electricity in today's museum.


Post WWII

After World War II, the old Museum of Science building was sold, and the museum was relocated, again under the name Boston Museum of Science. Under the leadership of Bradford Washburn, the society negotiated with the Metropolitan District Commission for a 99-year lease of the land on the
Charles River Dam Bridge The Charles River Dam Bridge, officially the Craigie Bridge, also called Craigie's Bridge or the Canal Bridge, is a six-lane bascule bridge across the Charles River in the West End neighborhood of Boston. The bridge, maintained by the Massachus ...
, now known as Science Park. The museum pays $1 a year to the state for use of the land. Construction and development began in 1948, and the museum opened in 1951, arguably the first all-encompassing science museum in the country. In these first few years, the museum developed a traveling planetarium, a version of which is still brought to many elementary schools in the
Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern ar ...
area every year. They also obtained during these early years "Spooky", a
great horned owl The great horned owl (''Bubo virginianus''), also known as the tiger owl (originally derived from early naturalists' description as the "winged tiger" or "tiger of the air"), or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extrem ...
who became a symbol or mascot of the museum; he lived to age 38, the longest any great horned owl is known to have lived. Today, a number of other taxidermed specimens remain on display, teaching children about the animals of
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
and of the world. The Science Park/West End
MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
infill station An infill station (sometimes in-fill station) is a train station built on an existing passenger rail, rapid transit, or light rail line to address demand in a location between existing stations. Such stations take advantage of existing train serv ...
was opened in August 1955, allowing easier access to the museum by public transportation. The Charles Hayden Planetarium was opened in 1958. Many more expansions continued into the 1970s and 1980s. In 1999, The Computer Museum in Boston closed and became part of the Museum of Science, integrating some of its educational displays, although the most of the historical artifacts were moved to the
Computer History Museum The Computer History Museum (CHM) is a museum of computer history, located in Mountain View, California. The museum presents stories and artifacts of Silicon Valley and the information age, and explores the computing revolution and its impact on ...
in Mountain View,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. A major renovation and expansion took place during 2005 and 2006. In 2010, the Charles Hayden Planetarium was closed for renovation, and has since reopened. The main entrance to the museum straddles the border between the cities of Boston and Cambridge, and the boundary is indicated by a marker embedded in the floor inside the museum. In 2013, the Museum of Science was the venue for the first joint session of the Boston and Cambridge city councils, to discuss policy measures to improve retention of talented recent university graduates in the area.


Future

Starting in 2013, the Museum of Science has been undergoing a major renovation to upgrade the physical structure and develop new educational content. This $250 million campaign will upgrade nearly half of the Exhibit Halls from 2012, and open three new major exhibits: the ''Hall of Human Life'', the Yawkey Gallery on the Charles River, and ''What Is Technology?'' The ''Hall of Human Life'' opened in November 2013 in the newly expanded Level 2 of the Green Wing, and has a focus on human biology. The audio kinetic sculpture ''
Archimedean Excogitation ''Archimedean Excogitation'' is a 1987 audiokinetic rolling ball sculpture by George Rhoads. It is located in the atrium of the Museum of Science in Boston. Description ''Archimedean Excogitation'' consists of a metal and glass display case fr ...
'' has been moved to the atrium to make way for a new exhibit in the lower lobby called The Yawkey Gallery on the Charles River. This exhibit opened in 2016, creating a new entry to the museum with better views of the Charles River and Boston-Cambridge skyline. On October 18, 2016 former
mayor of New York City The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...
Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...
revealed that his foundation,
Bloomberg Philanthropies Bloomberg Philanthropies is a philanthropic organization that encompasses all of the charitable giving of founder Michael R. Bloomberg. Headquartered in New York City, Bloomberg Philanthropies focuses its resources on five areas: the environmen ...
, is donating $50 million to the museum, the largest gift in the institution's 186-year history. The museum also opened ''Wicked Smart: Invented in the Hub'', an exhibition of new technologies, especially those created in or around the Boston area. This new exhibit also contains a few interactive activities, including a novel type of
wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...
which visitors can sit in and maneuver. A large-scale interactive digital video projection devised at the
MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...
using sensors from an Xbox
Kinect Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of flig ...
, is very popular with visitors, who can control complex visual displays by means of body gestures and motions.


