Life Beginnings at the California Science Center Opens June 18th

LIFE BEGINNINGS opens at the California Science Center on June 18th. 

A brand-new exhibition, Life! Beginnings, opens at the California Science Center June 18, 2021. The first phase of a reimagination of the World of Life Gallery, the visually immersive and hands-on exhibition invites guests to discover the ways humans and all living creatures reproduce, develop, and pass on their genes in order to bring new life into the world. 

​For over twenty years, World of Life has illustrated the ways all living things, from apple trees to honeybees, are more alike than we think. While much of the biology in this gallery has stood the test of time, recent scientific breakthroughs have inspired the California Science Center to revisit this exhibit, creating Life! Beginnings, the first step in building a whole new gallery that will showcase the amazing ways humans and other living organisms survive and thrive on planet Earth.
 
“Life! Beginnings celebrates life's incredible ability to make more life,” notes California Science Center President, Jeff Rudolph. “Guests of all ages will uncover the ways life continues and thrives, in humans and across species.”
 
The exhibition will engage guests with interactive experiences, including: performing a mating dance with other animals; building a baby pigeon by mixing and matching its parents’ genes; and practicing different parenting strategies from the animal kingdom

Life! Beginnings is divided into four main areas:

• Reproduce – Guests will be able to explore models of a life-size Komodo dragon guarding her nest of eggs, and a “corpse lily” (Rafflesia arnoldii), the world’s largest flower that mimics the foul-smelling odor of rotting meat to attract its fly pollinators.

• In the Womb – Guests will experience the human journey, from conception to birth, inside an immersive “womb room”, and view real plastinated fetal specimens.

• Growing Up – Through interactive exhibits and live insects, guests will observe transformational lifecycles.

• Pass it On – Guests will learn how our genetic information and environments interact to influence our growth and development. 

​Life! Beginnings was created with the help of an advisory committee comprised of experts in reproductive health, pediatrics, genetics, biological science, education and more. The California Science Center extends special thanks to Daniel Dumesic, MD, Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UCLA; Kimberly Gregory, MD, specialist in maternal fetal medicine and Director of the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai;
 and Margareta D. Pisarska, MD, a fertility specialist and the Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Cedars-Sinai.

California Science Center and IMAX Theater are located in historic Exposition Park just west of the Harbor (110) Freeway at 700 Exposition Park Drive, Los Angeles. The Science Center is open daily from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Parking is $12, cash only.