Archives

Pramod de Silva ducks volcanic lava, braves sub-zero temperatures and enjoys a submarine ride, right in the heart of Edinburgh.

The earth began to move beneath my feet. As I looked up in horror, a giant volcano erupted in front of me, trapping me in the hot lava flow. The smell of sulphur assailed my nose. My eyes were blinded by thick smoke. I had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. The cascading lava was about to devour me whole. That is, if the unbearable heat had not already vapourised me.

Then a door opened to my left and a cheery young lad stepped into the golden lava river. “Welcome to Dynamic Earth, Sir,” he said, lending me a hand to escape from virtual hell.It was so real, it was hard to believe that I had actually been experiencing a virtual eruption of a volcano. Best of all, I was in Edinburgh, Scotland, which is nowhere near an active volcano. Dynamic Earth, the hands-on science exhibition centre, is the place where it all happens.

Dynamic Earth, housed in a Sir Michael Hopkins designed building vaguely resembling London’s infamous Millennium Dome, is located near Holyrood Palace, opposite the new Scottish Parliament which is still under construction. It is fast becoming Edinburgh’s number one tourist attraction - more than 512,000 visitors passed through its doors in the opening year (1999). All visitors to Dynamic Earth must be prepared to travel back in time, all the way to the Big Bang and the beginning of the Universe.

This “Time Machine” is in fact a huge glass-covered lift whose passage is lined with a brief ‘history of time’ on all four sides. They then disembark to the bridge of a ‘spaceship’ which provides a panoramic view of the formation of the universe and subsequently, the Planet Earth.After my brief adventure in the volcano section, I joined a group of equally excited tourists and continued the tour of ‘Our Dynamic Earth’.

Then we found ourselves in the polar regions, chilled to the bone and praying for warmth. We experienced a virtual helicopter ride over the ice caps, amazed by the sheer scale of the spectacle unfolding below.One minute later, we were literally in a soup. The primordial soup, where it all began. The earliest specimens evolved in this slimy green liquid. The fascinating story of evolution unfolds from this point as Dynamic Earth traces the major landmarks of life on our planet. What would have happened if Dinosaurs were not wiped out 65 million years ago ? Find out in this section of Dynamic Earth.We are then ushered into a ‘submarine’ with five portholes giving views of different ocean habitats - coral reefs, deep ocean, coastal kelp forests, polar seas and tropical seas.

Afterwards, the journey continues on land - tundra, temperate forest, urban, desert and grassland regions.The most striking feature of Dynamic Earth is the rainforest. A tropical rainforest in the middle of Edinburgh ? It defies imagination, but even the real thing cannot be much more realistic.Huge trees, creepers, ferns and undergrowth make it a ‘real’ forest.

Those with sharp ears will hear an infinite variety of animal sounds.But the piece de resistance of the rainforest is the rain - lightning strikes first, the distant rumble of thunder permeates the damp air and finally a mighty shower descends on the forest. This spectacle is repeated every 15 minutes.

By the time I emerged into the ‘Food Chain’ restaurant of Dynamic Earth, I had made a virtual journey covering 4,500 million years and learned quite a lot of things about our planet, Our Dynamic Earth.

Getting there: Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, is one hour by air from London. There are 110 flights a day between the two cities. The railway company GNER has several trains a day from London to Edinburgh Waverly.It can also be reached easily by road. Dynamic Earth is just a turn-off away from the Royal Mile and the Princes Street in downtown Edinburgh.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager