All right, enough of the present tense. I'm writing about past events and will thus tense my sentences appropriately. Note, pictures of the trip can be viewed on my Facebook page until I find the time (if I ever do) to eventually move everything to flickr as Saket has done. At least I made a flickr account before he did!
Today was Father's Day, and to celebrate we spent the morning and afternoon downtown at the Museum campus, followed by a show at Second City up in Lincoln Park. Three of Chicago's finest museums/learning centers, the Field Museum (natural history), Shedd Aquarium (duh), and the Adler Planetarium (more duh), are located on a beautiful part of the lake shore within easy access by foot or car from downtown. Not only are the grounds well kept and the buildings stately and grand, but to walk to the end of the pier on which the planetarium sits is to be rewarded with one of the finest views of the Chicago skyline in the entire city. The only view that rivals it, according to locals, can be found on the South Side at "The Point." But I digress.
We started first at the Field Museum since it's my favorite museum in Chicago so far (granted, I've only visited four as of this post and there are many more) and the one I really wanted to show off. We arrived around 11 and after parking took a nice stroll alongside Soldier Field (which also happens to be right next to the Museum campus whose parking lot is conveniently co-opted during Bears' games). Soldier Field, as the name implies, is a dedication to the armed servicemen and women of the United States who served our nation bravely through many a conflict. It is also home to the Chicago Bears, the only professional football team of the state of Illinois and one Chicagoans (yes, that's the right term to refer to a resident of Chicago, not "Chicagoite," "Chicagan," "Chi-towner," etc...) hold near and dear to their hearts (especially last year when they faced the Colts in the Super Bowl yet sadly lost despite an incredible opening kickoff touchdown run by Devin Hester which was the first of its kind). Back to the museum.
The Field Museum boasts a first-rate collection of natural and historical artifacts from around the world. One of the highlights is a nearly complete (and largest ever found) fossilized skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex known affectionately as "Sue" (named after the archaeologist, Sue Hendrickson, who found her decades ago in South Dakota). Appropriately, Sue greets visitors to the museum almost as soon as they walk in, much like the way the famed Rosetta Stone is kept front and center at the British Museum in London. Sometimes it pays to put the best first instead of last. Along with Sue, the Field has a whole suite of exquisitely preserved dinosaur bones and an excellent display regarding evolution. Instead of presenting this well-supported scientific theory as a bunch of facts on placards, the museum has constructed a "walk through time" in which visitors start at the beginning nearly 4.6 billion years ago and literally move through the ages as they walk through exhibits explaining concepts from tectonics plates and climate change to speciation and extinction. This type of presentation not only conveys evolution as a logical progression of events but explains much of the rationale behind the theory and why its conclusions are so relevant today. A relatively new addition to the exhibit, which is possible due to the efforts of the provost of the museum, and a professor at my university, Dr. Neil Shubin, is known as Tiktaalik and represents one of the long sought-after "transitional forms" both evolutinists (and their "foes" creationists/IDers) have been yearning for as support/proof for the theory of evolution.
Why are there so few fossils like Tiktaalik? Why don't we see more transitional forms if evolution is a gradual process by which one species can become another? Simply put, the answer is far from simple. A large part of the evidence for evolution (both human and non-human) comes from fossilized or otherwise preserved remains that allow scientists to link present and past forms together and see what has changed and what has remained the same. Fossils are great evidence because they can be quantified in terms of size, weight, physical condition (tooth marks, burn marks, boiling, relative age, etc) and age in terms of how long ago the fossil was created (usually by dating the rocks in which the bones are found). They can also help reconstruct extinct species and give us an idea of what older creatures looked like, how they moved, what they ate, etc. In short, fossils open a wide window to the past. These windows, however, are hard to find largely because making them requires special conditions and finding them is largely the work of sheer luck. Windows are also easily dirtied by the elements and fossils are no exception. Contamination from recently dead material can lead to sometimes disastrous misdating of remains which muddies timelines and casts doubt on both evolution and the validity of radiometric dating methods. It is due to all these difficulties that the finding of Tiktaalik is such a big deal. All we need to do now is find more of them. Good luck Dr. Shubin!
The Field kept us occupied for a couple hours and then it was a quick bite to eat at the Corner Bakery in the museum (quite delicious actually). After our brief rest we headed further out onto the pier to the Adler Planetarium which was free that day. Unfortunately, our time there was all too brief since we had to make our way up to Lincoln Park in time to catch our Second City show. I mean to go back there at some point. I've always been a space geek and this planetarium, though geared towards young people, ain't half bad.
The Second City is an improvisational comedy club whose reputation stems from the fact that many well-known and beloved comedians (from Jim Belushi to Tina Fey) got their start/big break by being on the SC cast. "Second City" is also a nickname for Chicago since, for the longest time, Chicago was "second" after New York City in terms of population and size. Currently, Los Angeles holds the title of "second city" though Chicago could reclaim the name if it wins the bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.
