APRIL – MAY 2018 Sparks!A Newsletter for Members and Friends of the Museum of Science Inside This Issue • What’s Up, Croc? • Cambridge Science Festival • Travel to Mars in 4-D Ruling Reptiles Revealed Come face-to-snout with crocs, gators, and more in immersive new temporary exhibit! illions of years ago, before humans existed and when dinosaurs roamed supreme, crocodilians (crocodiles, alligators, and more) flourished on this planet. But unlike the dinosaurs, Mcrocodilians are still thriving on land and in tropical waters. These awesome animals are much more than mindless man-eaters, as you’ll discover when you venture inside Crocs: Ancient Predators in a Modern World. This engaging exhibition showcases living species in their natural habitats, interactive experiences, and more—and it’s coming to the Museum May 20 for a limited time only! See it Live! To best learn about an animal, you really need to get up close, and you can do that with a range of species, including the African dwarf crocodile. This mysterious forest dweller spends much of the day hidden in burrows and emerges at night to search for food on land. Meet the broad-snouted caiman, a medium-sized crocodilian that can usually be found in South America’s dense marshes, swamps, and mangroves. Explore a re-creation of an American alligator’s water-edge nest that looks just like the one built by the mother-to-be with leaves and other debris. Also, see a full-scale model of a mother and a group of live hatchlings swimming and interacting in the adjacent pool. And take a rare opportunity to see a Siamese crocodile, a species from Southeast Asia that is among the most endangered in the world and a focus of conservation groups. Get into the Action! This immersive environment lets you imagine the world through the eyes of its crocodilian residents. Try your hand at several interactive components, including “Bring a Fossil to Life,” where you can assume the role of paleo-artist and create plausible 3-D animations of extinct crocodilian species (art skills not required). Find out in “The Social Gator” how croco- dilians lead rich social lives with communication via sight, sound, smell, and touch. You can even learn to “speak” their language with “Croc Talk.” Did you know that crocodilians Photos Courtesy of Joe McDonald have the strongest bite of any animal ever measured? Feel the might when you test your strength against their powerful bite in “Crunch Capacity.” Up for the crocodilian IQ challenge? You’ll uncover some impressive fun facts about these riveting reptiles! If you’ve ever wondered just how big the super-giant crocs of the past were, check out the 13-million-year-old jaws of a massive fish-eating crocodylomorph. You can also look at a preserved skeleton of the extinct insect-eating Hoplosuchus kayi and explore an animated world map showing where various species live. Put aside your fear factor to witness a life-sized model of Gomek, at 17 feet long and weighing nearly a ton the largest crocodile ever exhibited in the Western Hemisphere (and believed to be a man-eater)! And step inside the Conservation Theater to view short videos on conservationists who are working to save these elegant predators in the wild. We think you’ll agree that crocs are definitely ready for The Croc Doc their closeup. See all sides of these complex creatures Alligators and crocodiles are tough to tell apart, but there are some subtle differences. when you delve into the most comprehensive traveling Crocodiles exhibition ever mounted on the subject in Crocs: Ancient Alligators Predators in a Modern World, on exhibit May 20 – September 3 (members can see it first May 19!). Crocs: Ancient Predators in a Modern World was created by Peeling Productions at Clyde Peeling’s REPTILAND. Crocs have a pointed v-shaped Gators have a wider snout. u-shaped snout. Are you or is someone you know an educator? This exhibition would make an ideal school field trip! Crocs’ top and bottom teeth For more information: mos.org/educators. are visible when jaw is closed. Gators show no lower teeth when jaw is closed. Crocs Opens May 20 | Member Preview May 19 Photos © Ashley McCabe Bringing Science to the Masses Annual Cambridge Science Festival spotlights key Museum exhibits and programs. STEM-based fun activities and learning opportunities are Science of Running aplenty at the Museum of Science. And there will be even Get ready for the Boston Marathon® with special activities more offerings in April when the annual Cambridge Science and presentations scheduled before and during the festival on Festival returns with events occurring citywide, including Saturdays, April 7 and 14 and Sundays, April 8 and 15, from right here at Science Park! 