News Releases

Area Students Join Sun Powered Race

Ready? Set? Go. Area middle school students are in a race with a twist. Competing teams use solar power to send their cars down a 20-meter track to the finish line. The students also compete in a design competition. Whose car is the best designed? Which car goes the fastest? Find out at the Junior Solar Sprint on Saturday, May 31.  Team registration begins at 10:00 am. The race starts at 11:45 am. Full News Release (PDF 17kB)

May LiveSky Features Mercury

Ancient Sumerians called it the Jumping Planet. You know it better by the name the ancient Romans used — Mercury. Discover the latest discoveries about this smallest planet in the solar system. Find out how to spot Mercury this month just after sunset. It’s all at the interactive planetarium show LiveSky at the Science Museum of Virginia, Friday, May 16, at 6 p.m. Full News Release

National Astronomy Day

Get an up-close and personal look at the sun — without injuring your eyes. Build a rocket and watch it blast off. Walk from Earth to the moon. Explore an invisible universe. Make a scale model solar system. Tour the current night sky. It’s all at National Astronomy Day at the Science Museum of Virginia Saturday, May 10, 10:00 am–4:00 pm. Come back in the evening for a special Sky Watch 8:30 pm–10:00 pm. Full News Release (PDF 20kB)

Lunch Break Science for May and June

Do fish grow on trees? What’s new on the Appalachian Trail? Discover how to restore oysters. It’s all at the Lunch Break Science at the Science Museum of Virginia on Wednesdays, May 7–June 25, noon–1:00 pm. Full News Release (PDF 17kB)

Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk

Journey deep into the Grand Canyon. Ride wild Colorado River rapids — without getting wet. Join two environmental activists and their daughters on an adventure of a lifetime. Add to the mix the first Native American National Park ranger and river guide. And tackle the global water crisis. It’s all in the giant screen film Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk featured in the Science Museum of Virginia’s Ethyl IMAX® DOME May 3–September 5 2008.

Science Saturdays for May

Tour a house that depends on the sun for power. Learn how to ride a Segway. Take your blood pressure. It’s all at Science Saturdays at the Science Museum of Virginia, Saturdays May 3–31, noon–4:00 pm. Full News Release (PDF 18kB)

Celebrate Earth Day

Pan for treasure. Dig for a dinosaur. Create a beach-in-a-bottle. Help a volcano erupt. Build a filtration system to clean up dirty water. Make your own scented bath sea salts. It’s all at Streaming Chemistry for Earth Day at the Science Museum of Virginia, Saturday, April 26, 11:00 am–3:00 pm. Full News Release (PDF 17kB)

Science Games

Ready. Aim. Fire. Load a ball covered with rubber filaments into a giant slingshot and let it fly. Run a relay race with a twist. Fly a paper airplane you have designed to see if yours can stay in the air the longest. It’s all at the Science Museum of Virginia’s Science Games on Saturday, April 19, 11:00 am–3:00 pm. Full News Release (PDF 16kB)

Exploring Mars Featured in LiveSky

Is the arctic region of Mars able to support life? What is the history of the water in arctic area of Mars? Scientists are getting ready to find out when the Phoenix Mars Lander sets down on the red planet. Discover this latest Mars exploration at the Science Museum of Virginia’s interactive planetarium show LiveSky on Friday, April 18, at 6:00 pm. Full News Release (PDF 15kB)

Science Saturdays for April

See steel wool catch fire. Wire a circuit to turn on a light bulb. Find out how to clean up an oil spill. It’s all at Science Saturdays at the Science Museum of Virginia, Saturdays, April 5–26, noon–4:00 pm. Full News Release (PDF 18kB)

NanoDay

See steel wool catch fire. Watch sand remain dry – even after it has come in contact with water. Feel atoms bouncing around. Stretch out a spring. It doesn’t jump back to its original shape the way you may expect. In fact you need to heat it up with a hairdryer to return it to its original position. Discover how a sweet treat can introduce you to the world of the very small. Check out how businesses are already creating products based on the world of the very small. It’s all at NanoDay at the Science Museum of Virginia, Wednesday, April 2, 10:00 am–3:00 pm. Full News Release (PDF 17kB)

Genius in the Attic: the Restless Curiosity of Alexander Graham Bell A Carpenter Science Theatre Company Play

