The Challenge of Exhibiting Contemporary
Science
Carol Bossert and Robert "Mac" West
Creating exhibitions around abstract science--especially current scientific research in such areas as nanotechnology, neuroscience, and biotechnology--is particularly challenging, and somewhat risky, for science centers and museums. Yet, these challenges and risks are being undertaken by science centers and museums to maintain their positions within the public's minds as sources about latest scientific discoveries and relevant social issues.
Ten years ago, we saw a number of museums and science centers take up this challenge by creating exhibitions about biotechnology. These "DNA Helix" exhibits varied in content complexity and communication success. Yet some have endured to become permanent icons within their institutions, right next to the dinosaurs and electricity demonstrations. Recently, a new crop of biotechnology exhibits have been developed or are on the drawing boards spurred by the complete sequencing of the human genome. The Pacific Science Center, Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, Clear Channel Communications-Exhibits (formerly BBH), the Science Museum, London, and the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden all have developed or are preparing exhibitions on aspects of applied genetics and bioengineering. Here are reviews of three of these exhibitions we have experienced.
The Genomic Revolution
The first traveling exhibition on the topic to appear in North America is The Genomic Revolution, currently on exhibit at the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences.
Designed by the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the 7,000 square foot exhibition has a distinctive high tech and "edgy" feel. A large LCD board with scrolling news headlines related to the human genome project greets you as you enter the exhibit, to underscore the fact that this research, this technology, affects our lives on a daily basis. The quintessential DNA ladder has been replaced by an interactive video projection artwork, commissioned especially for this exhibition. The four colors on the projection screen represent the four bases of the DNA molecule. As you move your body in front of the projection screen, the colored dots rearrange themselves into a pattern that is uniquely you, a fitting metaphor for how these four chemicals, present in every living thing, can be arranged in so many ways as to account for our unique differences.
The exhibition includes a small theater with a short video presentation that presents the highlights of the exhibition in a linear fashion. It also includes a working student laboratory (figure 1) that accommodates up to 25 students. In this laboratory students can spool DNA and undertake other DNA manipulation activities using protocols developed by the DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Figure 1. Student lab in The Genomic Revolution
The formal exhibition is divided into several sections:
Our Genetic Identity describes the seemingly age-old question of whether we are ruled by our genes or our environment. While research has not provided the definitive answer, the human genome project has identified a number of genes such as the ACE gene, or endurance gene, whose presence may make some people more capable of running long distance marathons.
Our Genome uses video capture technology to put you, the visitor, into the exhibit. A video camera captures and displays your image next to an image of another human being or other living plant or animal as it illustrates the percentage similarity between your DNA and the other living thing (figure 2). For instance, our DNA shares only 23% similarity with beer-brewing yeast, but 98% similarity with chimpanzees. This may help explain why chimps as well as humans are susceptible to the some of the same diseases such as Ebola virus. Within the human population, our unique DNA represents less than 0.1% of our entire DNA. That means that for the most part we as humans are 99.9% alike.
Figure 2. Visitors learn how much all living things have in common when
it comes to DNA
A series of text panels and videos illustrates the basic vocabulary of biotechnology progressing from the "macro" to the "micro" level: starting at the visible trait such of eye color, zooming in to the responsible gene, and again in to the section of DNA that includes the gene.
Choosing Our Genes/Shaping Our Genes discusses the health impact of the human genome project including the ability to test for known genetic abnormalities such as Huntington's Disease, phenylketonuria (PKU) and Canavan disease; the ability to genetically enhance one's offspring and the availability of specific gene therapies including those developed from embryonic stem cells. Each case study is illustrated by a video of real people facing real situations related to these issues.
Shaping Our World illustrates how the technology used to sequence and sort the human genome is now being applied to the study and preservation of endangered species (figure 3) as well as agricultural and breeding programs that are creating crops that are resistant to disease and draught and more nutritious.
Figure 3. A display relates cloning and other techniques to preservation
of biodiversity
A large column of video screens (figure 4) showcases a series of interviews with scientists, ethicists, industrial leaders, and even detractors of biotechnology. This program literally gives voice to the issues surrounding the impact of the human genome project.
