Body Code/Neurodome (No trailer. Our apologies.)
A brain-body double feature. The Body Code shrinks audiences down to minuscule proportions to discover the many workings of the human body from tip to toe. The second presentation, Neuro dome, introduces us to the humna brain, the most complex object in the known universe. Combined show length: 36 minutes
A whirlwind time travel adventure back to the epoch of the dinosaurs! We have to tell you that we’ve been waiting eons to announce that we have a full dome, computer animated dinosaurs show! A larger than life extravaganza rife with roaring monsters from the ancient age: bounding, stomping, flying, hunting, and foraging frenetically above us. Propel yourself back through the epochs to explore an Earth teeming with Pteradons, Triceratrops and, of course, the ferocious and therefore wonderfully marketable T-Rex And, if we can say so, this is NOT your great great great grandfather’s dinosaur show with slides and lethargic Sunday afternoon nature special narration. Instead, we’re embarking on a causality violating adventure through time to discover a planet dominated by the largest land animals that ever set claw to topsoil. Come back to the Southworth Planetarium and then venture back to the Mesozoic era for a personal odyssey through the realm of the dinosaurs. Show length: 43 minutes
Explore the coral reefs of planet Earth! We learn how coral reefs form, how they’re endangered and how scientists are working to rejuvenate bleached coral. One of the most beautiful programs we’ve ever offered! Show length: 27 minutes
Living networks connect and support life forms large and small—from colonies of tiny microbes and populations of massive whales to ever-expanding human societies. In the California Academy of Sciences’ latest original planetarium show, Habitat Earth, discover what it means to live in today’s connected world. Through stunning visualizations of the natural world, dive below the ocean’s surface to explore the dynamic relationships found in kelp forest ecosystems, travel beneath the forest floor to see how Earth’s tallest trees rely on tiny fungi to survive, and journey to new heights to witness the intricate intersection between human and ecological networks. Show length: 24 minutes
The deep sea is one of the most mysterious and little-explored regions of Earth. We know more about the surface of the Moon than we do about the wonders hidden beneath the waves of our planet’s seas. The deepest parts of our oceans teem with life forms so strange-looking they could be from the realm of science fiction. These fantastic creatures inhabit a realm of underwater volcanoes, engulfed mountain ranges, and vast trenches cut into the crust of the planet. Into the Deep is a breathtaking journey of sea exploration originally created by Ogrefish FilmProductions, adapted and renarrated by Loch Ness Productions. It combines marine biology and underwater geology with a history of deep-sea exploration. Show length: 32 minutes
The show begins in a redwood forest, with the sounds of wind and life. One redwood looms large, until we approach its branches and enter one of its leaves, adjusting our perspective to microscopic scales inside a cell. We see a pared-down version of its inner workings, learning about the process of photosynthesis and the role of DNA. This scene sets the stage for the story of life.
We then leap backward billions of years to the origin of elements themselves. The early Universe contained mostly dark matter, which drew hydrogen and helium together to form the first stars. The carbon and heavier elements required by living organisms came from generations of stars.
We continue our journey, diving into the Milky Way Galaxy of several billion years ago. We approach a region in which stars are forming, where we encounter a protoplanetary disk surrounding our newborn Sun. We arrive at the young Earth, splashing down in deep water to visit a hydrothermal vent and to examine the formation of organic molecules. We then travel above a volcanic island to encounter an enriched “hot puddle” of water, in which nucleotides may have wrapped themselves in protective vesicles. Once life took hold, it radically changed our planet. Earth’s early microorganisms created our oxygen atmosphere—and may have also triggered a global ice age, causing temperatures to drop precipitously and nearly freezing out life on our planet. We continue leaping forward in time, viewing the movement of continents and the changing environment for life, until we reach modern Earth.
We return home to look at Earth once more, circling the modern globe to review the evidence for the story we have heard. Much of what we understand about evolution we have pieced together from the fossil record, but we can also reassemble evolutionary history by studying life that surrounds us today. All life shares a common ancestry and common chemistry, all related at the molecular level. As we learn this, we pull away from individual images of life, and we end the show as we see their three-dimensional distribution form the double-helix strand of DNA. The audience is left immersed inside a representation of the structure of life’s shared origins. Show length: 26 minutes
Earth is a planet shaped by life. From the forests that help stabilize our climate, to the winds carrying life-sustaining water and oxygen to far-flung parts of the globe, the fingerprints of life are visible even from many light-years away.
Living Worlds, an original planetarium show from the California Academy of Sciences, invites you to journey through space and time to examine life as an essential quality of our home planet.
The show takes you on an exploration of the co-evolution of life and our planet, revealing the ways in which life has transformed Earth’s surface and atmosphere over billions of years.
Along the way, you’ll see how light and color can help us spot a living world, even from great distances.
As we ponder what forms life might take in the Solar System and beyond, Living Worlds encourages us to consider how a deeper understanding of our own planet can aid in the search for life across the cosmos, and to reflect on ways we can partner with our living world to ensure our continued survival. Show length: 27 minutes
Join Charles Darwin on an adventurous voyage of exploration circumnavigating the World with the HMS Beagle, to the Galapagos islands where he got inspired for his later theory of transmutation by Natural Selection. In Victorian times many physical phenomena were already discovered and described by natural laws, but life’s most eloquent mechanism was still unknown: How could new species arise to replace those lost in extinction? It was time for someone to stand up and come forth with a Naturalist explanation of this mystery of mysteries. From the comfort of Down House in Kent, Darwin himself will explain the mechanism of Natural Selection to the audience, and support it by showing many beautiful examples in nature. Witness the thrill of scientific discovery by seeing the world through Darwin’s eyes, make observations of the most beautiful natural scenery and let the pieces of the scientific puzzle slowly but surely fall into place. Show length: 41 minutes