Exhibit halls

Blue Wing * ''Butterfly Garden'': a walk-through
greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...
containing exotic
butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
with an area dedicated to botanical education * ''Seeing is Deceiving'': a collection of
optical illusion Within visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual perception, percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide v ...
s, including many motorized illusions * ''Making Models'': exhibit on the use of physical and abstract models to understand the real world * '' Mathematica: A World of Numbers... and Beyond'': a roomful of classic mathematical exhibits by designers
Charles and Ray Eames Charles Eames ( Charles Eames, Jr) and Ray Eames ( Ray-Bernice Eames) were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of ...
* ''Natural Mysteries'': an investigative exhibit on
classification Classification is a process related to categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Classification is the grouping of related facts into classes. It may also refer to: Business, organizat ...
of mysterious objects and natural history specimens * ''Theater of Electricity'': features the world's largest air-insulated
Van de Graaff generator A Van de Graaff generator is an electrostatic generator which uses a moving belt to accumulate electric charge on a hollow metal globe on the top of an insulated column, creating very high electric potentials. It produces very high voltage direct ...
, designed by Professor
Robert J. Van de Graaff Robert Jemison Van de Graaff (December 20, 1901 – January 16, 1967) was an American physicist, noted for his design and construction of high-voltage Van de Graaff generators. The bulk of his career was spent in the Massachusetts Institute of T ...
and donated by
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...
in 1956. Demonstrations of "artificial lightning bolts",
Tesla coil A Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer circuit designed by inventor Nikola Tesla in 1891. It is used to produce high-voltage, low-current, high-frequency alternating-current electricity. Tesla experimented with a number of different ...
s, and other electrical apparatus * ''Math Moves!: Experiencing Ratio and Proportion:'' an immersive exploration of math and proportion including the former exhibit, ''Clark Collection of Mechanical Movements'': over 100 working models of mechanical motions and
linkage Linkage may refer to: * ''Linkage'' (album), by J-pop singer Mami Kawada, released in 2010 *Linkage (graph theory), the maximum min-degree of any of its subgraphs *Linkage (horse), an American Thoroughbred racehorse * Linkage (hierarchical cluster ...
s * ''Innovative Engineers'': exhibits and brief biographies of Boston engineers, including minorities and women * ''Investigate!'': a house-sized collection of rooms to explore using
scientific thinking The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific me ...
* ''Energize!'': exhibits of
renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
technologies * ''Nanotechnology'' * ''Mapping the World Around Us'' * ''Take a Closer Look'' * ''Dinosaurs: Modeling the Mesozoic:'' a collection of fossils and life-size models of dinosaurs and extinct animals, including a full-size Tyrannosaurus rex model *''Colossal Fossil: Triceratops Cliff:'' a 65-million-year-old fossil, discovered in the Dakota Badlands in 2004 * ''Machines & Transportation'' * ''Living on the Edge'' * ''To the Moon'' * ''Behind the Scenes'' * ''Wicked Smart: Invented in the Hub'' Green Wing * ''New England Habitats'' * ''A Bird's World'' * ''Colby Room'': a classic explorer's trophy room filled with stuffed animal heads from
big-game hunting Big-game hunting is the hunting of large game animals for meat, commercially valuable by-products (such as horns/antlers, furs, tusks, bones, body fat/oil, or special organs and contents), trophy/taxidermy, or simply just for recreation ("s ...
, preserved as a historical exhibit and also used for meetings * ''Hall of Human Life'': an exhibit of interactive activities focusing on human biology Red Wing * ''Mugar Omni Theater'': largest
Omnimax IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme F ...
movie theater in New England * ''Charles Hayden Planetarium'' * ''Cosmic Light'' * ''Discovery Center'': offers the opportunity to talk with scientists and participate in experiments * ''
Foucault pendulum The Foucault pendulum or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault, conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. A long and heavy pendulum suspended from the high roof above a circular a ...
'': shows the effect of the rotation of the Earth * ''Museum Store'' * ''Polage'': a wall-sized
polarized light Polarization (also polarisation) is a property applying to transverse waves that specifies the geometrical orientation of the oscillations. In a transverse wave, the direction of the oscillation is perpendicular to the direction of motion of the ...
collage of shapes by artist Austine Wood Comarow * ''Soundstair'': a stairway fitted by artist
Christopher Janney Christopher Janney (born 1950) is an American composer, artist, and architect known for his work on the interrelation of architecture and music. Sometimes he attempts to make architecture more like music as in his sound sculptures titled "Urban Mu ...
with photoelectric cells which trigger musical sounds * ''Archimedean Excogitation'': a large
rolling ball sculpture A rolling ball sculpture (sometimes referred to as a marble run, ball run, gravitram, ''kugelbahn'' (German: 'ball track'), or rolling ball machine) is a form of kinetic art – an art form that contains moving pieces – that specific ...
by
George Rhoads George Rhoads (January 27, 1926 – July 9, 2021) was a contemporary American painter, sculptor, and origami master. He was best known for his whimsical audiokinetic sculptures in airports, science museums, shopping malls, children's hospitals, ...
* ''Thrillride 360:'' Simulator ride Miscellaneous * ''Yawkey Gallery on the Charles River'': an open area filled with information about the
Charles River The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...
and river science in general * ''The Rock Garden'' *The exterior stone panels on the facade were executed by Belmont sculptor Theodore Barbarossa.


