Mysteries of Aging Revealed
The introductory exhibits lay the groundwork for understanding the significance of aging as a demographic, biological, and personal phenomenon. Visitors consider what aging means and how it impacts them now and in the future. They can analyze aging cells in the body, explore why and how we age, what we can do about it, and identify strategies for healthy aging.

Introductory Panel - What is aging? Is aging a disease? Gradual or sudden? Universal or individual? A loss or a gain? Environmental or genetic? Irreversible or preventable? Explore these questions through colorful flip panels that address what aging is and what it is not.

Age Machine - Come face to face with the reality that time changes your appearance. Sit at this computer station and record a black and white picture of your face. Then, using customized software, enter your current age and gender and watch your face “age” up to 25 years! (8-adult)

Free Radical Attack - What causes us to age? Learn about a major cause of aging—free-radical damage inside cells. First, watch an animated sequence from PBS’s Stealing Time video, which describes this aging process. Then, play a foosball-type game that simulates an energy production pathway inside a cell’s mitochondria. “Free-radical” balls randomly pop off the pathway into holes labeled “cell damage” or “cell repair.” Your goal is to minimize free-radical damage by guiding the “free radical” balls to “repair” holes and away from the “damage” holes. (8-adult)

Longer and Longer Lives - Watch balls whiz up clear vertical air chutes as you form a graph in the air of the changes in U.S. life expectancy over time. When you place your hand over a series of holes in front of Plexiglas tubes, the balls rise on currents of air, graphing changes in life expectancy from 1850 to 2000. Compare the gains in male and female life spans over time and consider how this trend could affect you in the future. (6-adult)

A Sticky Situation - What causes us to age? Feel the “before” and “after” affects of collagen cross-linking, a process that contributes to aging. Stretch and compare collagen fibers in two models and see if you can guess which one is older. Notice how loose and stretchy the “before” model is compared to the stiffer “after” cross-linked model. You can even simulate the process of cross-linking by assembling your own model and observing what happens as links are added or removed over time. (6-adult)

What Can We Do About Aging? - Peer into eight different “nickelodeons,” and view artifacts or props representing choices you can make to promote healthy aging. Actions you can take to help combat aging include: (1) Eat more fruits and vegetables, (2) Floss your teeth, (3) Protect yourself from the sun, (4) Stop or avoid tobacco exposure, (5) Increase your physical activity, (6) Maintain a healthy weight, (7) Challenge your brain, and (8) Socialize with family and friends. Discover that there is no single answer or “cure” but that there are many different choices you can make that can lessen the effects of aging. (6-adult)

You Are Many Ages - Did you know your cells age at different rates? Find out which cells in your body are “younger,” “older,” and “oldest!” First, view your face in a mirror and discover that your skin cells are replaced daily. Select the second button and merge your face with an image of a skull to learn that the cells in your bones turn over more slowly. Push the last button and reveal that your brain cells are rarely, if ever, replaced. Find out which cells are most damaged by aging, which need a steady supply of “building material” to stay healthy, which are at higher risk for cancer, and which are easier or harder to repair. (6-adult)

The Wild World of Aging
Each species has its own story to tell about the aging process as demonstrated in these exhibits on the aging of animals. Visitors can compare life spans of long-lived species, explore the physiological effects of aging on different animals, and consider what our study of other species reveals about healthy aging in humans. Young children are especially drawn to these exhibits on the aging of animals and can even put on a puppet show!

Amazing Aging Animals - Explore how aging varies greatly from species to species in this colorful display featuring six animals (giant tortoise, roundworm, elephant, human, bowhead whale, and quahog clam). Select one of six questions on life span, then choose one of the six animals that best fits that particular “amazing feat of aging.” A computer screen checks your answer and displays more detailed information. Learn which animal has the longest life span, which one shows no signs of physical decline as it ages, which animal’s life span has been extended six times longer by genetic engineering, and more! (6-adult)

Banded Mongoose Puppet Theater - Children play with puppets in a little theater and perform a puppet show, acting out a story about the bond between young and old banded mongooses in East Africa. The puppeteers listen to a recording and see the story in pictures, then act it out with puppets while parents and older visitors watch the performance. Younger visitors find out how animals take care of their elders (as with the banded mongoose), and how this compares with humans and their own life. (3-adult)

