Science Storms May 11, 2010

Step into a 40-foot swirling vortex of air to feel the dynamics of a tornado. See giant bolts of lightning from a large Tesla coil crackling above you. Trigger an avalanche using a 25-foot avalanche disk. Create a tsunami in a 30-foot wave tank. These forces will be at your command in 'Science Storms,' an amazing new 26,000-square-foot permanent exhibit that unravels the mysteries of physics and chemistry through recreations of nature's most powerful phenomena--tornados, lightning, fire, tsunamis, sunlight, avalanches and atoms in motion. At each exhibit station, you'll deconstruct large phenomena into smaller experiments and challenges to study the forces that make these phenomena possible--forces that have inspired scientists for centuries. You'll also see scientific artifacts including historic items like a first copy of Sir Isaac Newton's Opticks, circa 1704, that records his experiments into the physics of light--as well as a modern "turtle" probe, used by storm chasers from the National Geographic Society to measure a record-breaking air pressure drop inside a tornado.