Live presentations and programs

The museum offers many free live presentations to visitors, including hands-on demonstrations and live animal show-and-tell sessions. The MoS has extensive educational programs from pre-school up through adult programming, including lecture series, concerts, films, workshops, and public policy discussions. Special "overnight" programs invite students in grades 1–7, as well as
Scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...
groups, to spend a night at the museum.


Engineering Design Workshop

Engineering Design Workshop is an exhibit on the first level in the Blue Wing that sees about 200–800 visitors a day. It includes various different design challenges and other more one-on-one "cart activities" for visitors. The design center includes about a dozen activities for visitors to attempt while learning about the engineering process run twice a day from 10am-12pm and from 2pm–4pm during the school year, and also 4:30pm–6:30pm during the summer. The cart activities include robotics and circuitry and are more meant for teaching visitors about new technology. All activities also include a magnet for visitors who attempted the activities.


Notable past exhibits

* In the 1950s, a small
Wilson cloud chamber A cloud chamber, also known as a Wilson cloud chamber, is a particle detector used for visualizing the passage of ionizing radiation. A cloud chamber consists of a sealed environment containing a supersaturated vapour of water or alcohol. A ...
was featured in the main entrance hall. Visitors could come within inches of radioactive material to watch the vapor trails of the particles they emitted. * The first
Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the c ...
using electricity in the US (removed from the Navesink lighthouse), was on display from the early 1950s until 1979. * In 1988, the museum was host to an exhibit focusing on the life and times of
Ramses II Ramesses II ( egy, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is often regarded as t ...
. The exhibit displayed more than 70 artifacts, on loan from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Arguably, the centerpiece of the exhibit was a 40-foot-tall model of an Egyptian temple which housed a 3,000-year-old, 57-ton granite statue of Ramses. The exhibit ran from May 7, 1988 through August 30, 1988. * From August to October 2004, the museum was host to the US premiere of ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...
the Motion Picture Trilogy the Exhibition'', developed by the
Te Papa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...
museum in
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, and containing many of the costumes and props from the films. * The Museum of Science built and designed its own film-based exhibit, entitled '' Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination''. It was on display there from October 2005 to April 2006, and traveled to other venues. * ''Gunther von Hagens'
Body Worlds ''Body Worlds'' (German title: ''Körperwelten'') is a traveling exposition of dissected human bodies, animals, and other anatomical structures of the body that have been preserved through the process of plastination. Gunther von Hagens develope ...
2: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies'' was at the Museum of Science from July 29, 2006 to January 7, 2007. * From October 25, 2009 to February 21, 2010, '' Harry Potter: The Exhibition'' was at the museum.
The Science Behind Pixar
is a exhibition currently on tour around the US. It was created by the Museum of Science, Boston, in collaboration with
Pixar Animation Studios Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...
. This exhibit featured some of the activities, videos, and images that describe the math, computer science, and science that go into making computer animated films.


