The Visit and Learning in California Science Center

The Visit and Learning in California Science Center

       Last Tuesday I went to visit the California Science Center, and this was a wonderful trip that impressed me very much. The Science Center is a great building with a total of three floors, and the exhibitions and galleries cover many aspects of physics including eco-system, world of life and the fields of air, water and space. During my visit here I have obtained a lot of new knowledge about our world, and the most attractive sectors to me are the air and space zone and the World of Life, especially the exploration of mankind about the space travel.

       This was my first time of visiting the California Science Center, and when I stepped into the lounge of the building, I was amazed by the transparent dome and the special decorations in the building. According to the introduction that I found online in advance, visitors can actually see the spectrum of sunlight from the dome, and the color of the shadow on the floor would change with time because the position of sun is changing in a day. Along the way down to the center of this building, visitors can take the escalator directly to the second floor. The first zone I visited was the World of Life, and this zone contains of several sectors such as the Life Tunnel and the Cell Theater. By viewing the vivid displays of cells, bacteria and viruses, I understood the tiny parts that make up the human body as well as the specific functions of these small pieces.

An interesting setting I noticed is a simulating operating room, in which lies a model of human body. By selecting a specific part of the human body, visitors can see the internal construction of our body. This is a direct guidance to the life science, and it also teaches visitors about the operating process. The most important and impressive exhibition in the World of Life is the Body Works Tess. This is a giant model of human body that uses multimedia demonstration method to show how different sectors of human body would active with each other to form the body movement. Specifically, a smaller cartoon character named Walt cooperates with the giant model named Tess, and they demonstrate to tell visitors how to manage human body and maintain homeostasis. The entire demonstration process is about 15 minutes, and the whole period of performing contains of amazing moments. The giant model Tess is about fifty feet long, and his head can rotate with eyelids open or closed. In terms of the details, the facial muscles of Tess are also able to make activities, and the internal organs are bare that we can see the heart beats of Tess. At the same time, the right leg of Tess is also flexed, and the internal structure of this leg is naked for visitors to observe the blood vessels and the movement of nerves. When the left arm of Tess is raised up, the most spectacular moment shows the whole process of body function.

Before I came to visit the California Science Center, I thought that the life science is mainly about biology and medical perspectives. However, the great demonstration of Tess taught me that all the functions of human body are realized on the basis of physics theories. To be specific, a tiny movement of finger is carried out by the joint movement of nerves, bones and muscles. This process requires energy that created by muscles to form the kinetic energy. At the same time, blood is the major carrier of energy and the transmitter of biological matters. As a result, when the human body has made too many movements, the energy would transform into other forms, leading to the changes of the matters carried by blood. Generally, the movement of muscles would make lactic acid, and this is the material that makes us feel ache.

After visiting the World of Life, I went to see the most attractive zone of air and space on the second floor. The science of outer space has always been my favorite, and I had heard that the famous space shuttle Endeavour is reserved in the California Science Center. In the exploration process of space, human society has made a lot of efforts and even sacrifices to achieve the science development. The exhibition shows a series of the devices about space travel as well as the stories behind these important stages.

Disaster and renewal are the most touching sector. The most famous tragedy that memorized by entire human society is the launch of space shuttle Challenger. However, 73 seconds after the liftoff, this experienced shuttle violently broke into parts in the sky, and all the crew on board were killed in this accident. In the exhibition I stared at the picture of the crew for moments, and it felt so real that they were all laughing in the moment and no one would respect the following disaster. However, due to the sacrifice of these brave pioneers, we had been acknowledged of the safety issue about space travel as well as the experience to improve the technology. Just like the words printed below the picture that, we remember and honor the crew of Challenger STS-51L and their commitment to space exploration and education. It is our hope that Endeavour, built to replace Challenger, will further the astronauts’ mission to educate, inspire and explore for generations to come.

In fact, during the process of space exploration, human society has made more than one mistake, and numbers of failures had encouraged and taught us to be more advanced in this field. According to the information provided in the exhibition, mission failures are important sources that help engineers and managers to learn from the mistakes and then make changes to improve the space program. In general, we can conclude two major reasons from the disaster of Challenger. The first one is the technical issue, and the space environment is such a complex one that requires elaborate and cautious examination of technologies. Secondly, management decisions also led to the misunderstanding of potential risks. Considering the fact that Challenger had obtained 24 successful missions, the engineers and managers should have not made the serious mistakes. However, the ignorance and carelessness finally led to the tragedy.

As to the specific physics theories and corresponding equipment of space exploration, there are several important perspectives. With the special air conditions in the outer space, the space shuttles have to deal with a lot of pressure. The information board tells me that the weathered temperature changes of space shuttles can achieve up to 170 Fahrenheit degree with a drop in altitude of over 200 miles in less than an hour. In this sense, all the equipment and devices in the shuttles have to face the dramatic air pressure. Especially in the landing process, the tires of shuttles are key parts that decide whether the launching would be successful at last. In order to guarantee the safety and strength of tires, scientists have thought up the solution to fill the tires with nitrogen. Nitrogen is made up of 21% oxygen, and it also resists fire. Due to the bigger molecules, Nitrogen is able to leak out slowly. This fantastic solution reminds me that physics is never a single science, and it has to work with other fields such as chemistry and materials science in any industry.

The rigorous scientific attitude is never a useless thing to the space travel career, and I was impressed by the details about tires tests of NASA. In order to make sure the technology of shuttle tires is reliable and secure, the NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base has made over 150 shuttle tire testing missions. And the scientists there found out that the final space shuttle tires could deal with a landing speed of up to 250 miles an hour. This is such an amazing number that even the tires are super powerful than any other devices we use in our daily life.

(The Fuel Cell Power Plant Used on Endeavour)

In addition to the tires, power plants are also important to provide sufficient energy for space shuttles to pass through the thick atmosphere. There is a real part of power plant shown in the exhibition, and visitors can get close observation on it. That is a fuel cell that generates electricity from chemical reactions, and the basic materials contained are hydrogen and oxygen. As a result, the fuel of space shuttles is a clean energy, leaving only water and heat to the environment in outer space. For example, the fuel cell power plant used on Endeavour has produced seven kilowatts maximum continuous power, and this amount is enough to power 11560-watt light bulbs at a time. What’s more, an interesting detail I noticed was the recycling of leftovers. Due to the special conditions in the space, astronauts would find it difficult to find drinkable water. And the smart design of fuel cell just generates clean water. In this sense, the simple chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen is a case of killing two birds with one stone. In addition, the orbiters could also leave extra water from the fuel cells to supply the International Space Station, further playing a useful role in the process of space travel.