Extra Credit Event 2 - Natural History Museum

A display in the NH Museum

A T-Rex fossil head

Last Friday, June 3rd, I took a tour of the Dinosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum. It was an incredible tour because it wasn't simply an exhibit of things to look at, there were interactive touch screens where you could "excavate" your own fossils. It is an exhibit mean to inspire young people and get the excited about paleontology. Some of these dinosaurs were so large, you could walk under them with ease. Some of the displays visible internal organs and skin textures, and it reminded me a lot of the Body World exhibits we learned about in week 4's teachings about MedTech and art. Gunther Von Hagens invented a unique plastination technique in the 1970's that allowed him to preserve bodies like never before. The Body World exhibits sparked many viewer's interest in the Human Sciences in a similar way that the Dinosaur Hall and its jaw dropping displays are meant to incite interest in Paleontology. It is astonishing every time you reconnect with the physical dominance of some of these dinosaurs that live over 200 million years ago. It was a much different planet back then, and people often lose barring on the insignificance of the duration of our stay on Earth as fully developed human beings. As science and technology improve and get better, the excavating techniques will only get better as well, which will make these fossil exhibits come to life. Inspiration is often subtle, and as the world's leading paleontologist Jack Horner can attest, it could be sparked by as simple as finding your first dinosaur bone in the backyard.

A display that reminded me of Body Worlds

Sources

 "Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County." Explore Exhibits. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://www.nhm.org/site/explore-exhibits>.

 "Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County." Dinosaur Hall. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://www.nhm.org/site/explore-exhibits/permanent-exhibits/dinosaur-hall/about>.

 "Dinosaur." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 04 June 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur>.

 "Body Worlds." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 04 June 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Worlds>.

 "How Fossils Work." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geology/fossil5.htm>.

 "Jack Horner." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. Web. 04 June 2016. <https://www.ted.com/speakers/jack_horner>. 

Images

http://www.nhm.org/site/sites/default/files/nhmnext/next_project_Dino_Hall_slide_02.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Palais_de_la_Decouverte_Tyrannosaurus_rex_p1050042.jpg

http://www.balboapark.org/sites/default/files/sdnhm_dinos_fossils.jpg