Whitaker Center: Science of Aliens

Last weekend, the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts opened up a new exhibit.  As Sunday was my science nerd husband's birthday, we went to check it out as a birthday treat.

Advertisements claimed that this was "the biggest and most in-depth exhibition to examine the possibility of life on other worlds" and that the Whitaker center was to be the second stop on the exhibition's North American tour.

Alien foot prints lead the way to the exhibit entrance.  The staff and volunteers wore flashing green alien buttons - a cute touch.

 The exhibit was divided into four zones.  Zone 1 dealt with classic and current science fiction - complete with a life sized replica of the creature from the movie "Alien".  It also commented on the many claims of alien abductees.  They did a pretty good job of giving the facts without asserting opinions.  I was facinated by the claim that many abductees say that their memories have been changed with animal faces replacing alien ones.

 Zone 2 discussed "Alien science".  It started by pointing out that we don't know about a lot of "alien" life which is present on our own planet. 

 They demonstrated this with deep sea creatures - many of which are really weird.

They also used bacteria that lives in extreme environments to make the case that life could be present on other worlds very different from our own.

Finally, they mentioned the unmanned space missions currently in progress.  You could help "launch the space probe" by correctly answering quiz questions about probe missions to other planets and moons in our solar system.

Zone 3 was entirely fantasy, but very neat nonetheless.  It dealt with an imagined and simulated alien world - based on real physics.  A team of scientists dreamed up an inhabited planed and it's inhabited moon.  In our opinion, the moon was way cooler - it had a dense atmosphere and almost all of the life forms flew. 

The best part of this zone was that they used touch tables to simulate the planet and the moon.  You could tap on creatures to read about them.  The tables were dynamic - the moon one had forest fires every so often to demonstrate the natural cycle. 

Zone 4 was the smallest zone.  It dealt with alien communication.   They had the greeting recordings from the Voyager probe that you could listen to and a space where you could record what you would say in greeting to alien life.  Some of the communications were quite interesting.

All in all, it was definitely an interesting exhibit and a great first visit to the Whitaker Center.  We will be visiting again!

The Science of Aliens is showing at The Whitaker Center from June 16 to November 18, 2007.   Tickets to the Aliens exhibit include entrance to the Harsco Science center and are $14.75 for adults, $12.25 for children, students and seniors.  Group oricing is available.  More information can be found at http://whitakercenter.org/Aliens/index.asp