Students view a digital projection of Earth, an example of the types of new scientific visualizations to be included in the Water Exhibition. (NOAA image by Will von Dauster.)

The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) have co-organized a 7,500 sq. ft. internationally traveling water exhibition. It all began when SMM and AMNH learned they were each producing an exhibition about water: these two museums decided to merge their efforts in order to draw upon their complementary strengths in science, technology, and natural history.

NCED, along with two other National Science Foundation Science and Technology Centers, The Center of Advanced Materials for Purification of Water with Systems (WaterCampWs) and the Center for Sustainability Semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA), have worked closely with SMM on content development for the water exhibition. This exhibition uses and builds on current research to help visitors better understand the role of water in critical global processes. In addition, through the use of new scientific visualization technologies, the water exhibition can condense time and space. Visitors are now able to observe global processes that otherwise happen on geographic and temporal scales too vast to comprehend.

The AMNH water exhibition, Water: H₂0 = Life, opened November 3^rd and will be open through May 26, 2008, before traveling internationally beginning summer 2008. The SMM Water: H₂0 = Life will open January 2009 and will be available for rental nationally beginning fall 2009. For more information, please contact Patrick Hamilton, hamilton@smm.org.