Youth & Family Events
The James Webb Space Telescope
Tuesday, June 1, 2010, 11:00 AM - Sunday, June 6, 2010, 6:00 PM
Battery Park
The world’s most powerful future space telescope arrived in New York City as part of the World Science Festival. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will allow us to unveil the very first galaxies formed in the Universe and discover hidden worlds around distant stars when the mission launches in 2014. For six days in June, a full-scale model of this successor to the famed Hubble Space Telescope was on public view in Battery Park. read more
Astronomy's New Messengers: The Exhibit
Listening to the Universe with Gravitational Waves
Wednesday, June 2, 2010, 10:00 AM - Sunday, June 6, 2010, 8:00 PM
Broad Street Ballroom
Open daily June 2 -6, from 10:00am to 8:00pm.
Experience the power and beauty of LIGO, a new kind of telescope—one that observes not light but gravitational waves from millions of light years away. read more
From the City to the Stars: Star-gazing
with the Webb Telescope
Friday, June 4, 2010, 8:00 PM - 11:00 PM
Battery Park
Join professional and amateur astronomers at the base of the full-scale, tennis court-sized James Webb Space Telescope model for a free evening of star-gazing in Battery Park. John Mather, Nobel laureate and the Webb telescope’s senior project scientist; John Grunsfeld, astronaut, physicist and “chief repairman” of the Hubble Telescope and planetary astronomer Heidi Hammel, with journalist Miles O’Brien moderating, will be with us to talk about the discoveries anticipated when the world’s most powerful space telescope, the successor to the Hubble, launches in 2014. Hayden Planetarium Director, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, will host the stargazing party to follow. It will be a festive evening of appreciating the vast wonders of the cosmos. Bring your telescope if you have one or plan to use one of the dozens we’ll have set up. read more
Mathemagician and the Mathemagician's Apprentice
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Tishman Auditorium, The New School
Mix math with magic and the result is thrilling. Mathemagician Arthur Benjamin returns in an encore presentation, with mesmerizing feats of mental mathematical gymnastics. Followed by Mathemagician's Apprentice, at Wollman Hall, where Benjamin will divulge his secrets of doing lightning-fast mental math.
Tickets to Mathemagician's Apprentice available for an additional fee. Apprentice limited to 50 people, ages ten and older, and is an hour long. read more
Einstein, Time and the Explorer's Clock
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Kimmel Center, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium
Back by popular demand, Nobel prize-winning physicist William Phillips takes us on a voyage to the lowest temperatures ever recorded. What is an atomic clock and why do they keep better time when they’re cold? And just what is the relationship between speed, temperature and relativity? Phillips shows us with jaw-dropping experiments what happens when ordinary objects are taken to the edge of absolute zero. read more
All Creatures Great And Smart
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
NYU Skirball Center
Join leading scientists—Brian Hare, Vanessa Woods, Jeremy Niven, Patrick Hof and Klaus Zuberbühler—whose research is challenging long-held assumptions about the differences between “animal” and “human”—and learn about pin-sized brains that can count, categorize, and hold a grudge against those who’ve tried to swat them. Does your dog really think and feel like a human? Do our closest primate relatives have brains and emotions similar to ours? What about the storied intelligence of dolphins and singing humpback whales? And do other species hold surprises for us if we’re willing to look closely?
Ages 10 and up. read more
Cool Jobs
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Kimmel Center, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium
Imagine hunting extraterrestrial life for a living. Or getting paid to study South African penguins. Meet scientists with some of the coolest jobs in the world; watch as a neuroscientist scans a brain and a robot inventor brings his complex and novel creations to life. Get inspired by the possibilities. Participants include roboticist Dennis Hong, neuroscientist André Fenton, extraterrestrial life hunter Jill Tarter and aquatic biologist Pamela Schaller; Josh Zepps moderates. read more
World Science Festival Street Fair
Sunday, June 6, 2010, 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Washington Square Park
The New York University/Washington Square Park area will become a science wonderland when the World Science Festival Youth and Family Street Fair returns to New York City on Sunday, June 6. This free, day-long extravaganza showcases the intrigue and pure fun of science with a non-stop program of interactive exhibits, experiments, games, and shows, all meant to entertain and inspire. Join us for a day of family fun. Click here for a detailed map and schedule. Some highlights of this year's Fair include: read more
Astronaut Diary: Life in Space
Sunday, June 6, 2010, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Kimmel Center, Rosenthal Pavilion, NYU
Astronauts who've lived on the International Space Station and “walked” in space tell all: what it's like to ride on a space ship, and to eat, sleep, exercise, and even do science—in space. Come hear firsthand from the world’s most intrepid explorers—including astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Leland Melvin and Sandra Magnus—and Dava Newman, designer of an innovative spacewalking suit, about what it’s like to soar upward and leave our home, planet Earth, behind. read more
Icarus at the Edge of Time
Sunday, June 6, 2010, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
NYU Skirball Center
What if Icarus traveled not to the sun but to a black hole? This 40-minute 62-piece orchestral work is a mesmerizing adaptation of Icarus at the Edge of Time, Brian Greene’s book for children. A re-imagining of the Greek myth, which brings Einstein’s concepts of relativity to visceral, emotional life, it features an original score by Philip Glass, script adapted by Greene and David Henry Hwang and film created and directed by Al + Al. Performed live with narrator Liev Schreiber and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Brad Lubman. read more