Dynamic Earth

Another guest post from the pen of my Mummy.

Madeleine meets the ancestors...

It's not a conventional science centre - they tell you.  Instead you will board a time machine, and go back to the beginnings of the earth.  Exciting, eh?  The problem is, a visit here really is like stepping back in time - not to 2.5 billions years ago - more like to about 1999 when most of the exhibition was installed.


Maybe graphics have moved on - maybe we are harder to impress in 2012.  Back then, when I was still polishing my Ph.D. and my colleagues in the department were occupied writing the text for this place, I thought the lift time machine was pretty cool  - now it just looks like er... well, a lift.. with some mirrors.  Madeleine didn't even have the courtesy to be scared.  Maybe next time?  Wow... the floor judders to accompany the secondary school explanation of tectonic plates...  and the teenage hosts -  ok, maybe they are older than that, but hey, I'm in my 40s now - even policemen are looking old - well, they do their best, to stay in character.  OK, they are not exactly talented, but I guess they are only earning the minimum wage.

To be fair, Madeleine did enjoy mawling the extinct animals, and I suppose you don't get many opportuntiies to do that.  You can still go see the iceberg (that used to be novel too) and walk through an undersea cave with videos of fish.  There is even one new exhibit - a 3D film exploring different habitats.  Although it had almost no content, it was quite fun, however if you are not old enough to wear the 3D glasses, then all you can see is a blurry screen.  This makes it exceptionally boring for very young children, and very stressful for the mothers of young children!

Finally, you end up waiting at the end for the Star Dome.  It was meant to take us 90 minutes to get round the main exhibition, instead it was nearer 45.  It used to be quite good - a talk on the planets in a planetarium type screen - lying on the floor.  Strangely enough, they have replaced this with a 25 minute dummed down American (but dubbed) documentary on life as a spaceman.

This is what Madeleine and Daddy looked like by the end.

At nearly a tenner to get in, I would save your money, and try the Museum in Chambers Street instead.

Dynamic Earth is at the bottom of the Royal Mile, Edinburgh and  open Wednesday to Sunday in winter.