U-M Exhibit Museum ID Day

continued

I try not to look at the spider collection, but I do overhear a gentleman explaining how to collect a spider web. You shoo away the spider, spray black spray paint onto the web, and then walk right through it with paper to gather an impression — from which, I gather, one can identify the spider.

Way upstairs, a geologist isn't sure whether the stone my son retrieved from the lake bottom is a fossil or not. I don't care, really; to me this little rock is a living being. It looks just like a sea lion, with perfectly shaped eyes and a smiling mouth. What I find most fascinating is that this little sea-lion rock absorbs water — sucks it right up. The geologist and I discuss what he calls the "Gaia theory" — that planet Earth functions like a single organism. I tell him I'm glad to hear it.

This year's U-M Exhibit Museum ID Day is Sunday, October 7.

[Review published October 2007]