I’ve been restlessly waiting for an invite to visit BGC’s Mind Museum ever since it opened a few years ago. I mean, a real world-class science museum right here in the metro! Any geek worth his salt would’ve probably camped outside its doors on opening day. Unfortunately, traveling extensively has its price; I’m always broke. So there goes my ticket to the museum.

I almost jumped with joy then when an invite finally came my way a few weeks ago to cover the museum’s monthly MindBurst series. This month, they’re celebrating the International Day for Biodiversity and features the theme "Awesome Kinds of Life". It would’ve been a blast if it was a feature on the science of Star Wars but I’m really not complaining. At least I’ll finally get to visit the Mind Museum!

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The first thing one notices about the Mind Museum is its very distinctive brand of architecture. While most structure around the BGC area soars towards the sky, the museum hugs the ground with its sleek, almost organic design. Famed architect, Ed Calma, made sure its form follows its function; he based it on cellular growth and structures. Err… It can’t be more scientific that that, right? Even I don’t understand what that is.

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The museum is divided into five main galleries as signified by their logo; the Atom, Earth, Life, Universe, and Technology Galleries. I like how futuristic the interior of the Mind Museum is. Even their cafeteria looks like a science classroom with its plasma ball and all.

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We were itching to explore all the galleries but we first decided to attend the MindBurst presentation. They have a special exhibit that day called Exploring Ecozones; about floras and faunas throughout the various regions of the world. Uh huh.

To be honest, it wasn’t my cup of tea, but what really caught my attention was the Wild Conversations talk. Isa Garchitorena, an animal behavior specialist was jovially talking about all things wild and was shuffling out cute animals on stage to the appreciative ooohs and aaahs of the kids watching. She’s pretty good at explaining and answering questions from the crowd that I was glued throughout the presentation.

The MindBurst activity lasted half the day and featured other special talks and exhibits like Maps of Life, Why Should We Care about Biodiversity and The Secret World of Ants. I was actually surprised to see Mikey Bustos of Chicharon ni Mang Juan fame discussing the joys of creating an ant farm. Coolness!

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In between presentations, we checked out Mind Museum’s permanent galleries. First was the Atom Gallery where we explored the unseen world of atoms and molecules. Geek stuff right? I hated chemistry when I was in high school but this looks like fun!

My favorite part of the gallery was the part where you touch a metal ball and your hair would stand on end! We let C take the seat on this one since she has the longest hair. We all started cracking up once static coursed through her body and onto her hair haha.

A giant brain swallowed us inside the Life Gallery. It sorta reminded me of the latest Iron Man movie where a hologram of the nemesis’ brain pulsed inside Pepper’s room. But this is no hologram; this is a mega larger than life presentation of a human brain.

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They also have a life-sized butanding (whale shark) on display which is reputedly the largest fish in water (sperm whales are not fishes by the way, so they’re out of the running). I haven’t seen one of these in real life and I assume it would be an awesome experience to swim with these giants.

Before proceeding to the Earth Gallery, we watched a 3D movie made by local film maker Chito Roño as to how the land mass and the flora and fauna of the Philippines came about. It was okay, nothing to really rave about, but still interesting and informative enough especially for the kids.

But the real bad boy of the Earth Gallery is the permanently snarling gigantic T-Rex in its midst. Unfortunately these are not made from authentic dinosaur bones but it is molded from a real one, good enough for me at least. There are real dino bones at the base of the exhibit though, and you can actually touch them too! Cool, right?

The nice thing about the Mind Museum is that all the galleries are interconnected by a tunnel so you won’t get lost inside. You’ll just have to follow a certain path and you’d see everything without doubling back. The tunnel to the Universe Gallery is the craziest of these where a rotating textile of stars and universe swirls around a metal bridge. It can get a bit heady, good thing there are handle bars just in case you get dizzy.

I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t been to a proper planetarium before. I was so elated that we got to watch a planetarium show inside the Universe Gallery! I also saw a controllable Martian Rover inside the gallery too; unfortunately a kid was hogging the thing all to himself so I wasn’t able to drive it. :P

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And last but not the least is the Technology Gallery which is located on the whole second floor of the museum. It features inventions throughout time, from J. Gutenberg’s archaic printing machine to videogames. But the thing I liked the best was the x-ray machine where I got to x-ray my cameras! Something I’d been wanting to do on airports every time but was not allowed to. :D

There were still areas we were unable to explore, like the Botanical Garden and the outdoor Science-in-the-Park, but we were simply too tired to check them out. Well, it’s actually an incentive to go back to the Mind Museum, which is something I really wouldn’t mind doing; the Mind Museum is a total geek heaven!

The Mind Museum
Address: J. Y. Campos Park, 3rd Ave, Taguig City
Contact Number: (02) 909-6463
Rates: ₱600 Adults | ₱450 Children & Student | ₱150 Public School Students & Teachers
Opening Hours: 9:00AM to 6:00PM, Daily [Closed Monday and Tuesday]
GPS Coordinates Map: 14.552256, 121.045642