The S.F. Exploratorium

 The San Francisco Exploratorium was created in the early 1970's by J. Robert Oppenheimer's brother.  I have had two experiences with the Exploratorium that I wish to mention. Both negative.
 
In the late 1970's I donated a Japanese Magic Mirror ( Makyoh) to the Exploatorium. I included translations of Japanese research journal reports on how the mirror worked.  The mirror casts an image on the wall (mine was a standing Shakyamuni Buddha) and it was in focus at any distance, reflecting sunlight.  The Japanese documents I provided reported on a microscopic study of the surface of the mirror and explained that it was an hologram created by trial and error.

I had taken the mirror to a traditional Kyoto craftsman to be polished.  He had spent about an hour, while I watched him, polishing the mercury surface with pear oil and a cloth.

The Exploratorium lost the mirror, when I checked about a year after donating it.  It had cost me about $600 and today would be worth about $6,500 with inflation and the changing value of the yen.

About the same time I made a proposal to the Exploratorium to create a device to measure earth tides.  The same tides that flow around the world twice a day, created by the earth-moon interaction, are visible on the oceans because they can average +/- 3 feet around the mean. On large land surfaces they only measure +/- one foot and are not visible.

The land tidal wave device I proposed was a laser set up 8 miles away from the Exploratorium that was focused on a mirror that reflected inside a dark chamber in the Exploratorium and recorded the wave motion on a photo sensitive paper. 

The staff had no interest in the idea.  To this day I've never seen any device that shows people the land wave that travels under our feet and our houses twice a day.

Consistent with the low level of scientific competence and integrity of the Exploratorium, the current exhibits have plenty about the non-existent man made global warming hysteria. But the Exploratorium doesn't understand that it is hysteria.

Comments

[M. Phillips]

Jen,

You are suggesting from your series of good and appropriate questions that I was a stupid idiot in my dealings with the Exploratorium.

You are flat out right.

My dealings should have been directly with Oppenheimer and I should never have given them the gift without their agreement to make use of it.

[Jen]

so, was there a grant proposal and funding that came along with your suggested exhibit? Because as many people know, the Exploratorium along with many other non-profits don't have money to build exhibits, and require grants and donations to build and maintain their exhibits... Also, what themed area in the museum would such an exhibit go into? I really am interested in seeing an exhibit like that, but realistically, it needs to tie into a bigger picture. The exploratorium has subject areas and themes, the only exhibits that are not a part of a grouping are artist pieces. Would/could this piece be categorized as such? Would you build it, or would they build it? Are there available resources for funding this? Also, I'm sorry your mirror was lost, but once an item is given, it is up to the recipient wether it gets used, or sold, or given to someone else, etc. if they didn't want to use it in an exhibit, then I could see it being lost in the abyss. One man's garbage is another man's treasure right? and the opposite is true.... One man's treasure is another man's garbage. Perhaps whomever was responsible for the mirror was not as impressed with it as you obviously were, in which case you should not donate things for which you care what the use or non-use is, or wether they have it a year from now, etc...

[Scott]

I'm afraid you are asking for too much. You're hoping that education in American can be non-moral. I agree that if we could take the moral message out of every exhibit it would be an improvement. But stuff for kids must be moral in America, it is the law.
Just a note, the Exploratorium has an exhibit on the morality of looking into the body. On exhibit is an anatomy book with pictures produced by Nazi doctors.
I suspect the competency issue stems from the educational "mission."