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. Learn about human and animal locomo- tion, find out what it takes to train for the 26.2-mile race, see Get into the Action how the Boston Athletic Association tracks all those runners, Look through the Museum’s safe solar telescope to see the Sun and take a jog down the model racecourse! and possibly sunspots and solar flares when you participate in the daily Solar Lunch (weather permitting). Then go from Museum Favorites macro to micro in the Hands-On Laboratory and use the tools Astronomy After Hours returns Friday, April 13 and continues and techniques of real scientists. Plus, put your engineering weekly through November. See stars, planets, the Moon, skills to the test on Wednesday, April 18 with Catching the and more from the Gilliland Observatory. Every day you Wind, an activity from the Museum’s award-winning curriculum, can witness a Lightning! show in the Theater of Electricity Engineering is Elementary®. You’ll design a sail to push a boat (featuring a Cambridge invention, the Van de Graaff generator). along a trackway and see if you can make it go farther and faster! Plus, enjoy the Amazing Nano Brothers Juggling Show in Cahners Theater on Saturday, April 21. Be sure to visit A Mirror Maze: Meteorologist Meet-Up Numbers in Nature, which explains how mathematical patterns How do the professionals who give you the weather get and surround us every day, before it closes April 25. And stop by interpret their information? Learn their methods when you Wicked Smart: Invented in the Hub—an interactive experience meet meteorologists from WCVB StormTeam 5, who will focused on Greater Boston and Cambridge-based innovations. appear in the Gordon Current Science & Technology Center There are also events geared for the 18+ crowd in this year’s Tuesday – Thursday, April 17 – 19 at 12:30 p.m. festival, including SubSpace offering Fake Science with On Sunday, April 15 at 5:30 p.m., enjoy the free show ImprovBoston (see Sparks calendar for details). The Web of Life: From Aardvark to Zinnia featuring the North Most Museum events are free with Exhibit Halls admission. Cambridge Family Opera. The multigenerational group will For more information: mos.org/events. For a complete sing about diversity and be accompanied by a slideshow list of Cambridge Science Festival events: of song lyrics and children’s artwork. cambridgesciencefestival.org. Crocs Opens May 20 | Member Preview May 19 Cambridge Science Festival April 13 – 22 Take a Multisensory Trip to the Red Planet Become a space pioneer with our newest 4-D film! When visiting the Museum’s 4-D Theater, you enter a different realm with a powerful immersive experience that hits all your senses. In the newest addition to the theater, you’ll enter a new world with The Martian 4-D Experience®—joining an intrepid interstellar explorer on the beautiful, but dangerous, red planet in a condensed version of the popular feature film. Far from Home Journey out of this world and into space in The Martian 4-D Experience®! Academy Award® winner and Cambridge native Matt Damon stars as Mark Watney, a brave astronaut who must utilize his scientific ingenuity, wit, and spirit to overcome being stranded alone on Mars. As he battles the extremes of this hostile planet, his crewmates work tirelessly to plot a daring, if not impossible, rescue mission. Stellar 3-D projection and action-heightening special effects will have you rooting for the safe return of the lone Martian! More for the Senses This film is the latest of the Museum’s full-sensory offerings. There are more titles to enjoy, including the return of young visitor favorite Dora & Diego’s 4-D Adventure, the perfect complement to our related temporary exhibit. In Shark: A 4-D Experience®, explore the complex nature of these magnificent creatures’ survival instincts, and be sure to catch Scrat, the nut-crazed saber-toothed squirrel, as he time travels in his zaniest adventure to date in Ice Age: No Time For Nuts 4-D before it closes April 12. 4-D films run approximately 15 minutes. Timed tickets required. © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. © 2018 Viacom International Inc. All rights reserved. Nickelodeon and all related titles, logos and characters are trademarks of Viacom International Inc. The BBC and BBC Earth are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under license. BBC logo © BBC 1996 ICE AGE™ & © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Leave the Planet Again! The Martian 4-D Experience® is not your only chance to leave Earth via the Museum this year. Coming in June is a new temporary exhibition, Space: An Out-of-Gravity Experience. Through games, multimedia components, and interactive experiences, you’ll learn how astronauts eat, sleep, and even answer nature's call in space.