Last week Tom and I decided that we needed to explore our still newish-to-us adopted city (we’ve been in New Mexico just over a year and a half), so an Albuquerque field trip day was declared. Off we headed NOT to anything fiber-related, not even anywhere remotely art-centric. Nope, we decided that it was time to visit the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. The website blurbs:
The Museum’s mission is “to serve as America’s resource for nuclear history and science. The Museum presents exhibits and quality educational programs that convey the diversity of individuals and events that shape the historical and technical context of the nuclear age.”
We are in New Mexico, and I’m sure you all remember the role the state played in the years leading up to the bombing of Hiroshima at the end of World War II: Los Alamos; the Manhattan Project; the Trinity nuclear test; and so on. The museum takes you back there, certainly, but it also has exhibits on radiation and its history, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cold War, nuclear power, nuclear medicine, nanotechnology, nuclear waste
transportation, and atomic pop culture (Jimmy Neutron, anyone?). Heritage Park is out in the “backyard” and consists of planes, rockets, bombs, cannons, missiles, and other interesting, historical “paraphernalia” to explore.
Given the tenor of the country these days, not to mention North Korea and its recent antics, I have to say that I looked at the place a little differently than I might have a year ago. And while the building looks modest from outside, there’s much too much to see and learn in one visit; we barely scraped the surface of anything after the Cold War. (The door to the outdoor attractions happens to be there, and you’ll spend a while outside.)
If you’re in the area, after you give me a call or an email to say hello, of course, head over to the Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque. History’s important; you know how we can’t help but repeat it. Not!
PS – If you have kids, you can bring them too, especially school age, maybe 9 and older. Little Albert’s Laboratory (as in Einstein; not to be mistaken for FAT Albert’s Laboratory) was hands-on learning about physics. Very cool, though by the time we got there, Tom was getting a little cranky. He only gave me about five minutes to play. Thank goodness we have company coming in May. Back to Little Albert’s Laboratory I go!
