William: How to capture and
convey the wonder of science and
the natural world?
Especially at a time when the
public teaching of science is
again being fought over?
The largest museum of natural
history in America just expanded
its reach and Jeffrey brown got
an advance tour for our arts and
culture series, canvas.
>> We are looking for places for
people to make connections to
things, collections.
Jeffrey: A preopening walk
with
architect Jeanne gang, to see
the new building she designed as
an expansion of the American
museum of natural history in new
York.
>> It feels like an organic
space.
But it's, people have felt
different things about it, like
a canyon, a cave, a grotto, you
know, bones.
People have told me all kinds of
different natural things.
Jeffrey: You're ok with that?
>> Oh yeah.
Jeffrey: Everywhere you look,
especially in the five story
atrium soft curves and shapes,
, with outside light pouring in.
Gang and the team at her
chicago-based architectural
firm, studio gang, were inspired
by natural landscapes, but tied
to a specific urban setting.
>> The leap was we need to do
something that is about
connections, flow, curiosity,
discovery.
And so those were things that
led us to creating a porous
structure with lots of openings,
lots of connections, almost like
a landscape where you would be
curious to go explore little
crevices and niches and go
through openings.
Jeffrey: The museum, one of the
largest natural history museums
in the world, with some 5
million visitors a year, has
been a place of discovery for a
long time now.
Known for its lifelike dioramas
still fascinating young
children.
Its enormous dinosaurs and blue
whale, the hall of gems,
planetarium and much more.
And yes, this is where Ben
stiller spent a memorable ´night
at the museum' in the 2006 film.
>> It doesn't even look real.
Jeffrey: But it's also a major
research and education institute
and the new gilder center for
science, education and
innovation, a $431 million
expansion, offers or space for
that as well.
A chance for visitors to see
more of the vast collection, and
the curators and researchers
working within it, as here among
jars of different fish species.
>> It is the kind of experience
Sean Decatur, a biochemist,
former head of Kenyon college,
and now president of this
historic museum knows firsthand.
>> I participated in afterschool
and summer camp programs at the
natural history museum in
Cleveland where I grew up, and
my mother signed me up to every
possible program while I was
young, growing up.
That's a place where I not only
had my curiosity piqued, but I
also began to meet scientists
and to learn about scientific
thinking, what the scientific
process is like.
And I think that's something
that this museum does very well
on many levels.
Jeffrey: Now a museum known for
going big highlights the small,
with a live insectarium, for
encounters with the planet's
most diverse group of animals.
And a butterfly the very him --
vivarium, to learn about life
cycles and different species or
to simply flutter about and
enjoy.
>> This is a digitized human
brain.
Jeffrey: The connectedness of
all life is the theme of the
immersive invisible worlds
experience.
And the critical task for a
museum like this, says Vivian
trakinski, is how to make ´life'
come alive.
Her title, director of science
visualization.
>> The key is, what do we know?
Starts with the science.
And then I think you have to
think about the public.
What do they know?
What are pathways to engage them
in the different topics that
you're trying to communicate?
So, between the science and
public interest, you find an
area that is so ripe for
creativity and different ways to
communicate different topics to
different audiences.
Jeffrey: That makes this a prime
place to see an evolution in how
we visualize natural history and
science, with dioramas and
digitization both transporting
people to largely inaccessible
places, in different ways.
>> And it doesn't make the
dioramas any less beautiful or
any less relevant.
If anything, I feel like it
gives them a fresh feeling, an
update.
Because when you walk into that
digital theater and you see
those curved walls with the
landscapes projected on them,
you're reminded of the dioramas.
It's a digital diorama.
It is an echo of what the museum
has been creating for more than
100, 150 years.
Jeffrey: Cool stuff, for sure.
But science today is a
hot-button cultural and
political arena.
Think of battles over vaccine
mandates and climate change
policy.
Incoming museum president Sean
Decatur approaches this as the
educator he's been his entire
professional life.
>> When we see reports out there
of mistrust and lack of
confidence in science, you know,
I believe the root cause of that
is a lack of understanding of
the scientific process itself.
Jeffrey: You mean how science
works, how scientists do?
>> Exactly.
Science needs to be accessible
to everyone.
We need to be very attentive
about science education and
scientific ideas.
If we don't do that, we risk
losing a lot of talent, of who
will hopefully help us to solve
many of the problems that we're
facing down the road.
But we'll also have real
challenges in terms of
policy-making and
decision-making broadly.
Jeffrey: The larger disputes
over science and the natural
world also gave architect Jeanne
gang a different sense of
urgency with this project.
>> It elevated the crisis, if
you will.
And it made me think that
besides just presenting the
facts, we have to feel the
wonder, let's say, of nature.
Because it's also an emotional
thing.
That's why I think art and
science can work well together.
Because we need the facts, but
we also need to see the beauty
of it.
Jeffrey: That includes the
architect herself, who couldn't
help cast her eyes around the
new library she'd designed for
the gilder center.
I noticed you look that way.
And you liked it?
>> Yeah.
I was noticing how the light is
working on the outside surface,
but how the portal allows you to
see beyond.
Jeffrey: It is working for you?
>> Yes.
Jeffrey: You are happy?
>> Yes, I want to go over and
explore it right now.
Jeffrey: That of course is what
everyone involved here hopes
future visitors will feel, as
well.
For the pbs newshour, I'm
Jeffrey brown at the American