'E-Quest: Exploring Earth's Energy'; Liberty Science Center Unveils Major New Exhibit

    JERSEY CITY, N.J., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Liberty Science Center today
 unveiled E-Quest:  Exploring Earth's Energy, a large-scale interactive
 experience that takes an unprecedented journey through the five major sources
 of Earth's energy.  Designed by internationally noted museum and exhibit
 designer Ralph Appelbaum, E-Quest continues LSC's commitment to interactive
 learning through dynamic, state-of-the-art exhibits.  E-Quest is LSC's largest
 new exhibit since its 1993 launch.
     E-Quest has been made possible by a $1 million grant from Exxon
 Corporation (NYSE:   XON).  This grant brings the corporation's total support of
 Liberty Science Center to more than $3 million since its opening.
 
     The highly innovative nature of the exhibition is seen in such interactive
 elements as:
 
     -- A ten-foot-high geyser.  Guests will control valves to create either a
 geyser or a bubbling hot spring by controlling the flow of water in an
 underground reservoir.  The height of the geyser is achieved by the sudden
 introduction of air.
     -- Magma chamber.  A six-foot-tall tank of moving, viscous fluid
 illustrates the natural movement of heat from underneath the Earth's crust to
 the surface through volcanoes.  This large-scale display of natural forces at
 work is lit to suggest the high temperatures at which rock liquefies.
     -- Plasma chamber.  Created by a 16-year-old New Jersey high school
 student, the plasma chamber demonstrates how plasma (ionized air) is shaped as
 it flows through a vacuum.  Activating magnetic field coils will stabilize the
 plasma and make it last longer.
 
     "As a technology-based energy company, Exxon has a special interest in
 science education," said Tony Atkiss, vice president of public affairs for
 Exxon Corporation, located in Irving, Texas.  "Exxon is especially pleased to
 be a major supporter of Liberty Science Center.  Our grant not only reflects
 our commitment to and stake in New Jersey, it also underscores our continuing
 long-term efforts to ensure that American children receive a strong and
 competitive education in science, math and engineering."
     "A science center must keep pace with discoveries in science and
 technology," said LSC President and CEO, Dr. Emlyn Koster.  "E-Quest will add
 a major dimension to our guest experience on the Environment Floor.  It will
 also position this science center as an innovator in closing the gap between
 science and society."
     Ralph Appelbaum Associates have designed E-Quest as a series of five
 energy stations, each representing a different source of energy.  Departing
 from the traditional exhibit style, E-Quest allows the visitor to join the
 exploration for energy, experimenting as geologists, oceanographers, chemical
 and nuclear engineers, etc., as they search the Earth for its energy
 resources.  The designers have used structural elements, such as steel pipes
 and Plexiglas plates, to create the visual sense of being in laboratory
 research conditions.
 
     E-Quest's five energy stations are:
 
     -- Surface (wind, solar, hydro)
     -- Bio-Stored (oil, coal, natural gas, bio-mass)
     -- Nuclear (fission, fusion)
     -- Ocean (waves, tidal, ocean-thermal)
     -- Geo-Thermal (hydro-thermal, hot dry rock, magma)
 
     Guests will have direct hands-on experiences at each of the stations,
 which demonstrate the extraordinary ways humans have explored for and
 harnessed Earth's energy sources as civilizations have developed.  E-Quest is
 a major advancement in exhibition concept and design expanding the boundaries
 of Liberty Science Center's commitment to be a lifelong public resource for
 interactive exploration of science and technology.
     "Ralph Appelbaum's design is a visually arresting and unprecedented merger
 of science and art.  He has grasped the essence of LSC and the complex nature
 of E-Quest and merged them into an artistic and scientific whole," continues
 Dr. Koster.
     Ralph Appelbaum's credits include the acclaimed United States Holocaust
 Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and the recent renovations to the dinosaur
 halls in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
     Exxon, with more than 4,000 employees in New Jersey, has a long history of
 philanthropy in the tri-state region.  Since 1990, for example, Exxon and the
 Exxon Education Foundation have given more than $12 million in New Jersey.
     Liberty Science Center, located in Liberty State Park, Jersey City, N.J.,
 is a major public institution devoted to informal science and technology
 education.  The Center is home to more than 250 hands-on exhibits on
 Invention, Health and Environment floor themes, numerous science-related
 activities and demonstrations, and the domed Kodak IMAX theater, the nation's
 largest.  Four million guests have come to LSC, making it one of the region's
 most-visited family attractions.
 
 

SOURCE  Liberty Science Center