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Went to see Science Express.
Science Express is an initiative of Indian Railways along with others for popularisation of science – thats what I understood.
However, it was a bit of let down. The ‘Science Communicators’ would keep the display monitors fixed – and would not let the visitors operate them – (‘dont touch – dont touch’) whereas these were menu driven monitors !
Then there was nothing that made it useful – nothing that Discovery channel and National Geographic viewers would not have seen before.
Large display panels and posters were the thing. I didn’t find anything that would connect Science with daily life
What happened to all those government science programmes that they aired on DD – where they would connect science with common people.
Here they have displayed panels of neural technology, galaxies etc with little use for ‘popularisation’ of science or even for evincing interest of students of science. It seemed that the technologies on display would make the student more disinterested in science as some esoteric subject – happy to be forgotten.
The website of the same scienceexpress.in puts forth the following objectives:
‘Sciencexpress’ is a state-of-the-art science exhibition on a train traveling around India. It would halt at various towns and cities across the country during which it will remain open to visitors comprising mainly students. During its journey from 30 November 2008 to 30 May 2009, it will travel around 17, 000 km covering 51 cities of the country. This 16-coach fully air conditioned train houses an exhibition which showcases cutting-edge research in science and technology. The exhibition strives to take modern research out of the lab and reveal just how relevant science is to everyday life. It attempts to develop scientific temper among students and encourage them to pursue careers in science.
I am not sure how much it would achieve its objective.
The only good thing was that first time one could see such clean bogies of the indian railway!