Figure 4. The Genomic Revolution replaces the standard DNA ladder
with a tower of video
Polling Stations. Along the way, visitors may register their opinions into an electronic database about various questions in biotechnology. Asked whether they would approve of using genetic testing to determine whether their unborn child would be born with a life-threatening disease, visitors then learn what percentage of visitors to the exhibition voted the way they did. This same information is also available on the AMNH web site (http://www.amnh.org) and is tied to a broader Harris poll.
As a state museum, the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences does not charge an entrance fee, but they do charge for this special exhibition ($6.50 adult; $4.50 child). But this exhibition has done more for the museum than generate revenue. Museum Director Dr. Betsy Bennett says that having this exhibition at the museum has brought new corporate funding to the institution, most noticeably from the biotech companies in the Research Triangle area. In fact, the exhibition is sponsored by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and other North Carolina businesses and academic leaders in genomics and bioinformatics. According to Dr. Bennett, this is the first time that many of these companies viewed the Museum as a relevant institution. Hopefully this is only the beginning of a lasting dialogue with this funding sector. The exhibition also gave the museum an opportunity to organize a public forum to bring together scientists, educators, ethicists and the general public to discuss these issues.
We liked the exhibition. One of us (Carol) has a relatively jaded eye when it comes to biotech exhibits, having done her graduate work in this field back in the day when cloning and sequencing were anything but routine.
It is not as interactive as many science center exhibits and the target audience was clearly upper middle school and above. We would have liked to see the lab in use and we both question how much of the expensive equipment including a PCR machine and automated sequencing machine was really used. The exhibition does not flinch at the controversial nature of genomics and their applications. Rather it hits subjects such as cloning, stem cell research and genetic testing head on, using real people to illustrate how this research affects lives. The result is basically a balanced presentation of the issues surrounding biotechnology and the "genomics revolution." But perhaps most interesting is the fact that what played well in New York can play well in other parts of the country. So far, North Carolina's experience has not only been positive in terms of public support of this exhibition, but in showing how exhibitions about current research topics can help cultivate new funders.
This exhibition will remain at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences through September 2, 2002. For more information visit the museum's web site at http://www.naturalsciences.org. The American Museum of Natural History also offers an on-line activity about genetics for children at http://www.ology.amnh.org.
Genetics: Decoding Life
The first of a presumed new wave of permanent exhibitions on genetics opened at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry in January. Genetics: Decoding Life is a 7,000 square foot show occupying prime space adjacent to the museum's first-floor atrium.
While designed in a clearly high-tech style, it is brighter and more generally inviting than The Genomic Revolution. It also has a broader focus, with a clear intent to relate human genetics to animal and plant genetics. Like The Genomic Revolution, Genetics: Decoding Life offers visitors several opportunities to express their opinions about current events - and possibilities for the future - and then see how their attitudes compare with those of prior visitors (figure 5).
Figure 5. You Decide Station in Genetics: Decoding Life
Project Director Barry Aprison says that the exhibition is designed to help people make sense out of the information on genetics that is bombarding them with increasing intensity. The exhibition strategy is to bring the visitors in on the ground floor of genetics, show the connections and similarities among all living things, and then relate this to the rapidly-increasing ability to manipulate life (for better or worse). "Then when they see about or hear about things on the news, perhaps they'll follow up and be more interested in learning more about some of the tough issues that surround the science."
After a general introduction to basic genetics, the exhibition is divided into five units which may be experienced in numerous sequences, unlike the linear presentation of The Genomic Revolution. They are: Genetic Engineering, Human Genome, Development, Mutations and Variations, and Cloning.
Mutations and Variations features fruit fly genetics and evidence of the fundamental similarities in the genetic makeup of all living things. Live normal and mutant fruit flies are viewed under a microscope connected to flat screen video monitors that allow groups of visitors to see flies with red or white eyes; normal or curly wings. The poll here has to do with the existence of DNA databases and the ethical and privacy issues surrounding them. The Iris Garden is a place where visitors can take a picture of their own eyes and add their unique iris images to others colorfully displayed on a multi-screen wall display.
