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A Giant New World

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


Video of the Week #40 April 25th, 2012

From:A New World on the Outside of a Raleigh Museum by Scott Huler at Plugged In.


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Source:Scott Huler

Last week, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh opened its new wing, the Nature Research Center. A prominent fixture of the new building is The Daily Planet. On the inside, The Daily Planet is a three-floor, 42-foot-high, immersive, high-definition, multimedia theatre. On the outside, it is a globe – the largest real globe in the world. Scott Huler observed the gradual construction of the Globe, interviewed the people who designed and built it and interviewed the curious passers-by. How does one make such a huge globe accurate? How does looking at a globe change our view of the world compared to looking at the map? How does looking at the globe from below change our perception of the world compared to the usual view from above? Scott explores these questions and more…