CHRISTMAS isn鈥檛 all booze and mince pies鈥攖here鈥檚 plenty of alternative
fare on offer at museums and exhibitions around the world.
If you鈥檙e in Australia, you could try To Mars and Beyond at the new National
Museum of Australia in Canberra. Here you can search for the origins of life,
travel to the Red Planet in a virtual reality spaceship, and hear Aboriginal
Dreamtime stories.
Skateboarders and sports fans on the US West Coast can head for San
Francisco鈥檚 amazing Exploratorium. You can learn the secret of the 鈥渙llie鈥�, that
startling jump that boarders take over obstacles with the skateboard seemingly
glued to their feet. It鈥檚 not glue, of course, but physics, proving you can
fight gravity and win.
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Way out east, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia has a major
exhibition opening on 2 February called Extreme Deep: Mission to the Abyss. New
discoveries about the submarine surface of our planet are promised, as well as a
ride in a virtual Alvin, the famous submersible.
If you鈥檙e in Paris, pay a visit to Man Transformed (L鈥檋omme
transform茅) at the Cit茅 des Sciences et de l鈥橧ndustrie. It鈥檚
the first of three exhibitions in a major new programme called The Challenges of
Living (Les d茅fis du vivant), which looks into the
latest advances in biology and biotechnology. Through interactive displays,
including a giant cell membrane, it promises to take you on 鈥渁 true journey
inside the human body鈥�. And after the excesses of Christmas, that could be quite
a ride.