The , simply known as the , is a museum created by Japan's
Science and Technology Agency.
It was opened in 2001. It is situated in a purpose-built building in the
Odaiba
today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially built in this area for defensive purposes in the 1850s. Reclaimed land offshore Shinagawa was dramatically expanded durin ...
District of
Tokyo. It can be reached by the
Yurikamome driverless fully automated transit system from downtown Tokyo in about 15 minutes.
Exhibits
Highlights include real-time displays of data from a huge array of
seismometers across Japan which shows the country gently vibrating. The occasional
earthquakes for which Japan is noted show up as larger movements. Visitors can search the on-line database of recent earthquake activity.
A section of rock core taken across the
Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary
The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary, formerly known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) boundary, is a geological signature, usually a thin band of rock containing much more iridium than other bands. The K–Pg boundary marks the end of ...
(K–T boundary) records a major meteorite impact event that is believed to have led to the final demise of the dinosaurs.
Asimo, the
Honda robot is one of the star attractions along with the model
maglev train
Maglev (derived from ''magnetic levitation''), is a system of train transportation that uses two sets of electromagnets: one set to repel and push the train up off the track, and another set to move the elevated train ahead, taking advantage ...
.
Geo-Cosmos
The prominent Geo-Cosmos high resolution globe displays near real-time events of global weather patterns, ocean temperatures and vegetation cover among other geographic, scientific
[The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan)](_blank)
Miraikan.jst.go.jp (2014-06-01). Retrieved on 2015-05-09. and socioeconomic topics. The Geo-Cosmos spherical screen consists of 10,362 OLED panels, each 96 x96 mm in size.
The first and only one of its kind was rebuilt in 2010 and re-introduced in its current form in June 2011, after the
Tohoku earthquake caused the museum to close for three months. US President
Barack Obama visited Miraikan on April 24, 2014, addressing Japanese students in front of the Geo-Cosmos display. Noting the uniqueness of the display, he said: "As far as I know, we don't have one of those cool globes..."
The Geo-Cosmos along with Geo-Palette and Geo-Scope is part of the Tsunagari permanent exhibition.
Geo-Palette
Miraikan adopted a unique map projection called
AuthaGraph projection as its official world mapping tool. AuthaGraph projection was developed by Japanese architect
Hajime Narukawa in 1999. "This projection method transfers a 3-dimentional sphere into a 2-dimensional rectangle while maintaining areas proportions. Using this method, the 'AuthaGraph world map' succeeds in transferring an image of the spherical Earth to a flat surface while evenly distributing distortion."
Special exhibitions
Every year between three and six specially curated exhibitions are produced and shown, with science and art often overlapping. They dealt with a wide range of topics from "Toilet - Human Waste and Earth's Future" to the "Making of the Tokyo Sky Tree" and "Terminator Exhibition - Battle or Coexistence? Robots and Our Future". In 2012, the special exhibition "The Story of the End of the World: 73 Questions We Must Answer" dealt with the
Tohoku earthquake and its aftermath.
[Shea, Michael (2014)]
The Story of the End of the World: An Alternative Approach to the Future at the Japanese Museum of Science and Innovation
''The Unfamiliar'' 4(1): 56–62.
Multilingual staff conduct demonstrations about leading edge Japanese science. Miraikan is led by Japanese astronaut
Mamoru Mohri
, AM is a Japanese scientist, a former NASDA astronaut, and a veteran of two NASA Space Shuttle missions. He is the first Japanese astronaut who was part of an official Japanese space program. The first Japanese person in space, Toyohiro Akiy ...
.
Gallery
File:Nihon-Kagaku-Miraikan,Koto-ward,Tokyo,Japan.JPG, Nihon Kagaku Miraikan
File:Geo-Cosmos Miraikan cropped.jpg, Geo-Cosmos
File:President Obama Talks to Japanese Astronaut and Students - Flickr - East Asia and Pacific Media Hub (1).jpg, US President Obama talks to Japanese Astronaut under the Geo-Cosmos, 2014
See also
*
List of museums in Tokyo
References
External links
* https://vimeo.com/118784283
Sources
Miraikan website in JapaneseMiraikan website in English
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Koto, Tokyo
Odaiba
Museums in Tokyo
Science museums in Japan
Museums established in 2001
2001 establishments in Japan