Museums in Sweden: Part 2

Museums and exhibitions have a way of stirring the imagination and teaching you new things, all while having some fun. For this reason, I find myself visiting a new one every month or two. Here’s a couple I went to recently!

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I’ve written a bit about museums before, check out my previous post here: Museums and Art in Sweden. That post was more focused on art and history, whereas my most recent experiences have been about science. So where did I go?

Universeum is a museum that exhibits everything science and nature related. This includes plants, animals, chemistry and technology. You can experience everything from cool Swedish biomes, to a tropical rainforest, an ocean zone and science experiments. Tickets are 190 SEK for adults, which is quite worthwhile if you enjoy the theme and spend a morning or afternoon there.

Here are some examples of the types of exhibitions you can expect:

The Swedish landscape

This exhibition takes you from north to the south of the Swedish countryside. Here you can experience the animals, nature, and landscapes typical of Sweden. Everything from the fish and plants, to the landscapes along the archipelago.

Alongside the exhibition, you get snippets of information about the types of species found, where they’re found, and their importance to Swedish culture. A really nice touch I liked about this exhibition is how it showed some of the human interaction with nature. Typical Swedish archipelago houses, fishing gear, and signs of humanity’s relationship with nature.

A tropical rainforest

I visited Universeum in December, winter time in Sweden. So, walking into this area of the museum was quite an experience – going from near-freezing winter conditions to a tropical rainforest was quite the contrast. The area is warm, filled with lush greenery, and a fine mist in the air.

The rainforest is bursting with life, such as monkeys, brightly-coloured tropical birds, to amphibians and fish.

The exhibition is based on the South American rainforest and was designed to educate visitors about the importance of protecting biological diversity. What better way to do this than allow people to experience it for themselves?

Science and technology

There are some really cool science and technology demonstrations throughout the museum. For example, in the reptilarium, there’s a machine that allows you to hear like a snake. Instead of passing sound through the air, you put your head against metal plate. Then, sound vibrations are sent through the plate, allowing you to hear through your skull, rather than through your ears. Really neat! There’s also a chemistry lab, demonstrations to test your reflexes, and a demonstration that allow you to experience what it might be like to see in infrared.

As a bonus, I went to another exhibition with an interesting twist. This time, it was on campus and the theme was based on the physics of light. It consisted of about 60 pieces –  from optical illusions and puzzles, to interactive pieces. Some of the interactive pieces include a mini mirror maze, kaleidoscopic glasses, fiber optics, glasses that would change the angle you see,  and interactive water displays. Unfortunately, optical illusions don’t photograph very well, but here are a couple of photos:

Some of the displays had puzzles associated with them to help you get that grey matter working! Luckily, there were also a few physics professors walking around, chatting, and explaining more about the displays.

Enjoying a free, science-related museum on campus was fun. Now, on to the next exhibition…

Would you like to know more? Do you have any favourite museums?
Leave your questions or tips in the comments below!