My new friend Fred is an interesting guy.
Recently retired from the New York City school system where he worked as a psychologist and looking for something interesting to fill his time, he is now pursuing a lifelong interest by volunteering as a tour guide at the American Museum of Natural History.
"I'd love you to join one of my tours," he said to me recently. I don't like to admit it but I haven't been to that museum since my kids were kids. So I took Fred up on his offer. Fred volunteers once a week on Thursdays and had to undergo rigorous training to be adopted by the museum as one of its tour guides. I met Fred at the museum entrance on West 81st Street, just off Central Park. My friend Bobby joined us also and the three of us walked up to the second floor where Fred would gather the others who were joining his tour.
Fred began his tour in the Theodore Roosevelt Hall - the main entrance to the American Museum of Natural History.
There are some 45 halls in the Museum, housed in 25 interconnected buildings. The museum got its charter in 1860. Its mission -- "To discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."
Fred planned, in his hour-and-a-half tour, to cover perhaps four of the halls. The idea was to give us a taste, albeit a small one, of the huge wealth of knowledge that the museum has to offer. For a glimpse of the new Museum, Fred started us off in the Rose Center For Earth and Space. This exciting new addition was built in 1999 and contains the Hayden Planetarium and other exciting exhibits housed in a startlingly modern and beautiful glass cube.
Inside the Rose Center, Fred points out the new planetarium, housed in the Hayden Sphere.
The Beresford (home to Jerry Seinfeld, among others) - as viewed from the Rose Center - Jupiter and Saturn floating in the foreground.
Bob peering into the depths of the universe at the Hayden Planetarium.
Our next hall, and the one for which the museum is so well known, was the Hall of the Dinosaurs. Our tour guide explained the difference between the two main branches of the extinct creatures -- the carnivores and the herbivores and fed us some interesting tidbits of trivia: meat-eaters (the carnivores) have three toes and big heads.Birds, he informed us, have probably descended from that branch of dinosaurs; whereas, the plant eaters (the herbivores) have five toes and small brains. Go figure. Did you know that birds only have three toes?
A Tyrannosaurus Rex's head (the real thing). if you see one of these, er, run fast...in the opposite direction.
These teeth were made for mashing, tearing, crushing...ouch.
Our group examines a big mama T-Rex. Fred told us that it was previously believed tha the T-Rex dragged its tail on the ground to maintain its balance. But new evidence shows it walked on its two giant rear legs and upright with its tail in the air - fearsome!
Next on our tour was the Hall of Biodiversity with amazing displays that revealed the incredible variety of earth's living things. In the center was a life-size recreation of the Dzanga-Sangha Rainforest - with the sounds and smells and lighting of that amazing ecosystem.
Our tour enters the Hall of Biodiversity - so many creatures on this planet earth!
For our final hall, Fred the scuba diver, took us to his personal favorite: the Hall of Ocean Life. Capped by a life-size model of a blue whale, the largest living creature on earth, the hall features interactive computer stations, video displays and realistic dioramas illustrating the creatures and life forms that inhabit the ocean depths. Of particular interest to me were bizarre creatures that provide their own light (bioluminescence) at dark depths greater than 3,000 feet. Some of them looked like living neon signs - incredible!
A model of a Blue Whale hangs in the Hall of Ocean Life - a real one can weigh up to 300,000 pounds! (The model only weighed 29,000 pounds).
The museum is a wonderful place and I regretted having avoided it for so many years. A new exhibit on Darwin opened on November 19th and will run through May 29th of next year. It's ironic that in this age, the exhibit is surrounded by controversy engineered by the right-wing fundamentalists and their political flunkies. The museum, a bastion of science and the scientific method, proudly defends the theory of evolution in the face of attacks by those who would return us to the days of the Scopes Monkey Trial, this time under the pseudo-scientific charade of Intelligent Design.
My trip to the museum was brief. I had taken my folding bike on the subway and didn't want to be leaving Manhattan later than 4 p.m., the beginning of rush hour. Taking a bike on the subway is legal but one is expected to be respectful of other riders and avoid travelling during times when the trains are most congested.
I rode through Central Park, wanting to take in a few miles of glory in the heart of the city. It was a beautiful day and the park was filled with glorious fall colors. A great way to end a visit to the Museum of Natural History.
I spied this blazing beauty biking through Central Park on my way to the subway at Columbus Circle.
2 comments:
My dear friend Matt. While I loved your blog and comments I must correct two factual errors. First of all I am a psychologist not a social worker which is a very significant distinction. And secondly biolumenescense occurs in the deep sea below 3,000 feet not 30,000 feet.
I stand corrected Doctor Fred! Thank you for shining light on the subject.
Post a Comment