Computing exhibits

Although the history artifacts of The Computer Museum (TCM) were moved from Boston to
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
to become the core of the current
Computer History Museum The Computer History Museum (CHM) is a museum of computer history, located in Mountain View, California. The museum presents stories and artifacts of Silicon Valley and the information age, and explores the computing revolution and its impact on ...
, some former TCM educational exhibits and objects were transferred to the Boston Museum of Science where two new computing and technology exhibits were created. ''The Computing Revolution,'' an exhibit no longer on display at the Museum of Science, related the history of computing through a variety of hands-on interactive exhibits. ''Cahners ComputerPlace, ''previously located in the Blue Wing, Level 1, housed displays ranging from educational
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s to an interactive
AIBO AIBO (''stylized aibo, Artificial Intelligence Robot'', homonymous with , "pal" or "partner" in Japanese) is a series of robotic dogs designed and manufactured by Sony. Sony announced a prototype Aibo in mid-1998, and the first consumer model wa ...
ERS-7
robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...
. The first integrated quantum computing system, developed by MOS Director of Strategic Projects Carol Lynn Albert in collaboration with IBM, is on display as part of MOS's computing exhibits.


Other attractions

* In 1997, the museum developed a permanent to-scale community
Solar System model Solar System models, especially mechanical models, called ''orreries'', that illustrate the relative positions and motions of the planets and Natural satellite, moons in the Solar System have been built for centuries. While they often showed rela ...
that physically spanned as far as the
Riverside Riverside may refer to: Places Australia * Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania Canada * Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon * Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta * Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...
MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
station (in
Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...
). The bronze models of the
Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
,
Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...
, and
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
were located on the museum grounds. However, in 2015 several of the scale models were removed from their original locations, and their current status is unknown . The nearest known surviving scale model is a walkable installation on the third floor of the
Infinite Corridor The Infinite Corridor 203 pp. is a hallway that runs through the Campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, main buildings of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specifically parts of the buildings numbered 7, 3, 10, 4, and 8 (f ...
at
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...
. * Construction began on a rooftop Wind Turbine Lab in 2009. The lab tests nine wind turbines from five different manufacturers on the roof of the museum. An exhibit in the Blue Wing, ''Catching the Wind'', includes a live data stream on how much electricity each turbine is producing.


See also

*
Boston Society of Natural History The Boston Society of Natural History (1830–1948) in Boston, Massachusetts, was an organization dedicated to the study and promotion of natural history. It published a scholarly journal and established a museum. In its first few decades, the s ...
, predecessor to the museum * Intel
Computer Clubhouse The Clubhouse Network, often shortened to "The Clubhouse," is an American nonprofit organization that provides a free out-of-school learning program where children (ages 10–19) from lower income communities can work with adult mentors to explo ...
Network, global after-school technology program headquartered at the museum


References


External links

*
Current Exhibits & Reviews


* ttp://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/131lighthouse/131visual3.htm Navesink lighthouse information from the National Park Service
"Human Connections"
Video on the making of this large interactive polarized light mural, located in the atrium of the Mugar Imax Wing of the MOS (Artist: Austine Wood Comarow) * MOS is a member of NISE Net, and participates i
NanoDays
{{authority control 1830 establishments in Massachusetts Association of Science-Technology Centers member institutions Buildings and structures in Boston Dinosaur museums in the United States IMAX venues Landmarks in Boston Museums established in 1830
Museum of Science The Museum of Science (MoS) is a science museum and indoor zoo in Boston, Massachusetts, located in Science Park, a plot of land spanning the Charles River. Along with over 700 interactive exhibits, the museum features a number of live presentat ...
Indoor zoos Natural history museums in Massachusetts Science museums in Massachusetts Zoos in Massachusetts Towers in Massachusetts Wind power in Massachusetts