Museum of Science, Boston

Press Release [Return to listing page]

October 24, 2006

BOSTON - Galapagos follows marine biologist Dr. Carole Baldwin from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History on an eight-week journey that is part scientific expedition and part adventure. The large-format film opens at the Museum of Science's Mugar Omni Theater on Sunday, February 18.

Filmed on land and under the ocean surface, Galapagos explores this 19-island archipelago alongside Dr. Baldwin and her team of researchers as they study the same shores that captivated Charles Darwin 160 years earlier. Viewers will follow Dr. Baldwin as she swims alongside familiar species such as hammerhead sharks and moray eels, but will also witness as she discovers those never seen before. Throughout a two-month period, Dr. Baldwin and her colleagues completed over 30 dives and discovered numerous new species of fish and echinoderms including a pencil urchin, a gastropod mollusk, and a sun star, just to name a few.

With the help of the Johnson Sea Link II, a modern research submersible, Dr. Baldwin's team was able to dive to depths of up to 3,000 feet getting deeper into the darkest waters of the Galapagos, than ever before.

Narrated by Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh, Galapagos will run in conjunction with Darwin, a new exhibit at the Museum of Science beginning on February 18, and showing through April 27, 2007. Darwin explores the life, writings, and research of this original thinker, geologist, botanist, and naturalist. The exhibit pays close attention to his theory of evolution and even features live animals including Galapagos tortoises, an iguana, and horned frogs from South America as well as actual fossils collected by Charles Darwin, and the magnifying glass he used to study them!

Sponsored locally by The MathWorks, Galapagos will run in the Mugar Omni Theater at the Museum of Science through April 27, 2007. Mugar Omni Theater admission: $9 for adults, $8 for seniors (60+), and $7 for children (3-11). Evening Omni Discounts are available after 6 p.m.: $6.50 for adults, $5.50 for seniors, and $4.50 for children. Admission to the Darwin exhibit is included with regular Exhibit Halls admission: $16.00 for adults, $13.00 for children, and $14.00 for seniors.