Trip to the San Francisco Academy of Science

Ayda and I finally made it to the Academy of Science today (thanks to member, Ed Walsh).  It was great to drive the Volt--we made the round trip (about 35 miles) all on the batteries.  Plus the Academy of Science is a great place to go; we saw:

• The planetarium show about how the building blocks for life began in stars and then on earth in the early oceans 4 billion years ago, and how recent searches for planets are finding billions of candidates for life in the Milky Way alone.
• The coral reef exhibit with all the beautiful fish, now endangered by increasing acidification of the oceans.
• The living roof of the building with drought resistant local plants providing insulation and capturing rainwater.
• The climate change exhibit showing the graph of CO2 increasing along with temperatures:  The climate change exhibit also had a solar cooker that can be used to help stop deforestation in places where people use wood for cooking (about 800 million people according to the exhibit)

• The three story tall rainforest with all the diversity of life--plants, fish, butterflies, birds, . . . that is threatened by deforestation. 
• The Galapagos exhibit that shows evolution from the rudimentary life forms 800 million years ago through the human migration from Africa about 60,000 years ago.