Post by Grubb.
The #33 bus got us to the rainy forest leading up to the Arctic University Museum. Outside the museum was an example of a hut the indigenous Sami peoples of northern Norway lived in. If we had the construction students at CNM build something like this we would call it a Hobbitat for Humanity.
The museum had exhibits explaining the geological formation of the Arctic along with fossils that have been found. It also had a great description of Norwegian bird migration. The best part, however, was the exhibit devoted to the Northern Lights. During the winter months Tromsø is a famous spot for catching sight of the aurora borealis. The university at Tromsø has a department devoted to researching the Lights. So the museum has what I’d call hologram booths where, seemingly stepping through a blue-green aurora, scientists and cultural historians go into what causes the lights (solar wind deflected to the magnetic poles) and how they’ve been interpreted over the ages.
A Norwegian scientist, Kristian Birkeland, developed a way of producing the northern lights in his laboratory. Inside a glass container, he placed a tiny model of the earth with a magnet inside. The container was then almost emptied of all air, before Birkeland sent an electric current through it. When he did, he saw a purple light around the poles. A modern version of Birkeland’s glass container (Terrella) is on display at the museum. I pressed a button and created my own northern lights, a sort of God’s-eye-view. Underwhelming. Much better from the human viewpoint. More wonder.