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VOICE ONE:
I'm Barbara Klein.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.Today we visit the National Museum of Natural History in Washington,D.C.
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VOICE ONE:
"I'll meet you by the elephant." That comment is heard a lot inWashington, D.C. The elephant is in an unusual place. It is in thecenter of a large building on the grassy Mall area of the capitalcity. It is the first thing visitors see when they enter theNational Museum of Natural History.
The African elephant was fiftyyears old when it died in Angola in nineteen fifty-five. It weighedeight tons. It was so large the hunter decided to give its remainsto the Smithsonian Institution. Scientists at the National Museum ofNatural History used the bones and skin to rebuild the elephant.
As you enter the museum, you see a huge elephant that appears tobe walking across the grassy area where it once lived. Visitors ofall ages stop to look up in wonder at its size. Then they walkaround the elephant. They read facts about the animal, hear soundsof its natural environment and watch short films. This is what makesthe Natural History museum so popular. Visitors learn about thenatural world in many different ways.
VOICE TWO:
The National Museum of Natural History is one of the most visitedmuseums the world. From six million to nine million people visit thebuilding every year. More than one million of them are internationalvisitors. The visitors come to the museum to see many interestingthings: Examples of huge ancient dinosaurs. Beautiful rare diamondsand other jewels. Live insects. Remains of creatures that lived inancient seas. Ancient and present day mammals. Objects from African,Asian and Pacific cultures.
The museum has the largestcollection of any natural history museum in the world. There aremore than one hundred twenty-five million objects in its collection.
Scientists have been collecting these specimens for almost twohundred years. The collection keeps growing as scientists workingfor the museum continue to explore and collect around the world.
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The National Museum of Natural History opened in nineteen ten. Itwas the third museum to be created as part of the SmithsonianInstitution. It is a center for the study of humans and theirnatural surroundings through history. So the museum's collectionincludes specimens of animals, plants, rocks, ancient and presentday organisms, and objects related to human development.
Through the years, how the collection is shown to the public haschanged. The newest exhibit is about the history of mammals in theworld. The purpose of the new Hall of Mammals is to show how allmammals, including humans, are related. Almost three hundred mammalsthat look very life-like are shown in their different naturalenvironments.
While seeing realistic- lookinganimals found in Africa, visitors hear sounds of a violent rainstormaround them. Adults look up on the wall to see a video of a giraffe,zebras and a hippo around a water hole. At the same time, childrenlook down at the floor to see a video of what small animals aredoing under ground.
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Hans Sues is the associate director for Research and Collections.He is the chief scientist at the museum. Mister Sues says thespecimens collected through the years help scientists find out howanimals and plant life developed. The scientists learn by using newtechnologies such as DNA research on the specimens. Or they learn byjust being able to study older specimens.
For example, some fishermen and scientists were concerned aboutspots they found on sea animals called crabs. They wondered ifhuman-made pollution caused the spots. So they looked at themuseum's specimens of crabs collected almost one hundred years ago.Some of them had the same spots. This was evidence that the spotshappened naturally.
No one can observe the changes in our natural world duringhundreds of years. So the collections of the National Museum ofNatural History, and other natural history museums, are the only wayfor scientists to observe these changes over time.
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Scientists working for the Natural History museum are doingresearch in fifty to one hundred countries at any time. Mister Suessays museum scientists have been almost every place on Earth.Through their research they continue to find new information aboutthe natural world and its people, animals and plants.
For example, in two thousand three, a team of scientists exploredthe little known islands of Kula Ring, near New Guinea. They foundthree new kinds of fish, five new kinds of insects calleddamselflies, and sixty new kinds of water bugs.
Other museum scientists have made recent discoveries about theearliest history of the solar system, early man, and the continuingdamage to coral reefs. Mister Sues says there are many morediscoveries to be made. This is because there is so much to learnabout the four thousand million years of this planet's history.
Each year museum scientists report their research findings inmore than seven hundred scientific publications. They reportimportant discoveries to the public in newspapers, popular magazinesand on television. Now, the huge worldwide expansion of the Internetis making it possible for people around the world to get thisinformation.
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VOICE TWO:
Millions of people who are unable to visit the National Museum ofNatural History in Washington can see part of the museum'scollection on computers. In the future, museum officials hope tomake it possible for people to use computers to explore all of themuseum.
Robert Sullivan is associate director for Public Programs for theNational Museum of Natural History. He says museum officials areexcited about how the Internet is expanding the reach of the museumand what it can offer.
Mister Sullivan says that for years museum officials have knownthat learning by doing is the best way to teach people. He says thenew broadband computer technology will make that kind of learningpossible. People will be able to take "virtual tours" of the museum.They will be able to use computers to walk through exhibits, moveand measure objects, visit scientific laboratories and ask questionsof scientists. Mister Sullivan says the new Internet technology willlet museum officials create a space to explore, not just offerpictures and words.
VOICE ONE:
The Website of the National Museum of Natural History --www.mnh.si.edu --offers a lot of information. For example, you cango to the museum Web site to find out about the Earth and how itchanges. By typing in "The Dynamic Earth", you can read about howrocks tell the history of the Earth. You can see the famous jewelcalled the Hope Diamond. Soon you will be able to learn aboutvolcanoes.
If you are interested in animals, you can go to the NorthAmerican Mammals site. It is a guide to the living mammals of NorthAmerica with detailed descriptions and images of more than fourhundred animals.
Or you can find out about Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.They explored the western part of the United States in the earlynineteenth century. Computer users can follow the path the twoexplorers took and learn about the plants and animals they found.
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The museum Web site is very popular with computer users and willbecome more so as it expands. Yet the real museum building will notbe forgotten. Museum officials say a visit to the National Museum ofNatural History will continue to be a family education experience.
They are developing new ways to make the exhibits provide alearning experience that works in many different ways. The nextmajor change in the exhibit space is in progress now. Near theelephant, a large new exhibit is being built that will show why theocean is important to understanding the natural world. Ocean Hallwill open in two thousand eight. It will use the newest technologyto help people of all ages learn about life in the ocean. It will beone more way millions of visitors can have fun learning from theNational Museum of Natural History.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced byMario Ritter. I'm Barbara Klein.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS inVOA Special English.