Development is several different examples of how the genetic makeup of organisms determines how a fertilized egg divides and differentiates into a new living organism. It features DEVELOPING fish and nematode worms viewed under microscopes connected to flat repeater screen monitors. Two interactives are major parts of this. The famous one is the all-time MSI favorite Chick Hatchery, which has been redesigned to have a sound system so visitors can hear animals in both chambers (i.e., newly hatched and 1-3 day old animals). The other one is the "virtual human embryo" interactive that cues visitors to push buttons representing chromosomes (i.e., genes) to promote sequential images of developing human embryos to appear on a nearby wall. This unit is the most problematic part of the exhibition; it continues to have remedial work on it to make it better. Selinda Research Associates currently is evaluating it
Figure 6. Chick hatchery
Cloning includes one of the highlights of the exhibition - cloned mice obtained by MSI from a research laboratory at the University of Hawaii. A simple interactive station enables visitors to attempt to make a virtual clone by extracting a nucleus from one cell and inserting it into an egg cell. The rate at which cloning technology is progressing is indicated by a graphic which asks which domesticated animals have been cloned. Just a few months after the exhibition opened, "cat" had to be added because of the announcement of the successful cloning of a kitten.
Figure 7. Cloned mice
Genetic Engineering moves visitors from the basic components of understanding how genetics works to real-world applications. An exhibit of live frogs includes animals whose eyes have been engineered to glow in order to allow scientists to learn about eye development. A second living exhibition is of bioengineered potato plants (Figure 8) that are now resistant to attack by beetles. there is an interactive to genetically engineer virtual potato plants. The poll asks visitors to reflect on the ethical implications of manipulating individual humans before birth and the issues surrounding bioengineered crops.
Figure 8. Beetle-resistant potato plants
The Human Genome area is at the physical center of the exhibition. Visitors can fly through a virtual rendering of the human genome and explore the DNA code, composed of four nucleotides (A, T, C, and G). Genes composed of these chemicals, such as the one involved in cystic fibrosis, can be "landed on" to explore. There is also a glimpse into the future of medicine which might use individual genetic makeups to tailor medical treatments.
The Museum of Science and Industry, as a way to significantly extend the impact of Genetics: Decoding Life, sponsored a three-part series of symposia titled "Innovations in Genetic Science." Held both at the museum and at the downtown Chicago Cultural Center, these symposia examined both scientific and ethical aspects of the genetics revolution. They included very prominent speakers and panelists includingDr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health
- Dr. Mary-Claire King, Professor of Genetics at the University of Washington
- Rabbi Byron Sherwin of the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
- Dr. Norman Frost, Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Ethics at the University of Wisconsin
- Dr. James Gavin, Senior Scientific Officer of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Dr. Marian Gray Secundy, Director of the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee University
- Dr. William A. Haseltine, Chairman and CEO of Human Genome Sciences, Inc.
- Dr. Rex Chisholm, Director of the Center for Genetic Medicine at the Northwestern University Medical School
- Dr. Jeremy Sugarman, Director of the Center for the Study of Medical Ethics and Humanities at the Duke University Medical Center
- Father Kevin Fitzgerald, Chair of Catholic Healthcare Ethics for Clinical Bioethics
- Dr. David Lauler, Associate Professor, Department. of Oncology, Georgetown University Medical Center.
Among the positive outcomes of the development of Genetics: Decoding Life, were the establishment of a Howard Hughes Medical Foundation-sponsored student learning laboratory program, daily genetics demonstrations for visitors in the exhibit, a partnership with the Lincoln Park Zoo for the oversight of animal quarters and care, and a solid set of partnerships with researchers and physicians at the nearby University of Chicago.
Carol Bossert is principal of
CB Services. She can be reached at bossert@erols.com.
Robert "Mac" West is co-editor and publisher of The
Informal Learning Review.