Sep 1, 2008: Moray Eel Feedings at Dallas Aquarium at Fair Park
The Dallas Aquarium at Fair Park offers a daily fish feeding and keeper talk. Green moray eels are actually blue skinned, but the slippery yellow coating they produce naturally causes a coloration change.
Aug 30, 2008: Piranha Feedings at Dallas Aquarium at Fair Park
The Dallas Aquarium at Fair Park offers a daily fish feeding and keeper talk. The featured animal on Tuesdays and Saturdays is the piranha. Despite their fierce reputation, piranhas are only dangerous during the dry season in the Amazon when they become isolated in small pools and must compete for the remaining food.
Aug 30, 2008: Eyes on Earth ... and Beyond at Museum of Nature & Science
Water on Mars? Scientists suspected the presence of H2O on the surface of our planetary next-door neighbor, but it took a series of tests and University of Texas at Dallas Professor John Hoffman?s instrument aboard NASA?s Phoenix Mars Lander to prove it. Hoffman will tell audiences at the Museum of Nature & Science on Aug. 30 how he and his team made one of this century?s first major space science discoveries.
The finding prompted NASA to extend the Phoenix mission that was set to wrap up this month for another five weeks. Hoffman, a member of UT Dallas? William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences, designed the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA), a combination high-temperature furnace and mass spectrometer instrument that analyzed Martian ice and soil samples, the step needed to prove the existence of water.
?If we could give Dr. Hoffman and his team a ticker-tape parade, we would. We are thrilled that he will spend a day with us to explain how one of the most persistent scientific questions of our time has been answered,? said Steve Hinkley, director of education for the Museum of Nature & Science.
The Mars mission update is part of the final weekend of ?Eyes on Earth? ? the museum?s astronomy and space exhibition sponsored by Lockheed Martin and the UT Dallas ? which closes Sept. 1. ?Eyes on Earth? was inaugurated on Memorial Day with a live watch party at the museum?s IMAX theater to monitor the risky landing of Phoenix on the planet Mars. An overflow crowd of space enthusiasts gripped their seats as they witnessed the white-knuckled final minutes as the NASA spacecraft concluded its nine-month journey.
During Labor Day weekend, the museum is giving visitors one last chance to explore how satellites work, meet real space pioneers and enjoy hands-on demonstrations and activities suitable for all ages.
In addition to Professor Hoffman, aerospace researcher and developer V. Raj Narayanan will give a peak at cutting-edge technologies that will someday enable commercial space access, transcontinental flights in fewer than three hours and advanced air combat vehicles.
Hoffman, a longtime supporter of the Museum of Nature & Science in Fair Park, returns by way of Tucson, Ariz., and Mars ? so to speak. His presentation will include high-resolution images from Mars, stories about the effort to find water there and a look at life on Martian time, which is 40-minutes longer than a typical day on Earth. Hoffman eventually worked overnight a few times, going to work 40 minutes later each day as the scientists kept pace with the solar-powered Phoenix spacecraft.
?It?s wonderful to be back in Texas,? Hoffman said. ?I?ve been monitoring Mars Lander experiments from Tucson since the spacecraft landed in May and I am excited to come to the museum to share this story with the public.?
Hoffman will make repeat presentations and take questions from the public at 1 and 3:30 p.m. Narayanan?s presentation is at 11 a.m. All are free with museum admission but are ticketed events. Reservations are highly recommended and they and museum tickets are available online.
The Museum of Nature & Science is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Sunday when it is open from noon to 5 p.m.
?I?ve been a space scientist for a long time, doing work on the Apollo missions to the moon and on Haley?s Comet in 1986,? Hoffman said. ?Helping find water on Mars ranks among my most thrilling professional accomplishments. I?m eager to share that story.?
Activities/Demonstrations: 10 a.m. ? 5 p.m.
? Spinning Penny: Create an orbiting satellite you can hold in your hand using a penny and a balloon.
? Gliders: Zoom, glide, and fly your way into an adventure in aeronautical engineering by building your own airplane!
? Rockets: Launching a rocket into outer space is very complex. How do scientists send a huge vehicle into orbit? Come experience Newton?s third law of motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Make your own rocket and launch it into the space of the museum.
For more information and a schedule of the Labor Day events at the Museum of Nature & Science, visit: www.natureandscience.org.
