Photo courtesy of the Pacific Science Center
A visitor to the exhibit swishes his gloved hands around in a vat of magnetorheological fluid to feel it morph from a fluid to a solid.

Kids of all ages will delight in Pacific Science Center’s newest exhibition, “Strange Matter.”

Hands-on experiences abound in the more than 40 interactive exhibits on display, which explore the intriguing world of “materials science.”

Encompassing such fields as engineering, applied physics and chemistry, nanoscience and nanotechnology, “Strange Matter” provides opportunities for visitors to investigate the structure of exotic, as well as of ordinary materials, and discover what gives them their unique properties.

The exhibit delves into the fascinating stories behind the things that may seem unremarkable and brings out their surprisingly remarkable, yet hidden, qualities. And it helps link work done in science laboratories with everyday reality by providing tangible connections to items that people use all the time.

In “Amorphous Metals,” for example, kids can drop ball bearings and see which type of metal plate gives the ball the most bounce. They’ll find out that it’s Liquidmetal alloy, one of the world’s hardest materials. And they’ll also learn why it’s so hard and how it can be used to help patients undergoing surgery.

Then there’s Nitinol, the metal that has a memory. When bent, it will return it to its original shape and elasticity with the help of heat.Kids can get a boot to stomp on some flowers made from Nitinol and then blow hot air on them to watch this amazing metal’s “memorable” property in action.

One of the favorite exhibits is “Smash the Glass,” where participants can crank up a 16-pound bowling ball and let it fly into a sheet of glass. The idea here is to see whether or not heat-tempered glass is strong enough to withstand the shock or if the pane of glass will shatter upon impact.Nearby, a counter keeps track of the number of times the glass has been hit.

“Amazing Magnetic Liquids” gets kids to investigate how certain liquids respond to tiny magnetic particles. They can swish their gloved hands around in a vat of magneto-rheological fluid and feel it change from a fluid to a solid when a magnetic force is applied.

And at the “Crystals” station, they can look at a sample of one of the world’s largest crystals, while learning how crystal growth occurs in many types of materials from snowflakes to metal pots and pans.

Another crowd pleaser is the exhibit on foam where children can discover which materials contain elements of foam, from beer, bread and spittlebugs, to space applications from NASA. They’ll watch in awe as a column of foam grows closer to the ceiling and they’ll get a chance to feel the foam, as they find out what purposes it serves.

Then over at “Sand to Supercomputers,” kids can touch the top of a giant form of silicon grown from a seed in a lab and follow the process by which sand is transformed into microchips.

There’s also a great touch table for little ones to make some discoveries of their own through hands-on experimentation.

And there’s even a live demonstration theater, where visitors can witness the incredible properties of aerogel, the lightest solid in the world, or take their turn at some destructive testing with the amazing “Crusher” machine. “Strange Matter” is an attractive and appealing exhibit that encourages curiosity and learning through fun, interactive experiences.