A couple of years ago, an interactive exhibit made a big splash at Boston's Museum of Science and has been riding a wave of popularity ever since. Called the Virtual Fishtank, the permanent exhibit is a 2200-foot digital undersea world in which museum visitors can build, release, and interact with virtual fish to gain a better understanding of how complex living systems work. Recently, the exhibit's developers, Nearlife Inc., in collaboration with the museum, began testing the Internet waters by creating www.VirtualFishtank.com, a first-of-its-kind online extension of a museum exhibit. From the site, users can create fish in a manner similar to that employed by museum visitors, and can either release the fish directly into the museum tank or save and tag the fish for later retrieval and release at the museum.
展开▼