Animal Families - Do animals spend time with their elders? Select from a variety of animal families (lion, elephant, orca, chimpanzee, polar bear, penguin, bat, turtle, and human) and learn about inter-generational relationships in the animal kingdom. Discover which animals interact with older and younger generations. Consider what is needed to create this bond with elders, such as longevity and a social structure, and how rare this is in nature. (3-adult)

Older Males or Older Females? - Do females live longer than males? Compare the life expectancy of males and females of different species (humans, gorillas, siamangs, orcas, pilot whales, and Guinea pigs) by watching balls whiz up clear vertical air chutes to form a graph in the air. When you place your hand over a hole in front of a Plexiglas tube, a ball rises on a current of air and graphs each life expectancy. Explore the similarities and differences in longevity of males and females and how gender influences life expectancy in humans and other species. (6-adult)

Older or Younger? - How do animals age? Can you recognize the many signs of aging in animals? Examine teeth, bones, hair, mobility, or growth rings of various species (dogs, rockfish, horses, gorillas, rats, and roundworms) to determine which animals are younger and which are older. Find out how animals change as they age and what causes each visible change over time. Discover the similarities and differences among animals as well as between animals and humans in how they age. (3-adult)

Longevity Parade - Line up 9 animal cutouts (mouse, rabbit, bat, tiger, zebra, hippopotamus, elephant, human, and orca) in order from smallest to largest. Then see if you can put them in the correct order from shortest to longest record life span. Is there a correlation between size and life span? Discover which animals live longer, why larger animals generally live longer than smaller ones, and which smaller animals are exceptions to this rule. (3-adult)

The Amazing Aging Brain
A healthy brain is central to healthy aging. Visitors can examine the changes that occur in the brain over time, distinguish between the effects of disease and healthy aging on the brain, and identify choices that enrich and nurture the brain throughout life.

Amazing Lifelong Learning - How many everyday items from the past 100 years can you identify? The items displayed in this fascinating and colorful collage are arranged chronologically in different decades. How much do you know, and how far back in time can you go compared to say, your parent or child? Consider how much more life experience and knowledge you gain with age. Did you know we have three times more vocabulary at age 45 than at age 20?  Or that the brain has four times the information at age 60 than it does at age 20? (6-adult)

Can Older Brains Learn New Tricks? - Design an environment for an older “cage potato” rat that will keep its brain healthy and stimulate brain growth. You are challenged to furnish a two-story house by choosing from a variety of items such as an exercise wheel, other rats, toys, etc. After you’ve finished furnishing the house, you can score your results and see how well your environment enhanced the rat’s brain function. Discover how exercise, novel challenges, and social experiences enrich the brain. Apply your discoveries to activate your own brain growth! (3-adult)

The Healthy Aging Brain - How does a healthy brain change with age? How do these changes affect brain function? Explore these questions as you scan through several brain images and learn how a healthy brain changes over time. Compare two sets of actual MRI coronal brain scans on a computer monitor:  one series is from a healthy 27-year-old and the other is from a healthy 87-year-old. As you scan through the images, you’ll see the changes that occur in the aging brain and observe the differences and similarities between the two brains. Discover that normal aging of the brain does not impair important functions. (9-adult)

Think Fast! - Test your response time at this computer game devised to measure age-related changes, and compare your results to different demographic groups. You’ll see a set of nine number-symbol pairs at the top of the computer screen and a single number-symbol combination in the middle. As each new screen flashes, your task is to quickly and correctly determine if the single number-symbol pair in the middle of the screen matches any of the nine combinations at the top. Discover how response time changes as you grow older and that there are tradeoffs between brain gains and losses as you age.  (6-adult)

What About Alzheimer’s Disease? - Examine a diagram of the human brain and observe which areas are most commonly affected by Alzheimer’s disease. View a three-dimensional model of the brain and see which sections light up if there are “no symptoms,” “moderate symptoms,” or “severe symptoms” of Alzheimer’s disease. Then peer through a microscope and compare tissue from a healthy brain and one affected with Alzheimer’s disease. Explore such issues as how the disease is diagnosed, what causes Alzheimer’s, which parts of the brain are affected, and what happens to an afflicted person. (9-adult)

Amazing Feats of Aging was created and is toured by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The exhibit was funded by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The exhibit’s national tour is sponsored by MetLife Foundation.