The Singapore Science Centre is a bit out of town, but after a 20minute MRT ride and a short walk (with assistance of a local pointing me in the right direction) I found it. This is probably something I would have usually given a miss (it is basic science, more suitable to families with young children), but I heard there was a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition on, who I am a big fan of, so thought it would be worth going too.
Da Vinci exhibition travels globally to showcase
There was a ‘Sea Monsters’ display outside too for the IMAX movie that you can see inside the Science Centre (highly reccomended).
Sea Monster IMAX omnitheare movie
Upon entering and being approached by a salesmen, it was clear this isn’t all open on a single ticket, everything was an extra. The science centre is the basic fee, but the Da Vinci exhibition was extra, and the sea monsters advertisement was a movie in an IMAX Omni-Theatre. There was 3 options for a movie, The Sea Monsters, The works of Vincent Van Gogh and Living On a Space Station. I picked the Sea Monsters movie but it was on later in the day, so had most of the day to look around the centre.
A lot of the science here is simple, but I guess as an educated adult that is the way it should seem to be. I found the virus section interesting though and the model below of a nuclear fission reactor.
Scaled down nuclear fission reactor
There was a few famous quotes by the odd genius around too. My favourite was an Albert Einstein ‘Reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one’. After messing around with the few exhibition demos I had a quick bite to eat and headed off to what drew me to the place initially; the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition.
Self portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci
Upon entering there was a time line of his life including work around that era and events of the time, such as the war breaking out between Italy and France. Also near the front was the forester 1-3 (there was 4, the 4th is the only one privately owned one by Bill Gates so wasn’t on display) These are the famous notebooks Leonardo wrote in mirror image writing (it’s all in Latin) and his accurate drawings of his observations).
Forester 1
It was also at this point I was told I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the 188 exhibtion items (including 65 life size examples of his work). But of course I managed to sneek this one in of some of the war machines be designed with the Mona Lisa secrets section in the background:
Leonardos weapons of war
Original looking Mona Lisa
I even managed to get one of the lady herself in the original format (rather then the one that can be seen today still in Paris). There was a big section on the Mona Lisa since the 240 mega pixel camera used by Pascal Cotte revealed a lot of the history behind the painting. It was much more colourful originally and the lady herself was fatter (she has gotten slimmer due to warping of the painting over the years). The other main secret which I didn’t know is originally she had eye lashes but that was the hardest secret to reveal as they were very thin and smudged in with the other paint early on in the paintings life. I’ve still yet to go to Paris and check the real one out myself, but it certainly on the to-do list.
On the way out there was the Virtuvian Man and a dvd playing on how all the exhibtions where made (I’ve seen a few of these programs on TV before).
Close to 4pm I rushed to the other side of the Science Center to the Omni theatre to watch the Sea Monsters movie. I had never been in an IMAX before, let alone an Omni IMAX and must say I was mightily impressed by how it was done. The screen ends and both sides of the head spanning across 180degrees left to right, and about 150degrees up and down (turning the head fully up to looking down by the feet). I didn’t get a picture of the inside, but got a nice one of the projection room, which was impressive enough:
OMNIMAX projector room
I had another quick hour so I passed through the space centre section (which was really bad in content but looked good – see below) and looked some some more Da Vinci bits I missed previously.
Space apparently
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Dude I saw that exhibit in London about a year ago :D It is fun, I love the redchalk sketches they are fantastic!
Also check out Robert Ripley he was an American cartoonist, entrepreneur, amateur anthropologist and total ledge, who created Ripley’s Believe It or Not! He is my new hero! Some of the things he saw don’t even exist anymore. He just explored and reported on what he found, drawing the things that he saw for his comic that was read by 80 million people worldwide (that is rediculous for the early 1900’s!!!) His sceptics didn’t believe half the things he claimed he had seen, so to prove his critics wrong he started collecting articles from all over the world, shrunken heads, video footage of African shamans covered in shells looking like monsters, bizarre two headed animals and dinosaur skeletons!
You totally have to look into his insane life on wikipedia bro! It is awesome. I went to a Ripleys Believe it or Not here in San Francisco and it made me an instant fan :D
I think I went to a Ripleys believe it or not a few years ago on a family trip to Florida but didn’t really appreciate it so much then, Definately will go to one if I come across one though.