Earth, art, and heart at the Mind Museum

Photo by Christine Chan

MANILA, Philippines - Each month, The Mind Museum hosts a science immersion adventure for the public called "Mind Burst." This month’s Mind Burst was especially dedicated to Mother Earth in celebration of Earth Day -- but with a twist.

Making make-believe fossils

Pecier Decierdo, a graduate of BS Physics from UP Diliman, is now one of the mind movers at The Mind Museum. With a megawatt smile, Pecier introduced to us his fossil friends: Ida, Lyuba and Stan.

Ida is the most complete primate fossil with 95% of her body still intact and so well preserved that her tissues, hair and even her stomach contents are visible. Lyuba is a 6-month old baby mammoth frozen in ice. Stan is the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil.

TEETH OF STAN. Photo by Christine Chan

Kids ooh-ed and aah-ed at hearing this energetic brainiac say, “Did you know that we can actually resurrect the wooly mammoth?” “But then again, would that be ethical?” he said with a toothy grin.

It was a fun and informative lecture. Who knew that not only bones could be fossilized? You could make a fossil out of anything, even dung; these are called "coprolites." When the lecture ended, it was time for questions. A kid raised her hand.

“What is it?” Pecier asked.

The kid said, “Can we start already?”

Pecier laughed and said, “Okay!”

Kids of all ages, including parents, participated in a workshop on making and painting plaster casts of organisms. With plaster, water, coffee, clay and foil, the mind movers taught the kids how to make fossils out of plastic insects, dried leaves and flowers.

SPIDER AND PLASTER. When the plaster (on the left) dries, you will have something like the fossil of a spider. Photo by Darwin Cayetano

Those were what were there but you could apply the process to anything -- bones, exoskeletons, dried leaves and flowers, shells and many others. Despite the "made in China" seal on some of the toys, the molds turned out pretty well.

Earth, Art and Heart

Rayyn and Anna Cortez together with sister Kara Escay form MMM, short for My Masterpiece Movement. They are a trio of artists – Rayyn is a musician, Anna is a storyteller, and Kara is a visual artist. Anna is also a yoga instructor.

Anna asked the crowd, “What is breathe in Tagalog?”

“Hinga,” they answered.

“At anong ginagawa natin pag pagod na tayo?” (And what do we do when we're tired?)

“Pahinga.” (Rest.)

“’Pag tayo pagod, gusto nating magpahinga (When we're tired, we want to rest). Sometimes rest is not about having less things to do; it’s about breathing more.”

Anna led the crowd into a session of relaxing yoga as she told a story, while Kara was behind a screen using sand, paper, and light to draw the story, while Rayyn accompanied them with his music.

SHADOW PLAY. With sand, a projector and a screen, Kara draws the story as it is told. Photo by Darwin Cayetano

“Earth is 4 billion years old. And it could go on for many billion more. The longest recorded human life is 122 years. The earth is a temporary home. Why should you care?” asked Maribel Garcia, The Mind Museum's curator. (We earlier attributed this quote to Anna Cortez. Our apologies.)

“Because everyone who you have ever known and will ever know has lived in this place called earth. We love the earth. Because we cannot fight for what we do not love. We acknowledge that for Earth Day.”

LIVE MURAL. With homemade edible paint, Kara Escay draws on the canvass an earthly scene which is also a woman with a heart. Photo by Darwin Cayetano

The Mind Museum also set up a video conference with Blaise Kuo Tiong, a Filipino scientist whose research on neutrino detection requires him to be in the coldest continent on Earth, Antarctica.

More science

Earth Day is commonly associated with activities such as recycling and topics such as climate change. But at the museum, they thought of a different way of celebrating this occasion.

"As a science museum, we need to communicate the facts about what we know about the earth. We therefore chose the activities to illustrate the planet's natural history (through a fossil workshop and through Blaise's studies in Antarctica) and our own reflections and expressions about the planet as our home (through Carl Sagan's 'Pale Blue Dot' and My Masterpiece's arts and movements show) as well as exciting new research on the very small – neutrinos," said Carlie Dario, one of the museum's mind movers.

"I think this is a balance between learning about the evolution of this 4.6-billion-year-old home and appreciating what else there is to learn about it and even about ourselves as its inhabitants," he said. - Rappler.com

Christine Chan is a budding mathematician. She graduated with a BS Applied Mathematics degree and is currently completing her research degree at the University of the Philippines. She loves to write on topics of science, technology and philosophy.