ENG-2004 — Page 508

438 Recreation, Sport and the Arts

bringing quality exhibitions to their audience through effective sharing of resources. Under this programme, the Planetary Landscapes exhibition was brought to Hong Kong in early 2004. In addition to Chabot, the Dragon Skies exhibition will also tour several museums in the States till April 2007.

Flowers in the Mirrors was staged at the Palais de la Découverte, Paris, France for almost six months from September 13 as one of the exchange programmes of the France-China Cultural Years. Featuring about 60 intriguing exhibits, the exhibition not only invited the international visitors to explore the wonderful world of mirrors and their related science, but also introduced famous Chinese literature to them.

Studies on human specimens for medical research were difficult in the early days, as the bodies would decay soon after death. It was not until 1978, when a breakthrough technique known as plastination was invented that long-term preservation of body parts became possible. Plastination has the benefits of preserving organs in their natural shape for an indefinite period. Plastination has made a valuable contribution to the learning and teaching of anatomy. This preservation technique was witnessed in the body parts exhibition from August 20 to December 5, which featured over 100 plastinated human parts.

With aims of introducing scientific research projects of local universities and disseminating knowledge of frontier technology, the Science News Corner staged four thematic exhibitions in 2004. The exhibitions, jointly developed by academics and museum professionals, were the result of successful collaboration between universities and the museum in popularising science. To keep citizens abreast of scientific advancement and technological breakthrough, new exhibitions will be launched regularly in the gallery.

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On June 20, the museum organised two special activities to celebrate Father's Day Search Out Exhibits and Origami Workshop which attracted 250 parents and children. In early August, a new attraction for family visitors, the Summer Science Week was launched with 80 activities of various kinds including booth games, exhibitions, guided tours,

tours, experiment classes, workshops, family activities, demonstrations and popular science lectures. Bringing out a key message of 'learning science is fun', the nine-day Science Week attracted 13 000 participants.

Jointly organised by the Hong Kong Science Museum, the Hong Kong Central Library, the China Association for Science & Technology and Beijing-Hong Kong Academic Exchange Centre, the Distinguished Chinese Scientist Lecture Series were delivered by five renowned scientists from the Mainland and Hong Kong on October 16 and 17. They shared with the audience their experience and stories of discovery behind their research, enabling people to get to know the great achievements of the Chinese scientists in frontier research. The two-day event recorded 1 200 participants. The museum also joined hands with the Education and Manpower Bureau to arrange a Meeting with Scientists for a group of 50 secondary school students.

From December 1 to 4, the museum hosted an international conference Asia Pacific Network of Science and Technology Centres Conference 2004 the fifth in its series with 'science centres: nurturing creativity' as its theme. During the four-day