The Tech Museum

William and I decided to go to the Tech Museum on Saturday in downtown San Jose. William had been there several years before and so we decided to try it out again. It was $8 admission AND it included an IMAX dome feature movie too. For a tech nerd like William who graduated in computer science and works at Google, it wasn't quite as cutting edge as he was used to. BUT, since most of the exhibits are child focused, I think that it is quite fascinating for them. For example, we were able to create our own rollercoaster. William tried to make it have 2 straight drops in a row but it wouldn't let him make it because it was too dangerous. I kind of liked that they made it follow the natural laws of physics. You could then "test" out your rollercoaster by sitting in some chairs and watching it move on a big screen.

Another cool station was where a robot would trace an outline of your face. It was quite amazing and William was able to tell me how it was able to do that. Another thing I liked was they had a giant DNA double helix made out of cookbooks to illustrate that DNA is the "recipe of life." The also had a room where they demonstrated how to make a microchip. It is a complex process that requires multiple stages before getting a microchip. I am just so fascinated that some one could invent all of the different processes that go along with it. William was sad that the museum was not currently up to date but I think that the museum would be super cool if you were a kid who had never seen anything like it before.

The museum had an IMAX dome theater that was really neat. We had never been to one before and it was cool. The screen is perforated aluminum so you can actually see through it when illuminated the different speakers behind the screen. I almost felt like the show was in 3D, although it wasn't, just due to the rotation of the dome. We watched "Sea Monsters", this NSF and National Geographic movie illustrating what the dinosaurs or -mosasaurs as they are called for those that live in the ocean- looked like. I was amazed by the computer generated images- they looked pretty real. They based the film off of actual finds from archaeological digs across the world. I learned that there used to be an inland sea that split the middle of the U.S. Also, there is a "tyrannosaurus" rex of the ocean called a "tylosaurus" that was just huge and fierce. The film is fairly "violent" in that they show, fairly graphically, the killing and eating of the prey. There isn't any blood, but we felt that it could really scare some little kids.

Overall, we liked our time at the Tech museum but we probably won't be going in the near future- but it is a great deal to even just see an IMAX movie.