“COLOR” is a Must See at The Discovery Science Place

A collection of exhibits explore the Science and Art of Seeing Light

Illuminating insights into the complex process of interpreting our world though our eyes, our brains and our own subjectivity are presented in Color: The Science & Art of Seeing Light – an exhibition that provides insight to how the eye and brain function together and determines what we see – or think we see. With a over a dozen individual exhibits, Discovery Science Place unveils a hands-on experience that moves from the physical realities of the eye to the surprises (an unreliability) of visual perception.

Guests of Discovery Science Place will have the opportunity to learn that our eyes, even in the initial stages of vision, are not just passive cameras. 

Exhibits like as Aurora shows how reflections are created by both the shape of the light and the shape of the reflector. The many-colored tiles of the exhibit allow visitors to experiment with both the shape and color of the reflections.

Corpuscles of the Eye deal with the anatomical and physiological features of the light-sensing organ while allowing you to see your own retina in from of you and see the red blood cells that are nourishing the eye.

Bridge Light lets visitors make interference patterns out of thin air. The light source is a sodiumvapor lamp and produces apure yellow light of similar wavelengths, making visible the interference patternsthatarenot visible in white light, with its mixture of different wavelengths. The exhibit also illustrates absorptionand reflection. Several brightly colored cards look dull under the sodium light, but appear in full color under white light.

At Light Island, visitors can play and experiment with various aspects of optics. From a light source in the center of the table, beams of white, red, green and blue light created by color filters, radiate out onto the table. Mirrors, lenses, prisms and filters can be placed in the path of these beams to reflect, bend or mix the light in many ways. The experience is fun for all ages.

The exhibits that make up Color: The Science & Art of Seeing Light originated at the Exploratorium, San Francisco, the prototype for hands-on science museums around the world. They come to Discovery Science Place through TexNET, a Texas based museum network for exhibit-based learning and teaching.  TexNET partners the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History and the Exploratorium with three smaller science museums that have strong connections to rural and Spanish-speaking populations in Texas—Discovery Science Place in Tyler, Imaginarium of South Texas in Laredo, and Science Spectrum in Lubbock. Funding for TexNET is provided through the National Science Foundation.

Color: The Science & Art of Seeing Light will be open at Discovery Science Place through August 2009. Exhibit hours are Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Museum admission is $6 per person; children 2 and under are free. Seniors and military families receive a discount.

Recently named as one of the Top 25 Science Centers in the nation by Parents magazine, Discovery Science Place is a non-profit, hands-on learning environment whose purpose is to open young minds to science, technology, math and cultures in order to meet the challenges of our times.  Located at 308 N. Broadway in downtown Tyler, it is supported by grants, donations, admissions, memberships and special events. For more informatio about the exhibits available at Discovery Science Place , call (903) 533-8011.