New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Review

The wonders at Albuquerque's most popular museum include the simulated volcano (with a river of bubbling hot lava flowing beneath the see-through glass floor), the frigid Ice Age cave, and "Dawn of the Dinosaurs." The only Triassic exhibit in North America, this permanent hall features some of the state's own rare finds. The Evolator—short for Evolution Elevator—a six-minute high-tech ride, uses video, sound, and motion to whisk you through 35 million years of New Mexico's geological history. A film in the Extreme Screen DynaTheater makes viewers feel equally involved. Arrive via the front walkway, and you'll be greeted by life-size bronze sculptures of a 21-foot-long horned Pentaceratops and a 30-foot-long carnivorous Albertosaur. Then, on the flip side of time, the Paul Allen-funded Start-Up! galleries explore the silicon age. Detailing of the birth of the PC here in the Duke City (Allen and a very young Bill Gates came here in the mid-1970s to create software for the Altair kits that Ed Roberts designed on the south end of town, and the rest, well, you know), these exhibitions are a fascinating tour through the early garage days of many such start-ups. It's also done a fair job with the Apple side of the story. Also at the museum is the LodeStar Science Center, whose state-of-the-art planetarium is home of the wildly popular First Friday Fractals show (tickets available online only).