What do hybrid corn, the Richter scale, the discovery that the universe is expanding, and the real Indiana Jones have in common? The Carnegie Institution of Washington.
As it turns one hundred years old, Carnegie remains one of the best-kept secrets in Washington. To commemorate this landmark birthday, it is opening its historic 16th Street building to the public with the exhibition, Our Expanding Universe: Celebrating a Century of Carnegie Science.
A dramatic display of artifacts, photos, documents and historic expedition footage -- designed by Threshold Studio of Alexandria, Virginia -- makes Our Expanding Universe an exhibition to remember.
Carnegie researchers have been responsible for some of the most extraordinary scientific discoveries of the past century. A few of the fascinating people featured in the exhibition include astronomer Edwin Hubble, who discovered that the universe is expanding; aviator Charles Lindbergh, who made the first-ever aerial archeological survey at Carnegie’s Mayan sites and later became a Carnegie trustee; Charles Richter, creator of the earthquake-measuring Richter scale; Vannevar Bush, Carnegie president who directed the science effort for World War II -- including the Manhattan Project -- from Carnegie’s 16th Street building; archeologist Earl Morris, the inspiration for the movie character Indiana Jones; geneticists and Nobel laureates Barbara McClintock, who found that genes can jump between chromosomes, and Alfred Hershey, who determined that DNA is our genetic material, and George Ellery Hale, who built the largest telescopes of their day at Carnegie’s Mt. Wilson Observatory.
“Even those of us in the Carnegie family were surprised by some of the stories about the institution that were uncovered by our exhibition staff,” says Carnegie president Maxine Singer.
Visitors will also experience some of the science at Carnegie today -- from investigating the large-scale structure of the universe, the nature of dark matter and the characteristics of extrasolar planets to studying genes that could lead to plants that grow in the dark and animals that regenerate parts of their bodies.
Our Expanding Universe will be open free to the public from December 7, 2001, to May 31, 2002. The hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, with extended hours to 8 p.m. on Thursdays.
The exhibition is closed Mondays and holidays. The Carnegie Institution is located 3 blocks east of the Dupont Circle Metro stop at 16th and P Streets, NW.
Related website:
The Carnegie Institution
[Contact: Tina McDowell]
27-Nov-2001
