Exhibition review: 24HM writer Marian Cleary and Harry Semple, our Year 10 intern, enjoy The Science of Survival - Your Planet Needs You, on now at the Science Museum, London, until Sunday Nov 2, 2008.
A huge picture of the Earth loomed over us as we approached the Science of Survival exhibition, stating that 'The future needs you'. Another group, Loden Primary Year 6, made their way through the globe before us, sitting themselves in front of the screen which patched them through to a comms link to the year 2050. They were in another world.
As we watched, we were told by cartoon children of the future that in 2050 resources were hard to come by. They needed all the help they could get to create a new city for everyone to live in. The four characters, Tek, Eco, Buz, and Dug had their own personal likes and said how different ways of dealing with a changing world could affect the way our city would be formed.
Before we began our trip into the 2050s, we were given a card with a yellow and black target printed on it. This was our game card and was to be used on all of the exhibits where the symbol was shown. It would automatically record our choices for the city.
When we entered, the first exhibit was an interactive floor with water. When you stepped on this, the water rippled and the fish, also on the floor, moved away. This was intriguing, but there was better to come.
Between the many interactive exhibitions and the throng of children, hard facts were pitched at us. For example: 97% of the Earth's water is too salty for us to drink, 2% is locked in ice. This leaves only 1% of water fit for us to drink.
If the situation in 2050 is that dire, we need to start saving our water for years to come. We learnt that fog vapour can now be collected by stringing large nets across hills in high areas such as Chile. When the water vapour is heavy enough and enough has joined with other drops, it trickles into a bucket, creating a fresh flow of water.
There were other ingenious inventions to be seen such as a solar-powered oven which is a large curved box with a solar cell on top. Another eye-opener was nanotechnology, the science of small things. This involves going down to the molecular level. In food this could mean modifying it to the consumer's taste - such as super smooth ice cream.
As for the games in the show, there are five main areas to look at: water, food, entertainment, transport, home and family. As we completed exhibits, characters from zones we had already visited came up with their views on our designs in a lively animated open debate about our individual choices.
The water game involved catching droplets with the buttons on the desk with other visitors and was interesting to play. Second came the food game where you chose three different ways of growing, cloning and producing a bean, with various consequences such as green bean ice cream, noodles or a simple bowl of cooked beans.
Transport involved designing your own vehicle of the future. We were intrigued by the various possible designs and how they might be powered, such as a large eight-seater train running on biofuel or a single-seater hovercar burning diesel fuel.
Next was the home design area. There were three sofas accommodating four terminals. Each terminal had a phone with a keypad on it. As the choices were read out, a press on the keypad selected and confirmed your choice and was to be the housing plan for your entire 'block' of the city.
This Science of Survival seems to be a popular exhibit. In the time we were there, three school groups were moving through. This interactive exhibit, however popular, is incredibly crowded. There are too few terminals to complete your city block so we only managed to complete three of the five areas due to queues.
When the time comes to put your block into the large picture, the screen to display the city blocks was too small, and the block created would disappear very fast with the amount of people present. To make your time worthwhile there, it is recommended that you spend at least an hour in the exhibit to complete all the areas.
It is true we're running out of resources but we do not know what we will have left in 2050. On the one hand, it's not terribly realistic to say that everything will have run out and we'll have to depend on biofuel, waste recycling and carbon dioxide recycling. But on the other, we need to do something to stop the planet being damaged by our behaviour.
What the cartoon characters debated meant that we came away thinking that the way the future will look has endless possibilities. These might be based on the many solutions to the issues we face, from returning to basics to really harnessing technology to come up with solutions. And perhaps all of these things have a place in the science of survival. What we also realised that we all need to play a part in this very real project.
