Australian Museum is going overboard

June the 16th will see the opening of the Australian Museum’s Deep Oceans Exhibition. The exhibition sounds very interesting especially as it focuses on those deep-sea creatures that, for some reason, always generate an atavistic shiver up the spine.

I love the fact the Exhibition website features a blog with background information on the creation of the models and exhibits. Even if, for some peculiar reason, you’re not that interested in the deep oceans, it’s fascinating to see how the models are crafted.

According to the advertising, highlights of the exhibition include:

• See amazing glow-in-the-dark sea creatures from the depths of the abyss.
• Discover the deep-ocean sponges that contain cancer-fighting compounds.
• Meet the Museum’s infamous Mr Blobby, a fathead found more than 1000m deep in the Tasman Sea.
• Escape the jaws of an Anglerfish.
• Look inside our replica of the Bathysphere, the first submersible to descend beyond light, and experience a dive to the depths.
• Come face to face with a five-metre model of a Giant Squid – the biggest invertebrate on Earth.
• Feel the enormous water pressure at great ocean depths.

Full details at: http://www.deepoceans.com.au and, if you have a moment, ponder the rather surreal introductory video.

In a sort of related idea, the following picture has been bopping about the interwebs. It shows what would happen if you took all the water in the world and rolled it up into a single sphere and did the same with all the air. Thought provoking.