Museum of Science

Inspiring a lifelong love of science in everyone - in museums, classrooms and online. We believe in a world where science belongs to everyone.

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

Inside every watermelon are countless microscopic water balloons.🔬🍉

Our friend Chloé Savard, known as tardibabe on Instagram, shows us what's actually happening inside that bright red flesh. Each cell is swollen almost to bursting, distended against its own thin cellulose wall and packed with water, which is exactly why watermelon is about 92% water by weight, and why it splits so easily under the lightest pressure. That deep red color comes from lycopene, the same carotenoid pigment responsible for the red in tomatoes, concentrated here in tiny chromoplasts scattered throughout the cell.

Threading through the pulp are thin, fibrous strands, vascular bundles, the plant's plumbing system, left over from when they carried water and sugar from the vine into the growing fruit. Most of that infrastructure becomes irrelevant once the fruit is ripe, but the traces remain, visible here as faint lines cutting across the field of view.

Look closely enough, and you'll also spot small air pockets between cells, along with the occasional immature seed coat, still soft and white before it has the chance to harden into the familiar black husk. Texture-wise, this is also why an overripe watermelon turns mushy: as the cells age, their walls weaken, and water leaks out into the spaces between them, turning that crisp bite into something closer to mush.

It's wild that something so simple, sweet, cold, and refreshing is really just millions of cells holding as much water as physically possible without popping. Nature's own water balloon.

#science #microscope #microscopy #microscopicworld #watermelon

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

@m1kej And it looks pretty sweet!

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

Maple syrup looks pretty simple... until you zoom in. 🔬

Our friend Chloe Savard, also known as tardibabe on Instagram shows us the microscopic view of maple syrup. As temperatures begin to rise in the spring, sap in maple trees thaws and can be collected, then boiled and concentrated into syrup and transformed into candies, desserts, and just about anything your sweetest dreams are made of.

Although maple syrup is primarily composed of sugar (sucrose), its chemistry and flavor are shaped by a complex interplay of factors like sap collection and processing methods, microbial activity within the sap, environmental conditions, and the packaging and storage of the final product. Not only maple syrup is composed of sugar but also a mixture of water, minerals, organic acids, amino acids, proteins, phenol compounds and even a few vitamins.

Flavors and composition also vary depending on the country it has been produced in! Canada, especially the province of Quebec, where Chloe is from, is by far the world’s largest producer of maple syrup, followed by the United States. It’s important to recognize that maple syrup was first introduced to European colonizers by First Nations, who deserve the credit for this knowledge and tradition!

As you can see from Chloe’s sample, sugar from maple syrup crystallizes over time and it’s mesmerizing to look at under the microscope! 🔬

#science #maplesyrup #microscope #biology #upclose

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

@m1kej @AlexDainis Pineapple is a great summer flavor!

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

Did you know pineapple eats Jell-O? 🍍

@AlexDainis explains how to bypass this and make a pineapple Jell-O mold! The fruit contains an enzyme called bromelain that breaks down proteins, effectively breaking apart the Jell-O when mixed! You can often deactivate enzymes with heat, so if you cook the pineapple, you can make the bromelain ineffective, and add it to your Jell-O!

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

@m1kej It's going to be stellar!

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

Don’t miss fireballs streaking across the sky during the Alpha Capricornids! ☄️

Beginning on July 3rd and lasting until August 15th, this meteor shower is known for its high quality and intense fireballs. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere or southern US, you may see it overlapping with the Delta Aquariids. Peaking overnight on July 30th into the 31st, this shower is visible from anywhere in the world, so don’t miss it!

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Get tickets: https://t.co/wXVxo20NMP

An ancient journey. An epic screen. Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey sails onto the IMAX® Dome at the Mugar Omni Theater!

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A new hero rises. DC Studios' Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow blasts onto the IMAX® Dome at the Mugar Omni Theater!

Get tickets: https://t.co/9ZfgGK1Wyc

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

🌍 The hottest days of summer usually happen weeks after the summer sostice. That's because land and oceans continue absorbing more energy than they release, creating a seasonal lag before temperatures peak.

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

@AlexDainis Want to see pineapple on the microscopic level? Check out this video: https://t.co/JMnLKXYa9O

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

References:

Childs, Stephen. "Chemistry of maple syrup." Cornell Maple Bulletin 202 (2007): 1-4.
.
Mohammed, Faez, et al. "Chemical composition and mineralogical residence of maple syrup: A comprehensive review." Food chemistry 374 (2022): 131817.
.
Perkins, Timothy D., and Abby K. van den Berg. "Maple syrup—Production, composition, chemistry, and sensory characteristics." Advances in food and nutrition research 56 (2009): 101-143.

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

@alivebeatdad79 Something like 20/15 would be better than 20/20!

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

👀20/20 vision doesn't mean perfect vision. It simply means that you can see at 20 feet what the average person can see at 20 feet. Someone with 20/15 vision can see details at 20 feet that most people would need to be 15 feet away to see. So despite its reputation, 20/20 vision is actually average vision.

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

Join us this Saturday, June 27, to celebrate Pride with a dynamic mix of performers, speakers, and community organizations at the Museum of Science. Experience a performance by Boston Circus Guild, hear from scientists like Bryan Bryson, PhD, and Mia Miyagi, PhD, and connect with organizations like BAGLY that help shape the future of science, innovation, and community impact.

Get tickets: https://t.co/lsovIM2H1W

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

Watch our latest microscopy video: https://t.co/X9qNORrwX2

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

References:

Childs, Stephen. "Chemistry of maple syrup." Cornell Maple Bulletin 202 (2007): 1-4.
.
Mohammed, Faez, et al. "Chemical composition and mineralogical residence of maple syrup: A comprehensive review." Food chemistry 374 (2022): 131817.
.
Perkins, Timothy D., and Abby K. van den Berg. "Maple syrup—Production, composition, chemistry, and sensory characteristics." Advances in food and nutrition research 56 (2009): 101-143.

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

Join us on Saturday, June 27, at 8:00 PM for the City of Boston's 2026 LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Party, presented in partnership with the Museum of Science as part of our Pride Celebration. We'll have featured performances from The Femmes, Candace Persuasian and Destiny!

Get tickets: https://t.co/c2ubwVcte4

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

Can colliding galaxies create new stars? 🌌

The @NASA/@ESA/@CSA_ASC @NASAWebb Telescope recently took a look at the Cigar Galaxy (M82), a starburst-shaped galaxy that was previously observed by Hubble. M82 is 12 million light years away, and is in the middle of a galactic merger that will take a few hundred million years. The stellar formation occurring therein is thought to be a direct result of this relatively short-lived merger.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Smercina (STScI), T. Williams (University of Manchester). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

@m1kej What would you do with longer daylight hours?

[Museum of Science @museumofscience]

☀️Would you rather have longer days or longer nights?