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Muncyt Alcobendas DISCOVER MUNCYT ALCOBENDAS NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Guide for children aged 9 to 99 // credits MINISTRY OF ECONOMY AND COMPETITIVENESS Minister: Luis de Guindos Jurado Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation: Carmen Vela Olmo SPANISH FOUNDATION FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (FECYT) Director General: José Ignacio Fernández Vera NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (MUNCYT) Director: Marián del Egido Rodríguez Discover MUNCYT Alcobendas. National Museum of Science and Technology Guide for children aged 9 to 99 Review and extension of contents by Rosa Martín Latorre and Emilio José Bande Fuentes Text and illustrations from the first edition by Pablo Martínez Mena // acknowledgements María Josefa Jiménez, Ignacio de la Lastra, Josefa Prados, Alfredo Baratas, Rosa Capeáns, Ana Guillamón, Amparo Gutiérrez, Teresa Heras, Jesús Hidalgo, A. J. Hudspeth, Ruth López, Miguel Martínez, Nuria Molinero, Laura Orensanz, Vicente Subiela, Jerry Tchadie, Marcos Villaverde and the Naval Museum of Cartagena // publisher Published by: Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology e-NIPO: 720-15-100-X NIPO: 720-15-099-7 Legal deposit number: M-23855-2015 Design, layout and printing: Everyoneplus Photography: Yolanda Villaverde López, Archives of the National Museum of Science and Technology and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology Illustrations reinterpreted by: Fernando Jordán, (Everyoneplus) // follow us on... www.muncyt.es facebook.com/muncyt @muncyt // introduction “All grown-ups were once children, although few of them remember it.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince. Somehow, almost every grown-up has forgotten what they were like as children, and this is the reason for the National Museum of Science and Technology’s decision to publish this guide, in an attempt to rediscover the best qualities of this time that you are lucky enough to be enjoying. Curiosity, the desire to learn and experiment and asking ‘why?’ characterise these first stage of life. Funnily enough (or not), these are also the main motivations of science. In childhood we are all like those philosophers before Socrates who wondered whether the world was made up just of water, air or fire; marvellous scientists before their time. With this guide we hope to rekindle your interest in the origin of the science and technology of all those objects that make our lives easier, and in the lives of the scientists who made it possible. Also, after the museum visit (and reading) we are sure that you will also have learnt how important it is to look after and preserve the items that have survived down the centuries. The great science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke said in one of his books that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. Let’s discover it together in this museum. Marián del Egido Rodríguez Director of the National Museum of Science and Technology MUSEUMS ARE FULL OF MARVELSgrande .................. 5 heritage ROOM ......... ......................................................................... 10 Small things up close ............................................................ 13 The fascinating microscopic world ......................................... 14 Fascination ............................................................................. 19 Light projections .................................................................. 21 Frozen images ...................................................................... 22 Lights, camera... action! ........................................................ 24 Prevention better than cure .................................................... 27 Electrotherapy... and visit to the dentist in the past ..................... 28 Instruments for surgery or torture? .......................................... 30 Hygiene ............................................................................. 31 Techno-evolution ................................................................... 33 The telephone .................................................................... 34 Television and radio ............................................................. 36 Recorded sound .................................................................. 37 Home, sweet home ................................................................ 39 Sounds from yesterday ........................................................ 40 Domestic technology ........................................................... 41 Spanish innovation ................................................................ 43 What do scientists do? .......................................................... 44 Spanish science .................................................................. 45 Brilliant discoveries .............................................................. 46 Wheels .................................................................................. 49 By pedal ............................................................................ 51 ...And by motor ................................................................... 52 SPACE AND TIME grande....ROOM ......................................................................................... 54 Thousands of stars, clocks and mathematics .............................. 57 Crossing the seas ...................................................................... 58 Sundials .................................................................................. 60 Precise times ........................................................................... 61 Observing the Universe ............................................................. 64 ......... ......................................................................... 10 The Earth is huge! .................................................................... 68 LABORATORY gran...ROOM ....................................................................................... 70 Every cloud has a silver lining ..................................................... 73 How does a barometer work? ..................................................... 74 What’s the weather like on Jupiter? ............................................. 75 “Compass” clouds ..................................................................... 77 Warmer, warmer.......................................................................... 79 Steam power ............................................................................ 82 How does a steam engine work? ................................................ 83 Electrifying! ................................................................................. 85 Electric machines ...................................................................... 86 Measuring electricity .................................................................. 89 Natural electricity ....................................................................... 90 Machines and forces ................................................................... 93 Archimedes the Inventor ............................................................. 94 Impressive pressure .................................................................. 96 Nnnnoises and soundsss ............................................................ 99 The speed of sound ................................................................ 100 Let there be light! ...................................................................... 103 Lenses and prisms ................................................................. 104 ANSWERS ........................... 108 Colours of light ....................................................................... 106 Museums are full of marvels Surely once upon a time you collected something like stickers, minerals, stamps... Museums are centres with collections of objects (perhaps paintings or dinosaur skeletons) that they put on show so that people can learn from them and enjoy looking at them. Museums do lots of things: they look for pieces, restore them if they have been damaged, find out what they were used for and what period they come from, and once they know all that, put them on show in the museum. In the National Museum of Science and Technology you can take a stroll through the origins of science and technology and see, amongst other things, what instruments sailors used in the past so they didn’t get lost at sea, what the first television sets were like or how time was measured before there were digital clocks. The Dance of Apollo with the Muses, Giulio Romano (around 1540). The origin of the word museum is found in the Muses, nine Greek divinities who were daughters of Zeus and formed part of the entourage of the god Apollo and protected arts and sciences. One of the nine Muses, Urania, looked after astronomy and mathematics. She would have felt very at home here in the museum! fMain entrance of MUNCYT in Alcobendas 5 MUSEums ARE FULL OF marvels // how do the pieces get to the museum? Some of them are bought in auctions – just like there are auctions for paintings, there are also auctions for scientific instruments, or from individual sellers. Others are lent to us for a certain amount of time; this is what is called a loan. There are even people who generously donate them so that the whole world can enjoy their collection! Once the museum has acquired an object, it has to look after it so that it doesn’t deteriorate, so it has to conserve it or restore it if it is damaged. Restoring the racing car
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