If you're like any normal college-age student in the bay area, you've probably been to either the Exploratorium or even the San Jose Tech Museum for purely entertainment purposes. Both usually are aimed more for education than entertainment, and the Tech Museum does have the IMAX experience as well, but once you've seen your fifth gigantic diorama of an earthquake or a blind halway, it can get slightly old. They're valuable landmarks and great for children, but oftentimes, it's hard to get people really interested in learning about science in this manner. That's why the California Science Center in Los Angeles has made the Science of Superheroes such a hit.
In close cooperation with Marvel Comics, the California Science Center has gone a long way to try and explain some quite basic principles through usage of a very colorful exhibit. Doctor Octopus describes the usefulness of prosthetic limbs. One can play with a simulated lightning and electricity exhibit modeled after the mutant Storm. You can even tickle the hippocampus of a giant brain to turn Bruce Banner into the Hulk. Perhaps my favorite part of the exhibt was the exo-suit designed to pick up a car in the vein of the Invincible Iron Man. Well, it was either that or climbing across the wall like Spider-Man.
While we managed to get some slight education in, it was more fascinating to see how much the kids around us were enjoying each exhibit with abject glee. More impressive, perhaps, was the fact that each of these kids knew which characters did what. Adorned with artwork from many major artists, the stations were delightful and engaging, just the way they should be. Anyone looking for a more grown-up, or perhaps a more comics-centric exhibit, may be somewhat disappointed, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Well, the trip to Chano's afterwards really helped. Check out the full flickr photoset.
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