For those not wanting to leave the Inner Harbor area, there are a pair of Places To Visit right on the Harbor.

The Maryland Science Museum is located at the southwest corner of the harbor. Like almost every science museum these days, it’s got the dinosaur exhibit that shows the geological history of the area, interactive displays illustrating various principles of physics (which kids play with and on without stopping to wonder about the various principles involved), a demonstration theater / lecture hall for showing off visually exciting things in chemistry and physics, and a fairly large exhibit sponsored by one of the area’s major corporations / research centers.

That exhibit, brought to you by Johns Hopkins Medical Center, was mostly about the sense of vision and how the brain processes what the eyes see. There was a thing on the Stroop Effect, how our brain can handle distorted images, a few tactile illusions, and even some thinly disguised attempts at getting visitors to exercise (strength tests and the like).

It happened to be “Fun With Liquid Nitrogen” Day. Which meant an outdoor demonstration of the power of expansion due to phase change:

1. Put a few ounces of liquid nitrogen in a 2 liter soda bottle
2. Cap it quickly and tightly.
3. Put the bottle in a large metal pot.
4. Upend a five gallon plastic bucket over the pot.
5. Stand well back.
6. Observe how high the bucket flies when the bottle inside explodes. 

A pretty nice place overall – though I’d have expected the Geologic History of Maryland part (in an among the dinosaur stuff) to at least make a passing mention to the meteor impact that helped create the Chesapeake Bay……

The biggest attraction in the Inner Harbor area is undoubtedly the National Aquarium, and not just because it occupies two “piers”. OK, yes, they have a “pod” of five dolphins. No, the dolphins do not do shows for visitors. And yes, they hope to transfer the dolphins to a better facility (once they get the funding and nail down the location) where they’ll be in a more “natural” environment while still being monitored and prepared for a return to the wild.

They probably won’t return their incredible collection of jellyfish to the wild. Those things are too close to the trunk of the evolutionary tree to notice or care where they are. They don’t even have anything resembling a brain. I will say this, though – the jellyfish exhibit has got to be one really cool place to be after hours when there are no visitors around.

A peek at the equipment that keeps the place functioning.

Aside from the jellyfish exhibit, the other one of note is a reproduction of northern Australia. That area is subject to incredible swings between rainy and dry, so it’s worth it to see how plants and animals adapt to it.

“Poison Dart Frogs” are REALLY tiny!

There are, of course, the usual displays – Amazon rain forest, Pacific and Atlantic coral reefs, “Touch Pool”, local waters – but the one that impressed me the most was the one that’s not actually in the building. In the space between the two piers* occupied by the Aquarium, they are building an artificial wetland as a test project for wetlands restoration. It’s working – a staffer I chatted with said that river otters were seen checking the place out – while it was under construction. And I did spot a school of fish that had made it all the way to the “land” end of the space (through the wetland) one night. Probably attracted by the lights….

* There’s got to be a special name for that…..

And not “minnows”, either. I’d guess they are 4-5 inches long.

As is becoming a habit of mine, I signed up for a neighborhood walking tour. I’ll talk about Fells Point next time.