HMNS’ New High-Tech Science Exhibition Shown Off In a Special VIP Sneak Preview — Big Bangs and Elemental Fun Are Coming
When No One Wants to Leave The Hall For Dinner
BY Shelby Hodge // 11.13.23
People are intrigued by experiments under way at the HMNS Welch Hall Demonstration Lab presented by Shell USA Inc. (Photo by Mike Rathke, HMNS Photographer)
How could one resist a cocktail dubbed The Big Bang Theory or The Mad Scientist, both of which would have been suitable libations (with or without alcohol) for strolling through the interior of a mammoth brain or taking a spin on the interactive dance floor that doubled as a Periodic Table of the Elements? Such was the scientific fun at the Houston Museum of Natural Science‘s reimagined Welch Hall that lucky attendees, invited to this preview, could hardly be persuaded to depart the hall for dinner.
Chao, Joel Bartsch, Anne Chao, Bobbie Nau, Albert Chao at the preview of HMNS’ re-imagined Welch Hall: Matter & Motion (Photo by Mike Rathke, HMNS Photographer)
Quantum chemistry and astrophysics have never been so interesting as on this night and as it will be when “The Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation presents The Welch Hall: Matter & Motion” (the official exhibition title) opens in March, just in time for next year’s Spring Break.
Major museum donors, top patrons and the board of trustees were invited on this evening to tour the totally engaging 15,000-square-foot exhibition space, which is not yet completed. The attendees got to experience DNA collecting, create polymers, shatter roses and shrink balloons in the Chemistry Demonstration Lab presented by Shell USA Inc., tour a realistic replica of a 16th century alchemist’s laboratory and explore the growth of alchemy across the globe. And so much more.
As intriguing as the exhibits, the creative cocktails from The Grand Bevy were a hit as bartenders in white lab coats concocted drinks such as The Visible Spectrum, which was served in beakers and continually changed rainbow colors, and The Molecular Cocktail, a colorful flavored blob served in a spoon that exploded in the mouth. A decorative touch on theme? Florals decorating cocktail tables were also in beakers.
Once everyone settled in for the City Kitchen dinner in the Morian Hall of Paleontology, museum president and CEO Joel Bartsch provided commentary on the genesis of the exhibition and thanked major donors and members of the Chao family who were in attendance. They included Anne and Albert Chao, James Chao, Carolyn Sabat, Skye and David Chao, John Chao, Elizabeth Chao, and Catherine Chao with Prentice Onayemi.
PC Seen: Bobbie Nau, Nicole and Craig Loewenstern, Richard Loewenstern, Sharyn and Jim Weaver, Terry and Tommy Smith, Sarah and Doug Foshee, Janet and Ernie Cockrell, Gillian Sarofim, Susie and Mel Glasscock, Frances Lummis, and HMNS 2024 ball chairs Michelle and Alan Smith.
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