After Dark: California Coastal Sounds

The Exploratorium is your playground after dark! Wander the galleries, sip a cocktail, and choose your own adventure with 600+ interactive exhibits. Peek into our workshop for exhibits in development and the tools and machines that help bring them to life. And don’t miss The Great Animal Orchestra, our summer exhibition featuring a symphony of wildlife sounds from around the world, made visible through real-time spectrograms.

Listen carefully to the secret sounds of the animal world. In this collection of videos created by scientist Karen Bakker she takes you up close to five species and their fascinating sounds, and the stories of how scientists have studied them. Drawing from her book The Sounds of Life, Karen invites you to listen for more than buzzes from bees, reflect on the depth of the “elephant dictionary,” and learn how some plants communicate health through sound—as well as the many ways digital technologies are offering new ways for humans to hear and understand these sounds.

Click here to find out more about this program.