Hard to believe that the phone you use regularly was designed and first created in an attic workshop. This particular workshop was above an electrical supply house in Boston. Inventor and teacher of the deaf Alexander Graham Bell designed the first prototype and his assistant Charles Watson built it. On March 10, 1876, Bell and Watson held their first test. They set up transmitters in separate rooms and Bell used the equipment to speak to Watson. What had started as an idea to help the deaf had taken on a life of its own. What had started as a race between Bell and Elisha Gray to create a telegraph that would transmit several sounds at once had also gone way past its original purpose. Their rivalry would end up in court. But the invention of the telephone would change the world. Discover the ever inventive Bell in the Carpenter Science Theatre Company play Genius in the Attic: The Restless Curiosity of Alexander Graham Bell at the Science Museum of Virginia Saturday, March 29 – Friday, April 25. Shows are Saturdays, 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm, and Wednesdays–Fridays, 11:00 am and 12:30 pm. Full News Release (PDF 17kB)

First Day of Spring Featured at LiveSky

This year spring officially begins with the vernal equinox on Thursday, March 20, at 1:48 am Eastern Daylight Time. It is a time when days and nights are equal in length. Check out spring stars and constellations at the Science Museum of Virginia’s interactive planetarium show LiveSky on Friday, March 21, at 6:00 pm.  Full News Release (PDF 12kB)

Lunch Break Science for March and April

Find out about tarantulas. Discover how a snack relates to nanotechnology. What is a concussion? It’s all at the Lunch Break Science at the Science Museum of Virginia on Wednesdays, March 5–April 30, noon–1:00 pm.  Full News Release (PDF 55kB)

Science Saturdays for March

Charge a model car that runs on water. Wear glasses that let you see rainbows. Discover the reasons for the seasons. It’s all at Science Saturdays at the Science Museum of Virginia, March 1-29, noon-4 p.m.  Full News Release (PDF 67kB)

Dominion Foundation Makes $500,000 Grant to the Science Museum of Virginia

The Dominion Foundation has provided a grant of $500,000 to the Science Museum of Virginia to take lessons about energy and the environment on the road, especially to schools.  Full News Release (PDF 22 kB)

Governor Kaine Announces
2008 Outstanding Scientists & Industrialists

Governor Timothy M. Kaine and Science Museum of Virginia Director Richard Conti today announced the state's Outstanding Scientists and Industrialists of 2008. The honorees will be introduced to the General Assembly on Thursday, February 14, and will receive their awards at a banquet at the Science Museum on Thursday, April 17.  Full News Release (PDF 75 kB)

Mini-Medical School Focuses on The Cutting Edge: Advances in Surgical Technology

Robotic surgery. Trilogy and Gamma knife surgery. Cryotherapy, videoscopic, laparoscopic and laser surgery. What are those kinds of surgery and what can them mean for you? Find out when Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center experts share the latest information on The Cutting Edge: Advances in Surgical Technology at Mini-Medical School at the Science Museum of Virginia, Wednesdays, Feb. 6-March 12, 7-9 p.m.  Full News Release (PDF 63kB)

Zap! Surgery Beyond the Cutting Edge

Climb aboard a ZapCam motion simulator and prepare to miniaturize. Your mission is to travel through a human body and send back pictures of high-tech surgical procedures from the inside. Back in the real-size world you have work to do. Destroy a tumor. Remove a tattoo. Take an object out of a lung. Break up a kidney stone. Repair leaking blood vessels in a giant eye. Play an oversized version of Hasbro’s Operation® game. You are the surgeon in the visiting exhibition Zap! Surgery Beyond the Cutting Edge at the Science Museum of Virginia Saturday, Jan. 19-Sunday, May 11.

The Human Body

Follow a tomato on its journey from mouth to stomach. Paddle underwater with infants whose diving reflex allows them to swim. Look inside an ear as tiny hairs actually dance to music. Ride along with a red blood cell as it makes a 100- mile trek through the body's vast, tangled network of veins, arteries and capillaries. Witness the fusion of parental DNA and the beginning of a new life. It's all in the giant screen film The Human Body featured in the Science Museum of Virginia's IMAX® DOME Saturday, Jan. 19-Sunday, May 4.

Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure

Travel back in time some 80 million years. It's the dinosaur age. Earth is very different from what you're used to. In fact there are oceans in places like Kansas. That's right - the ocean there divided North America in two. While dinosaurs roamed Earth, giant monsters ruled the sea. It was eat - or be eaten. Dive into a world as scientists can best describe it in the giant screen film Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure featured in the Science Museum of Virginia's Ethyl IMAX® DOME Wednesday, Jan. 2-Friday, April 18.

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