Oak Ridge Today

DOE’s public bus tour begins Monday

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s 2013 Oak Ridge facilities public bus tour begins June 3 and continues through Aug. 30. The tour offers visitors a first-hand look at the DOE’s Oak Ridge facilities and provides historical commentary on the transformation of the Oak Ridge Reservation during the past 70 years.

The reservation-wide tour is a popular destination for tourists visiting the area. Since its inception in 1996, the DOE public tour program has attracted more than 29,000 visitors from all 50 states. The three-hour tour allows visitors to see the reservation and learn historical facts and updates on the world-class missions under way in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

AMSE summer camp registration under way

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AMSE Summer Camp

Campers use a microscope during an AMSE Science Explorer summer camp at Freels Bend Cabin in Oak Ridge.

Parents of upcoming fifth, sixth and seventh graders can register their students now for the Science Explorer Camp conducted by the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge.

AMSE educators will lead campers in a variety of science themed activities plus a tour of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and special presentations by ORNL researchers during the two weekly sessions offered June 10-14 and June 17-21 from 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Cost for the week of camp for AMSE members is $150 and non-members is $175.

Both one-week camp sessions, scheduled Monday through Friday, will be held at the Freels Bend Cabin site, where campers will study insects, habitats, water, life science, weather, geology, and fossils. Campers will also do activities and projects with flight, electricity, and robots. [Read more…]

AMSE announces bridge building contest winners

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Bearden Bridge Building High Point Trophy

Bearden High School in Knoxville receives the High Point Trophy at a recent bridge building contest at the American Museum of Science and Energy. Pictured above, from left, are Bearden High School student Hayes Griffin, physics teacher William Schult, and students Jack Li, J.J. Shankles, David Maulick and Bryan Fitzsimmons. (Submitted photos)

The American Museum of Science and Energy has announced the winners in the East Tennessee Model Bridge Building Contest earlier this month.

The contest was held March 9 at AMSE. Students entered 113 model bridges, and 74 of those qualified to be tested, an AMSE press release said. The entries came from students at Oak Ridge High School, Bearden High School, Brentwood High School, Blackman High School in Murfreesboro, Christ’s Legacy Academy, and two homeschool students. [Read more…]

‘Girls of Atomic City’ author will be at March 19 lecture, book signing

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Denise Kiernan

Denise Kiernan

A March 19 community lecture will feature an author who has written about Oak Ridge women and the second world war.

Denise Kiernan is author of “The Girls of the Atomic City—the Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II.”

She will be the featured speaker during the Tuesday, March 19, lecture, which starts at 6 p.m. at the American Museum of Science and Energy. It’s part of the 16th Annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series.

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Post-war photos from Japan in 1945 opens at AMSE

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Joe O'Donnell and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945

A photo exhibit that opened this month at the American Museum of Science and Energy documents the aftermath of the U.S. bombings in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. (Submitted photo)

An exhibit that opened this month at an Oak Ridge museum includes photos documenting the aftermath of U.S. bombing raids in Japan in August 1945 during World War II.

The exhibit at the American Museum of Science and Energy is titled “Japan 1945: Images by U.S. Marine Photographer Joe O’Donnell.” It was organized by the Tennessee State Museum from O’Donnell’s original negatives. It opened Feb. 1 and will be on display through July 28.

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Author of Smoky Mountains Park history book at AMSE on Saturday

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The Great Smoky Mountains National Park BookA history exhibit curator and author will present a program and sign his book, “The Great Smoky Mountains National Park/Postcard History Series,” at the American Museum of Science and Energy on Saturday.

The program by Adam H. Alfrey, curator of exhibits at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville, will draw from public and private collections of vintage postcards, a press release said. It starts at 2 p.m. Saturday at AMSE.

The press release said the pictorial history “boasts more than 200 vintage images and provides readers with a unique opportunity to reconnect with the history that shaped their community.”

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One hundred Westcott photos now on AMSE website

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Ed Westcott Photo on AMSE Website

The 100th photo from a collection of World War II pictures taken by James Edward Westcott, the official U.S. Army Manhattan Project photographer, was added to an American Museum of Science and Energy website today.

During the past year, the World War II images taken in Oak Ridge by James Edward Westcott, the official U.S. Army Manhattan Project photographer, have been scanned one image at a time every Tuesday and Thursday into the American Museum of Science and Energy’s website.

Today, the AMSE website will add the 100th photograph. The picture shows people waiting in line outside the telephone office in Oak Ridge, and it was taken by Westcott in 1944.

“The photos of Oak Ridge taken by Ed Westcott during the Manhattan Project years are invaluable to the preservation of the story of a unique moment in the United States history,” said Julie Kellis, AMSE collections curator.

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Free movie nights at AMSE continue this month

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The American Museum of Science and Energy is offering free admission to three more movies on Friday nights in December.

It’s part of the “Movies at the Museum” series that started in November.

This Friday night, AMSE will show ”The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.” This 1953 film (NR) follows a carnivorous dinosaur that resulted from an arctic nuclear test, thawed out, and started making its way down the east coast of North America, a press release said.

