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The Pacific Science Center is one of the highlights of the Seattle Center,
the park that surrounds the Space Needle, and at one time was the
grounds to the 1962 World's Fair. The Science center is filled
with displays, artifacts and models, each bent on explaining how things
work, why they are the way they are... It also has a large hall that is
filled with larger displays: The Traveling "Big Piece" of the Titanic,
the Dead Sea Scrolls, King Tut's artifacts, and the like.
Its a great place to visit, and as I'm a member there, I tend
to visit there now and again...
The Pacific Science Center
The main gate sports a very nice sign. Entering the center, you walk though a courtyard filled with interactive items that display a scientific principal of some sort, while being fun for the kids to play on. One of the more commanding displays, and also one of the oldest, is the Puget Sound Model, which is a functional model of how the Puget Sound "works". All of the rivers are in the model, along with water flow that is to scale. Even the tides are simulated, with the clock flowing at the same scale that the model is, so the observer can see things happen faster Here's a drip station in "Hood Canal", which drips a small amound of ink, so you can see in which direction, and how far, the current flows over time In a display that rotated through recently, a mars habitat was set up, showing the interior space being planned for future space travelers to the "Red Planet". Guarding the entrance to the permanent dinosaur display is this friendly fellow. Built from castings took from a skeleton found here in Washington, the T-Rex display is pretty commanding. A highlight of a display put on by the local Milk Industry was the chocolate displays, and the two chocolate fountains they sported. No longer a figment of Star Trek Lore, this ion engine is the prototype to the one used in the NEAR probe that intercepted an astroid orbiting the sun in a highly elliptical orbit that passes fairly close to Earth. I really enjoy the butterfly house, another permanent display in the Science Center. OK... so its not... its a scaled up kitchen set, to show what things are like if you're only 3 feet tall. Yep, its a fun thing!
The Pacific Science Center
The main gate sports a very nice sign.
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