The Mind Museum opens in Taguig, the Philippines, on 16 March
DURING the construction of the Philippines鈥� first real science museum, curator Maria Isabel Garcia insisted that workers decorate their crane to look like a Tyrannosaurus rex. The country鈥檚 largest newspaper ran a front-page picture. The caption: 鈥淒inosaurs at Work!鈥�
Garcia had her work cut out. Getting the public to connect with science is a challenge in one of Asia鈥檚 most Catholic nations, where topics like fossils and evolution are flashpoints. The Philippines also ranks poorly in science test scores: a 2003 study placed the nation 42nd out of 45 countries for high school results. And Garcia鈥檚 project is expensive 鈥� $25 million 鈥� for a country buffeted by the economic crisis.
Advertisement
鈥淧romoting science is a challenge in a country where fossils and evolution are flashpoints鈥�
But her enthusiasm has not wavered. 鈥淭he Philippines is relatively poor and more religious than other countries,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e are often forced to beg for many things 鈥� aid, investments, a voice in international arenas 鈥� why should we be beggars for a sense of discovery?鈥�
When Garcia鈥檚 husband, physicist Celso Roque, died in 2002, she took over his science column for The Philippine Star newspaper. As one of the only professional science writers in the country, she uses the column to question blind belief. When work began on the Mind Museum in 2006, developers asked her to curate and asked Manny Blas, a Catholic with theological training and a corporate background, to be managing director. Their visions complemented one another.
Inspired by the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles, which were funded without taxpayer money, Blas attracted corporate sponsors. He also followed the campaign script used by US president Barack Obama of seeking large numbers of small donors: virtual exhibits were parcelled out in small packages 鈥� elements on an went for about $125, and for $25. From these small donations they raised some $750,000. They needed to make more stars.
Garcia recruited local artists to work with scientists 鈥� facing some occasional bumps in the road. One artist asked to move hydrogen to the upper-right corner of the periodic table, thinking it looked 鈥渓onely鈥� in the upper left. But the local input led to clever and often humorous exhibits. 鈥淗ow to Become a Fossil鈥� has the following instructions: 鈥淔irst, you die! Second, die on a soft stone 鈥� not granite!鈥�
Deploying her experience as a science writer, Garcia also sought help from foreign scientists. She contacted me about an exhibit inspired by my book The Prism and the Pendulum: The ten most beautiful experiments in science. An email exchange with US palaeontologist Neil Shubin led her to Tyler Keillor, a palaeoartist at the University of Chicago. He pointed her to a of him making a model of Tiktaalik 鈥� a transition species between fish and land animals 鈥� which a local artist used as a guide to sculpt the museum鈥檚 own model. American physicist Dean Dauger helped her to develop an app for an interactive display of a hydrogen atom鈥檚 orbital motions.
The museum is organised into five galleries 鈥� Atom, Life, Earth, Universe and Technology 鈥� and the spaces between illustrate transitional concepts. Between Atom and Life, for instance, there is a projection of unzipping DNA, and Atom and Universe are linked by the Light Bridge, a wave-like structure containing exhibits on the electromagnetic spectrum.
Garcia and Blas know the museum is only a starting point in fostering a scientific culture. In the surrounding park, they placed 鈥淧ea Pods鈥� 鈥� green solar-powered street lights that also serve as cellphone charging stations. These entice people who might not visit otherwise. Garcia also has a local improvisational theatre group train the staff, whom she calls 鈥渕ind movers鈥� rather than tour guides. During test runs in February, some guests had asked staff why they should believe in evolution. Garcia鈥檚 reply: 鈥淗ere you are asked not to believe, but to understand.鈥