The National Museum of Natural Science

The new National Museum of Natural Science has been besieged with waves of visitors since its opening in January. Viewing exhibits on space walking and "dancing stars" and visiting the planetarium at the Space Sience Theater are all new experiences for the museum's visitors. And what has been opened so far is only one-twelfth of the planned total for the museum's completion in 1991. In addition to this museum, the Executive Yuan has decided to establish a museum of science and technology and a museum of oceanography.

In the West, museum of natural science already have a history of 200 to 300 years. As early as the 17th century, Western countries began collecting plants and animals, and gathering the fruits of their scientific experimentation into museums of natural history.

Hence it was the imperial Western countries, utilizing their advanced technology to gather materials from their colonies, who assembled the first museum collections on natural science. The underdeveloped countries, on the other hand, were unable to establish such museums. As for China, many of the achievements of her 5,000 years of civilization have been assembled in the National Palace Museum. Yet despite the fact that it was the Chinese who invented such things as the compass, gunpowder, and printing long before the Europeans did, Chinese culture has always tended towards the humanities, and therefore has not kept pace with the European countries' development of museums of science.

What, then, will be exhibited in the museum? Although small in area, Taiwan is rich in terms of its geography, and is inhabited by an abundant variety of life. For example, there are 450 species of butterflies on Taiwan, making it the butterfly capital of the world. A large percentage of the island's known species of animals have been collected; but, admittedly, half of the collecting was done during the Japanese occupation. According to Shen Shih-chieh of National Taiwan University's department of zoology, the postwar emphasis on economic development has led to a neglect of the study of the basic sciences, which include taxonomy (the differentiation of species). Frankly speaking, Taiwan has failed completely in this field of research.

The goal of the museum is to become the repository of animal and plant specimens on Taiwan. Hsu Kou-shih, director of the National Park Division, Construction and Planning Administration, says "Besides displaying the theories of natural science and natural phenomena in the museum, we should emphasize the distinguishing characteristics of Taiwan's ecosystem, which means gathering materials from the island's natural environment, preserving records, and epitomizing the features and essence of Taiwan's ecology." Thus the museum will be the center of Taiwan's collection, emphasizing the indigenous life forms and culture of the island. By the time the museum is completed in 1991, it is estimated that the researchers who are doing the collecting will have assembled about two million specimens.

As collection is the lifeline of the museum, setting up its educational displays is the top-priority task. These displays are oriented towards recreating the natural environment in which the specimens live. The head of the science and education department at the museum points out that, since plants and animals exist together in the real world, separating them for exhibition runs counter to our real-life experiences and blurs the educational message of the display. In addition, the museum will select exhibits for in-depth presentation to increase the visitors' under standing of its contents.

During the museum's first phase of development, the science center and space science theater are expected to attract the largest number of visitors. One of the films already shown at the theater was "Halley's comet." In order to maximize the lifelikeness of the film, a projection system recreated a star-filled sky through which the comet was seen to move. At the same it time an audio system narrated stories about the comet, explained the best methods of detecting it, and described the research that various countries have conducted on it.

The science center consists of 90 exhibits spread out over the museum's third and fourth floors. It includes exhibits on astronomy, physics, chemistry, and space science.

The third floor consists of exhibits on nature, demonstrating man's relationship to his environment. There are exhibits on the geology of Taiwan and of the earth, which are explained through photographs and models, as well as models of the earth's position relative to the sun and to the other planets.

One of the exhibits consists of a square section of floor divided like a tic-tac-toe board. The visitor, standing on the center square, is instructed to step on whichever of the surrounding squares lights up. After a few attempts, he is given a reading of his reaction speed.

Another exhibit gives city children a rare chance to see the birth of a baby duckling. The museum buys eggs a day before they are due to hatch and puts them in an incubator display case. When the hatching time arrives, the visitors can watch as first the feet, then the rest of a tiny duckling emerges from its shell, both of its eyes closely shut as if facing the world unconsciously.

The science nursery on the fifth floor is an activity center outside the home for four- to eight-year-olds. This area has oversized spoons and chopsticks, and brightly colored trees and mushrooms, etc. for the children to play with and on.

The most interesting is a set of needle, button, and thread, with which the children can learn something about the hard work their mothers must do to take care of them.

Under the hands of the museum's numerous visitors--as many as 12,000 per day--some of the hand-operated instruments have broken down. Thus it will be necessary to educate people on cultivating better museum-visiting habits.

Although the Museum of Natural Science opened only recently, it has gotten off to a very good start. To ensure that it can reach completion as early as possible, all those concerned with its development will have to continue giving their best to the project. As for achieving further goals, we can only continue using today's tools to cultivate the soil of science.

[Picture Caption]

(Above) The Space Theater made it in time for all the excitement over Halley's Comet.

The Space Theater's panoramic screen attracts many visitors. Watching the film "Flying," the audience feels as if it is in the film, too.

A young girl paints the cartoon still which, when passed through the revolving drum, appears as a cartoon to viewers looking through the slits.

Space walking? Actually, its just a bit of magic with mirrors--which is as close as most visitors will ever get to the real thing.

"That's loud! Aren't you supposed to talk quietly?" When a partner speaks into another such parabolic apparatus a few yards away, his voice is amplified to "deafening" proportions.

（Above） The Space Theater made it in time for all the excitement over Halley's Comet.

A young girl paints the cartoon still which, when passed through the revolving drum, appears as a cartoon to viewers looking through the slits.

A young girl paints the cartoon still which, when passed through the revolving drum, appears as a cartoon to viewers looking through the slits.

Space walking? Actually, its just a bit of magic with mirrors--which is as close as most visitors will ever get to the real thing.

That's loud! Aren't you supposed to talk quietly?" When a partner speaks into another such parabolic apparatus a few yards away, his voice is amplified to "deafening" proportions.