Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
One tradition at the New York Hall of Science gala is that guests must do something scientific before they’re allowed to eat dinner. This year, the just-retired chief executive of the hall, Alan Friedman, created the “first and largest Corning glassware percussion ensemble” by directing guests to tap on the beakers at their tables filled with varying levels of liquid. The end results were a fair rendition of “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” and a brief lesson in physics.
The black-tie crowd was also exposed to science through a portable planetarium and a giant bubble-making station that were placed in the hall, which is located on the 1964 World’s Fair grounds in Queens. The key message of the evening was not that science is all fun and games, but that making science fun can help the hall create future technology leaders.
“Opening young people’s minds to careers in technology is what the New York Hall of Science is all about,” the chairman and chief executive of Lucent Technologies, Patricia Russo, said. “It’s a truly noble mission and an important one because we don’t have a lock on these capabilities” in America.
Other technology company executives who were honored at the event — the scions of Corning International, brothers James and Amory Houghton, and the chairman and chief executive of ITT Corp., Steven Loranger — expressed similar ideas.
Truck McDonald, 22, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is an example of how the hall has stimulated young people’s interest in science. Mr. McDonald has served as an explainer — demonstrating exhibits to visitors — since his freshman year of high school. He is now a senior at John Jay College, studying forensic science. “Unfortunately, I am going to have to retire as an explainer when I get a full-time job,” Mr. McDonald said. “I’m looking at the NYPD and the FBI.”
The day of the gala marked the first day on the job for the new chief executive of the hall, Marilyn Hoyt, who takes the post as the hall marks its 20th anniversary.
Honoree William Golden, who initiated the office of science adviser to the president under President Truman, and has led the boards of the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Academy of Science, gave Ms. Hoyt some advice.
First, he said, look for symbiosis with the Black Rock Forest, the 4,000-acre forest in Cornwall, N.Y. “It could be a country campus,” Mr. Golden said. “And second, explore a relationship with the New York Academy of Science.” Board members have long talked about having a satellite presence in Manhattan.
It would certainly be a noble goal to get more people to visit the hall on its own premises, a few blocks away from the 7 train. There they will find more than 400 interactive exhibits including sports challenges, which teach the science behind rock climbing, pitching balls, surfing, and arm wrestling. There’s more to come: An expanded science playground opens this summer and an exhibit on the human genome opens in February. It features a 25-foot-long model of the double helix and hereditary slot machines, which demonstrate the odds of inheriting genes for certain characteristics.
