Dynamic Earth

We went to Our Dynamic Earth (ODE) here in Edinburgh. It’s a place that’s like our Birla Planetarium in India but more advanced in terms of its display, its interactive exhibits and its level of details. I had thought that this would be kind of boring since I wasn’t a science buff to begin with and to my embarrassment let me confess I thought evolution couldn’t be further detailed than what I already knew! :(

As I went in to ODE it truly felt like I was walking through different ages that our mother earth had been through only that while she took centuries to complete the journey I made it in less than two hours. :) The beginning of the display began with facts on population growth across the world, Volcano’s, earthquakes and other natural calamities which were astounding in not just its explanation of what it is but more of how these would continue to occur with greater frequency in coming times and why.

We first entered into an elevator that was termed as the time machine and while the operator introduced us to concept of us travelling through time to understand the formation of our earth, the sides of the elevator which were fitted with full size screens showed us the big bang. Our first stop was the ice age, how the Artic region formed, how each glacier is important and what happens when they melt. There was actual ice kept in the middle of the exhibit and it was formed in the shape of an ice berg.

Next stop was the volcanic region and the operator mentioned that volcanoes were both creators and destructors; it was sort of like listening to a mythology story. :) While we watched a volcanic eruption on the entire wall in front of us, the floor beneath us shook to emulate how it would be in real life. It was a lark for kids I am sure.

After that we went through Stone Age, where we saw the different dinosaur species, the sabre toothed tiger and of course the early man all done in bronze with detailed descriptions on how we evolved through that time. What was nice was that in between these exhibits there were interactive machines sort of like pin ball ones placed, which I guess were primarily meant for children, where the machine asked questions on how humans could help save the earth, or how water was formed or how forests need to be preserved? I, played them too. :)

We then moved on to the submarine where we were introduced to the sea, the species residing there, their life cycle, the amount of activity that happens near the water bed. There was even an exhibit with a Nike shoe, which told the story of how Nike had dumped a cargo of shoes in the middle of the sea and scientists decided to follow the shoes to see how far they would travel and to confirm the accuracy of their computer projections on sea speed. Turns out that the shoes travelled 2000 kms in a matter of a week or so. WHOAAAA

We then went into this space ship which took us through different biomes (weather conditions) across the globe, how the flora and fauna and the resident animal species had adapted and indeed formed in each biome. So we went right from North Pole to the South Pole, through the Antarctica to the Thar desert and saw polar bears to pine trees to camels to cactus’. It was amazing to sort of go back to our science classes. For e.g. our space ship captain explained how pine trees were cone in shape and grow in thick clusters to be able to survive the snow and when the snow melts its easier to drop off due to the shape.

The tropical forest followed then and that reminded me of home, coz all the species were ones we were familiar with, the smell was that of the soil when the first rain hits. Oh, that’s another thing, each exhibit had something that made it feel like it was closer to reality, either with smell or the temperature or like in the submarine area we walked through an inside of a submarine.

Our last stop and indeed I guess the best was the digital planetarium where we went through a 360 degree full dome film sort of like the one you do at Birla Planetarium. Here we were introduced to Who Astronomers are?, what do they do, why do we send satellites out, which are the famous and most lethal active satellites now, where are they launched from, the most powerful telescope in the world and so on. This film totally inspires you to become an astronaut and try to discover the secrets of the galaxy. It astounds you with facts like a satellite transmits terabytes of data on a single day!

It’s an amazing place I must say and truly one where Kids should be taken. For adults I think it sort of gives you a wake up call to say, there were many species that existed before you and then grew extinct Humans could be one of them if we aren’t too careful.

Mother Earth didn’t happen in one fine day we need to preserve it rather than destroy it.