As this post is getting rather lengthy, I'll continue the rest of the story in the next one.
Today was Father's Day, and to celebrate we spent the morning and afternoon downtown at the Museum campus, followed by a show at Second City up in Lincoln Park. Three of Chicago's finest museums/learning centers, the Field Museum (natural history), Shedd Aquarium (duh), and the Adler Planetarium (more duh), are located on a beautiful part of the lake shore within easy access by foot or car from downtown. Not only are the grounds well kept and the buildings stately and grand, but to walk to the end of the pier on which the planetarium sits is to be rewarded with one of the finest views of the Chicago skyline in the entire city. The only view that rivals it, according to locals, can be found on the South Side at "The Point." But I digress.
We started first at the Field Museum since it's my favorite museum in Chicago so far (granted, I've only visited four as of this post and there are many more) and the one I really wanted to show off. We arrived around 11 and after parking took a nice stroll alongside Soldier Field (which also happens to be right next to the Museum campus whose parking lot is conveniently co-opted during Bears' games). Soldier Field, as the name implies, is a dedication to the armed servicemen and women of the United States who served our nation bravely through many a conflict. It is also home to the Chicago Bears, the only professional football team of the state of Illinois and one Chicagoans (yes, that's the right term to refer to a resident of Chicago, not "Chicagoite," "Chicagan," "Chi-towner," etc...) hold near and dear to their hearts (especially last year when they faced the Colts in the Super Bowl yet sadly lost despite an incredible opening kickoff touchdown run by Devin Hester which was the first of its kind). Back to the museum.
The Field Museum boasts a first-rate collection of natural and historical artifacts from around the world. One of the highlights is a nearly complete (and largest ever found) fossilized skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex known affectionately as "Sue" (named after the archaeologist, Sue Hendrickson, who found her decades ago in South Dakota). Appropriately, Sue greets visitors to the museum almost as soon as they walk in, much like the way the famed Rosetta Stone is kept front and center at the British Museum in London. Sometimes it pays to put the best first instead of last. Along with Sue, the Field has a whole suite of exquisitely preserved dinosaur bones and an excellent display regarding evolution. Instead of presenting this well-supported scientific theory as a bunch of facts on placards, the museum has constructed a "walk through time" in which visitors start at the beginning nearly 4.6 billion years ago and literally move through the ages as they walk through exhibits explaining concepts from tectonics plates and climate change to speciation and extinction. This type of presentation not only conveys evolution as a logical progression of events but explains much of the rationale behind the theory and why its conclusions are so relevant today. A relatively new addition to the exhibit, which is possible due to the efforts of the provost of the museum, and a professor at my university, Dr. Neil Shubin, is known as Tiktaalik and represents one of the long sought-after "transitional forms" both evolutinists (and their "foes" creationists/IDers) have been yearning for as support/proof for the theory of evolution.
Why are there so few fossils like Tiktaalik? Why don't we see more transitional forms if evolution is a gradual process by which one species can become another? Simply put, the answer is far from simple. A large part of the evidence for evolution (both human and non-human) comes from fossilized or otherwise preserved remains that allow scientists to link present and past forms together and see what has changed and what has remained the same. Fossils are great evidence because they can be quantified in terms of size, weight, physical condition (tooth marks, burn marks, boiling, relative age, etc) and age in terms of how long ago the fossil was created (usually by dating the rocks in which the bones are found). They can also help reconstruct extinct species and give us an idea of what older creatures looked like, how they moved, what they ate, etc. In short, fossils open a wide window to the past. These windows, however, are hard to find largely because making them requires special conditions and finding them is largely the work of sheer luck. Windows are also easily dirtied by the elements and fossils are no exception. Contamination from recently dead material can lead to sometimes disastrous misdating of remains which muddies timelines and casts doubt on both evolution and the validity of radiometric dating methods. It is due to all these difficulties that the finding of Tiktaalik is such a big deal. All we need to do now is find more of them. Good luck Dr. Shubin!
The Field kept us occupied for a couple hours and then it was a quick bite to eat at the Corner Bakery in the museum (quite delicious actually). After our brief rest we headed further out onto the pier to the Adler Planetarium which was free that day. Unfortunately, our time there was all too brief since we had to make our way up to Lincoln Park in time to catch our Second City show. I mean to go back there at some point. I've always been a space geek and this planetarium, though geared towards young people, ain't half bad.
The Second City is an improvisational comedy club whose reputation stems from the fact that many well-known and beloved comedians (from Jim Belushi to Tina Fey) got their start/big break by being on the SC cast. "Second City" is also a nickname for Chicago since, for the longest time, Chicago was "second" after New York City in terms of population and size. Currently, Los Angeles holds the title of "second city" though Chicago could reclaim the name if it wins the bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.
As this post is getting rather lengthy, I'll continue the rest of the story in the next one.
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