International Museum of Art & Science, 1900 Nolana, McAllen
Phone: (956) 682-1564
Fax: (956) 686-1813
Museum hours: Monday: closed; Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
IMAS Web site: http://www.imasonline.org/
"Science on a Sphere" Web site: http://sos.noaa.gov/
McALLEN -- A new exhibit at the International Museum of Art & Science will give visitors a whole new perspective on the Earth.
Sunday, the museum unveiled "Science on a Sphere" - a high-tech project that presents more than 200 different views of Earth, planets and other celestial bodies.
The exhibit features a 6-foot fiberglass sphere, upon which four projectors show images.
When lights are dimmed, the effect is that of a floating, three-dimension globe reminiscent of something from a science fiction movie.
"The cool factor matches the education factor," said Jerry Durham, IMAS educational coordinator, as he controlled the image using a Nintendo Wii remote.
The project helps solve a problem that has plagued geographers for years - how to best display round celestial bodies. NOAA hopes the images projected on the sphere will give people a more natural view of the world.
"It's just a great way of taking in information," said Serena Rosenkrantz, the museum's executive director.
The projections show dynamic images of ocean currents, hurricanes and plate tectonics, among other natural phenomena.
The sphere is best at depicting sharp, colorful images of topography, illustrating the canyons and peaks of the moon, Mars and other solar bodies.
Museum staff will make regular presentations of the exhibit to area students. Last year, 14,000 students visited IMAS, museum officials said.
"They're going to learn and they're not going to even realize they're learning," Rosenkrantz said.
For the general public, the exhibit will have a playlist, like one might have on an iPod, and will cycle through various projections and narrations.
The exhibit - essentially a 3-D movie screen - is on display at 24 sites worldwide. IMAS is the first museum in Texas to have the system.
Rosenkrantz said "Science on a Sphere" is the museum's first new, permanent exhibit in years. The exhibit replaces a flat-screen monitor that showed images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Eventually, the exhibit will be able to display real-time weather data from NOAA, Durham said. Presentations on the sphere will be synced with the lessons students are learning in school.
"I think they're going to think it's magic," Durham said. "Then we'll trick them into learning."
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Ryan Holeywell covers McAllen, PSJA, the Mid-Valley and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.
