Today marks our trip to Philadelphia to visit the the Science History Institute and the Mütter Museum.
For the first stop of the day, we visited the Science History Institute. After waiting for 30 minutes (due to an early arrival), our tour guide Laura showed us different exhibits that connect science with cultural and historical elements (pictured below).
Some examples of such exhibits include:
- poisonous colors and synthetic dyes
- research on diseases such as Sickle Cell disease
- climate change and how it affects surrounding towns and villages
- movement for treatments in HIV/AIDS in the chemistry field (and the bias surrounding it)
- the process and push for change regarding the scientific names of elements
Along with that, we also saw and used an interactive table in which you placed objects and would see what their significance in history was — who knew that corn was initially bred to be a pesticide?
For lunch, we took a brisk walk to The Bourse to feast on many varieties of delicious foods such as hoagies, quesadillas, burgers, cheesesteaks, and much more!
After lunch, we arrived at the second place on the agenda: the Mütter Museum. Our tour guide Sheldon greeted us, and after a brief showcasing of their exhibit “Unhoused: Personal Stories and Public Health,” we were brought into a room full of different kinds of specimens. He started by showing us “The Soap Lady,” a unique mummified corpse.
He then allowed us to do a gallery walk through the museum to see their skull collection, Albert Einstein’s brain, conjoined twins, and many more interesting biological exhibits. When Sheldon concluded our tour, we could walk around and explore other parts of the museum such as the garden or the mural of signs from homeless people who are forced to beg (pictured below). After, we took a quick (and expensive) trip to the gift shop where people could buy memorabilia to remember their trip! Unfortunately, pictures of the specimens and exhibits inside the building were not allowed, and thus we have no photos to show you of the actual specimens.
We thank Ms. Tate and Ms. Slocum for taking us to these museums, because it was a fun and rewarding experience for all of us!
