Discovery Museum

We had further arthropod contact on Sunday; we went to the Discovery Museum, and they were hosting the UC Davis entomology department's display of live bugs. They had hissing cockraoches, walking sticks (the kind that look a little more like twigs with leaves), scorpions, spiders, and a live termite colony that had been collected from a redwood in Golden gate Park 12 years ago! They've kept it alive in a big petri dish all this time.

They also had a pretty good collection of pinned bugs on display, including some cases with just California species.

We saw some live amphibians, like this monster; and some tortoises and turtles, both inside and out at the pond.

We also played in the space display and caught the planetarium show:



The Discovery Museum is pretty small; they do a good job with what they have. It's nice to be able to take a quick trip locally and experience some decent science! We timed it so we would be there for the live animal discussion and display, the entomology exhibit, and the planetarium show; otherwise it would be hard to justify the cost of admittance.

They do have an interesting program occasionally available, their simulated space launch. It's conducted in a large simulated mission control center with 15 or 16 people assuming different roles during the simulated launch. Adon's interested; we may send him to it a little later in October or to the one in November. Check it out here.