Science museum, no PhD needed
The National Academy of Sciences is opening its first museum in Washington, D.C., exploring links between science and everyday life, including such hot topics as global warming, bioengineered crops and identifying criminals through DNA.
The 6,000-square-foot Marian Koshland Science Museum, at 6th and E streets Northwest, about three blocks north of the National Mall, is dwarfed by Smithsonian Institution outlets such as the 161,145-square-foot National Air and Space Museum.
“We’re the appetizer, not the entree, in our area,” said museum director Patrice Legro. Unlike some D.C. museums, this one is aimed mainly at adults, she said.
At interactive exhibits, visitors can manipulate satellite-based images of the Earth’s lights at night (in “Wonders of Science”); identify a fictional criminal from genetic samples (in “Putting DNA to Work,” where they also may learn about genetically modified crops); and track 100 years of climate changes by sliding a plasma-screen world map along a rail (in “Global Warming Facts & Our Future”).
The map “works out your brains and your biceps,” said Peter Schultz, exhibits and public programs director.
In this election year, the exhibits walk a fine line between public policy and politics.
“We take very strong scientific positions,” Schultz said of the global-warming exhibit, based on 75 reports from the National Academy of Sciences. “We say the Earth is warming, and that is likely due to human activity,” such as burning of fossil fuels, he said. “We say action is warranted now.” (The second biggest source of greenhouse gases, the exhibits says, is methane gas from livestock.) But Schultz said the exhibits do not comment on politics or mention policy makers.
The National Academy, chartered by Congress in 1863 to advise the nation on scientific issues, includes the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine. All are private, nonprofit groups.
Daniel E. Koshland Jr., an heir to the Levi Strauss family fortune and a biochemist and graduate professor at UC Berkeley, donated $30 million to the new museum, which is named after his late wife, Marian, a National Academy of Sciences member and a researcher in immunology and molecular biology.
“It’s very serious science,” Koshland said of the exhibits. “But it’s done so the layman will enjoy it.”
The museum is scheduled to open Friday. Admission: $5 for adults, $3 for college students and ages 5 to 18; open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily except Tuesdays and some holidays. (202) 334-1201, www.koshland-science-museum.org.