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Free movie and AMSE admission Friday

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The American Museum of Science and Energy is offering free admission and a free movie Friday night.

The free movie is “King Kong vs. Godzilla,” a 1962 film about a pharmaceutical company that captures King Kong and brings him to Japan, where he escapes from captivity and battles a recently released Godzilla.

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AMSE hosts ‘Movies at the Museum’ in November, December

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Three movies, including “Jurassic Park” and a docudrama on the Manhattan Project, will be shown free at the American Museum of Science and Energy in November.

The museum will show three more films in December, including the 1998 movie “Godzilla.”

The showings are part of AMSE’s “Movies at the Museum” on Friday nights.

Here is more information on the movies:

  • Nov. 9—”The Beginning or The End.” This is a 1947 docudrama on the Manhattan Project and creation of the atomic bomb and later bombing of Japan. This movie kicks off “Movies at the Museum.” Many of the people depicted in the film were well-known government figures and scientists who were directly or indirectly involved in producing the atomic bomb during world War II, a press release said. Among those portrayed were U.S. President Harry S. Truman; Gen. Leslie R. Groves, head of the atomic bomb project; and J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of the team of scientists that developed the bomb.
  • Nov. 16—”Jurassic Park.” This film was produced in 1993 and focuses on an age-old fantasy that becomes a reality as dinosaurs are genetically re-created for the greatest theme park in this adaptation of Michael Crichton’s best-selling novel.
  • Nov. 30—”King Kong vs. Godzilla.” This is a movie from 1962 about a pharmaceutical company that captures King Kong and brings him to Japan, where he escapes from captivity and battles a recently released Godzilla.
  • Dec. 7—”The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.” This 1953 film follows a carnivorous dinosaur that resulted from an arctic nuclear test, thawed out, and started making its way down the east coast of North America.
  • Dec. 14—”Godzilla.” In this 1998 movie, an enormous, radioactively mutated lizard runs rampant on the island of Manhattan.
  • Dec. 28—”Dinosaur.” This 2000 film is about an orphaned dinosaur raised by lemurs that joins an arduous trek to a sanctuary after a meteorite shower destroys his family home.

The press release said “Movies at the Museum” is presented by the AMSE Foundation and several businesses and organizations.

AMSE opens at 5:30 p.m. for the series, and the featured movie starts at 7 p.m. in the AMSE auditorium. For links to the six movie descriptions, reviews and ratings, click on www.amse.org for guidance in age or family-appropriate content.

The American Museum of Science and Energy is at 300 S. Tulane Ave. in Oak Ridge.

Atomic Art exhibit opens at AMSE today

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Doomtown XI: The Technicolor Dinner Party

Doomtown XI: The Technicolor Dinner Party, 2011, Oil on canvas by Doug Waterfield (Submitted)

An art exhibit that opened at the American Museum of Science and Energy today features paintings based on the Atomic Age and “Doomtowns,” replica cities built in Nevada to test the effects of atomic bombs in the 1950s.

This exhibit—”an exploration of atomic testing phenomena and subsequent 1950s atomic culture”—is called “DOOMTOWN.” It features original paintings by Doug Waterfield, an associate art professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

“It is a commentary on a bygone age of American history, and is an effort to bring awareness to the past known as the Atomic Age—an age of optimism, technological advances, and unmitigated paranoia,” an AMSE press release said.

The press release said the Atomic Energy Commission, which preceded the U.S. Department of Energy, built the “Doomtowns,” also known as “Survival Towns,” at the Nevada Test Site. Warfield’s paintings were influenced by the photos and film footage that survive from those tests.

“I first became interested in atomic testing while watching some documentaries on the Trinity test and the Nevada Test Site,” Waterfield said. “I was particularly interested in the ‘survival towns.’ These were recreations of what was considered to be the quintessential American town, populated by mannequins, and then lit up by atomic blasts to see what the effects would be. I couldn’t get that idea out of my head.”

Part of his mission, Waterfield said, is to educate the public.

“I don’t want to take a political view on the morality of atomic testing; people already know what to think of that,” Waterfield said. “I want to take this little known aspect of our history as a world power and shed a little light on it—that’s all.”

Waterfield is an Arkansas native who now lives in Nebraska with his family, and his work has been shown nationally for the past 25 years, the press release said.

“DOOMTOWN” is at AMSE from Oct. 12—Jan. 20.

AMSE is located at 300 S. Tulane Ave.

For more information, visit www.amse.org.

ORNL director gives lab update during Tuesday lecture

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Thom Mason

Thom Mason

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason will give an update on the lab during a Tuesday lecture at the American Museum of Science and Energy.

It’s the 15th Annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series, and the talk is sponsored by Friends of ORNL.

There will be a 6 p.m. reception on Tuesday, and the lecture starts at 6:30 p.m.

“This talk should be of interest to the general public, and high school science students and teachers are especially invited,” a press release said.

AMSE is located at 300 S. Tulane Ave. in Oak Ridge.

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