Aug 28, 2008: Sankofa at African American Museum
'Sankofa: A Century of African American Expression in the Decorative Arts.' This exhibit explores the stylistic range and creativity of early African American craftspeople during the approximate time period of 1790 to 1890.
Aug 27, 2008: Facing the Rising Sun: Freedman's Cemetery at African American Museum
This body of work defines the fragmentary history of a once-prominent African American community. It includes pieces from public and private collections and is organized into different themes, including 'Slavery,' 'Emancipation,' 'Reconstruction,' 'Early Families,' 'Education,' 'Medicine,' 'Religion,' 'Business' and 'Community Pride.'
Aug 27, 2008: Sankofa at African American Museum
'Sankofa: A Century of African American Expression in the Decorative Arts.' This exhibit explores the stylistic range and creativity of early African American craftspeople during the approximate time period of 1790 to 1890.
Aug 27, 2008: Open Mic Blues Jam at The Hole in the Wall
Bring your axe and your bad self down to the Hole in the Wall on Harry Hines Blvd at Forest Lane in Dallas, TX at 9:00 to jam with some of the hottest blues mens and blues womens in the DFW area.
Aug 30, 2008: Menopause: the Musical at Charles W Eisemann Center
'Menopause The Musical,' written and produced by Jeanie Linders, is a celebration of women who are on the brink of, in the middle of, or have survived "The Change." It all starts with four women (a power woman, a soap star, an earth mother and Iowa housewife) at a NYC Bloomingdale's lingerie sale with nothing in common but a black lace bra AND memory loss, hot flashes, night sweats, chocolate binges and more.
Aug 31, 2008: Ardina Lockhart at Brooklyn Jazz Cafe
Once in a while an artist comes along that truly is able to seamlessly combine talent, beauty and creativity. In these days of custom-made teen stars and over-produced talent not quite ready for prime time, it is refreshing to see someone who does not mind taking her time to savor the journey to success. Singer-dancer Ardina Lockhart is such an artist. Many have likened her voice to that of singers like Whitney Houston, Oleta Adams and Lauren Hill.
Aug 29, 2008: The Long Christmas Ride Home at Stage West Theater Company
It's Christmas, and a family of five is headed to their grandparents' house for food and presents. But "over the river and through the woods" it's not. This family is more than a little dysfunctional. The parents' relationship is strained. The children squabble in the back seat, and the son is feeling sick. And after their holiday dinner disintegrates into verbal warfare, the family heads home in the worsening weather, and suddenly finds itself on the brink of an abyss both literal and figurative. What sets the play apart is Vogel's remarkable approach. The children are portrayed by near-life-size Bunraku puppets, and Vogel has layered the painful events with striking visual elements and music and dance, making for a magical and haunting piece of theatre.
Aug 29, 2008: Stockyards Championship Rodeo at Fort Worth Stockyards
'Stockyards Championship Rodeo' features traditional rodeo events including bull riding, saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, tie down roping, team roping, breakaway roping and barrel racing. It also presents a taste of live country and western singing.
Aug 27, 2008: Revisualizing Westward Expansion: A Century of Conflict at Amon Carter Museum
Seventeen rare nineteenth-century maps on display reveal how cartography helped us find our way as a country. The maps span the century, from Aaron Arrowsmith's great 1796 map of the United States to a colorful 1902 map showing the American West and the territories acquired by the United States in the Spanish-American War of 1898.
Aug 28, 2008: Revisualizing Westward Expansion: A Century of Conflict at Amon Carter Museum
Seventeen rare nineteenth-century maps on display reveal how cartography helped us find our way as a country. The maps span the century, from Aaron Arrowsmith's great 1796 map of the United States to a colorful 1902 map showing the American West and the territories acquired by the United States in the Spanish-American War of 1898.
Aug 28, 2008: Menopause: the Musical at Charles W Eisemann Center
'Menopause The Musical,' written and produced by Jeanie Linders, is a celebration of women who are on the brink of, in the middle of, or have survived "The Change." It all starts with four women (a power woman, a soap star, an earth mother and Iowa housewife) at a NYC Bloomingdale's lingerie sale with nothing in common but a black lace bra AND memory loss, hot flashes, night sweats, chocolate binges and more.
