MIPtalk - Episode 4 - Thomas Humphrey

Photo by Amy Snyder

 

To illustrate the reaction that visitors often have when they visit San Francisco’s Exploratorium where he works as the Senior Scientist, Thomas Humphrey tells the story of two 16-year-old Goth girls who came to the museum with major attitude and posturing that betrayed their lack of interest in the surroundings. As soon as they saw a particular exhibit that caught their attention their facade dropped instantly. Suddenly they were like little kids, caught up in the wonder of scientific discovery and how “cool” everything was.

 

Humphrey explains that when you give people respect by saying “this is an interesting thing but we’re not going to tell you what you have to do with it…part of what you’re gonna do is figure it out for yourself” it permeates throughout everything that happens in the building. For him it’s what makes the job worthwhile (and if they exhibit their enthralled by is one that you created it’s even a little better).

 

To learn more about Thomas Humphrey (you can find his bio here), the history of the Exploratorium and Psychics 101 check out the latest episode of MIPtalk.

 

For additional reference we’ve included links to some of the people, places and things discussed in this episode:

 

Exploratorium

Bernard Maybeck

Panama-Pacific International Exposition

Vasco Núñez de Balboa

1906 San Francisco Earthquake

Panama Canal Opening

Presidio of San Francisco

US Highway 101

Frank Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer

The Manhattan Project

American Communist Party

Joseph McCarthy

HUAC

Pagosa Springs

F=MA

Hands on Movement

Milwaukee Public Museum

Association of Science and Technology Centers

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

California Institute of Technology

Echo Tube

Sonotube

Listening Vessels

Parabolic Microphone

Synchrotron Particle Accelerator

Proton

Neutron

Electron

Particle Physics

1 E-6 S

Bubble Chamber

Theoretical Physics

Enrico Fermi

W and Z Bosons

Large Hadron Collider

Cosmic Ray Particles

Black Hole

Ultra High Energy Cosmic RaySPS

CERN

Higgs Boson

Peter Higgs

Higgs Mechanism

E=MC²

14 TeV

Quantum Mechanics

Planck’s Constant

The Physics of iPhone

The Big Bang

Absolute Zero

T=0

Low Temperature Physics/Cryogenics

The Big Crunch

Accelerating Universe

Center of the Universe

Large Scale Structure

11 Dimensional Universe

Worm Hole

2nd Wednesdays

The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose

Pythagorean Theorem

Dancing With the Stars

Flatpicking

Doc Watson

Richard Feynman

David Rawlings

Pandora on iPhone

Gillian Welch

SeeqPod

 

Done