1999: Right Here, Right Now

Every time visitors came to the museum this year, there was something new to see and do. And it’s all still waiting for you!

Everyone’s favorite robotic tour guide—"Chips"--leads the way after you ask the questions that send him searching among the dinosaurs for answers. Now, students can even communicate with Chips from their classroom at school—a real-time educational adventure via the Internet. Ask your science teacher about taking a virtual field trip to the museum! 

This hall is more sensational than ever. Quetzalcoatlus northropi , the largest flying dinosaur of all time, soars high above its earth-bound reptilian companions. Want to know how a dinosaur expert handles fossils? You can look over the shoulder of a paleontological preparator at work right in the hall. And every hour, the entire hall comes alive with sound and light. A professionally produced multi-media show—the first of its kind in a museum dinosaur exhibit—displays the Carnegie dinosaurs in all their glory and creates the illusion that the beasts are moving within the room.

And don’t forget to visit Dippy! "Dippy" showed up in July and quickly become a Pittsburgh landmark. Just in time for the turn of the millennium, the museum unveiled this giant tribute to its most famous exhibit--a full-scale replica of Diplodicus carnegii right outside the museum. 
 
 

"What’s New on the Earth" opened this fall, an exhibit that’s always changing, just like the earth. Each and every day, breaking news about earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and weather formations is delivered at this fast-paced, electronic exhibit. A video wall broadcasts the latest and greatest scientific news via Discovery Channel and other news sources. Hands-on and interactive, the new exhibit provides a real-time update on world-wide seismic activity, as well as oceanic and meteorological data. Pennsylvania geology is also highlighted, including a multi-media look at the geologic events that shaped our region’s rivers, hills and forests. 
 

Making News in ‘99 

Carnegie Museum of Natural History is making news, not just reporting it. Our scientists do groundbreaking work that helps to put together the puzzle of evolution and prehistoric life.

In 1999, Carnegie paleontologist Luo Zhexi and his colleagues explained the evolutionary significance of a now-extinct Mesozoic mammal whose skeleton was found in the "Feathered Dinosaur" excavation site in China. Luo and colleagues concluded that the triconodont was indeed capable of walking—a fact that shows a more complex evolution of mammals than was previously thought. 

Luo’s work was the subject of media coverage in more than 22 countries. The Discovery Channel came to the museum to meet Dr. Luo and to learn more about our outstanding dinosaur collection. Chips, the robotic tour guide in Dinosaur Hall, and dinosaur artists Mark Klingler and Michael Skrepnick were also featured. Alan Alda, host of Scientific American Frontiers, also came to the museum in 1999 to film a segment on the museum’s use of interactive robots and other high tech approaches to museum education.

• Bugbot, an amazing new exhibit on the first floor, allows you to see the world from the viewpoint of an insect. A state-of-the-art miniature robotic camera is mounted inside a colony of scorpions. A joystick maneuvers Bugbot around the cockroaches’ museum home—a 12 x 24" aquarium. An enlarged image of the live roaches is projected on a screen, allowing the human viewer to see the world as these insects do. Bugbot is a product of a partnership between Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and the Toy Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, in conjunction with the Human-Computer Interaction Institute.

• a new place to snack—"Fossil Fuels Refreshments"—designed for young earthlings and their parents. 

• an ancient Egyptian tomb, and 

• a space shuttle in "Earth Revealed"

Carnegie Lectures on Environmental Change 

An exciting series from Sepember through May explores our changing global environment. Museum of Art Theater, the second Monday of each month, 7:00-830pm.

November: E. Brown-Weiss: International law and global environmental change 
 

December:

An Inuit Carver in Polar World 

November 6, noon to 2:00 pm.

Camilla, the talented daughter of a famous sculptor, demonstrates traditional Inuit carving techniques. Part of a large and loving family, her gently rounded forms of mother and child, father and son, and animals like the musk ox, are sought after by collectors of Inuit art around the world.
 

Planet Golf 

Bigger and Better in 2000

From Pow-Wow to Wow!

Year 2000 Carnegie Lectures on Environmental Change

The popular lecture series continues in with talks about Detecting Climate Change, Defining "Sustainability," Vector-borne Diseases, and other vital environmental issues.
 

Pow-Wow

May

The Council of the Three Rivers American Indian Center will present its third annual powwow, a traditional ceremony of dance and song in May. This special event, which highlights the museum’s Alcoa Foundation Hall of American Indians, is an exciting outdoor activity celebrating the culture of American Indian tribes. Mark your calendar now for this weekend of traditional song, dance, arts, crafts and food. 
 

More Dinosaurs!

A new exhibit scheduled for the Changing Exhibits Gallery next summer, "T. Rex on Trial," throws out a big question: Was T. Rex a ferocious hunter or a scavenger? We provide compelling evidence for both sides. You decide.
 

Carnegie Gem and Mineral Show  

August

Preservation Fair

October