Le centre du science

Today I beheld an exhibit at the Science Center on the inventions of the most clever man who ever lived - Leonardo Da Vinci. I have loved Da Vinci since I was a little kid, mostly because of his amazing ability to combine science and art. He is truly THE Renaissance Man - beautifully artistic and wonderously creative. The exhibit was about bringing his inventions to life through wooden models.

His notebook of ideas was used to create the mechanic designs - from human mechanics, to war machines, to flight to music. The exhibit itself had amazing interactive displays and showed the nature of the master's mind. 

Above is a pic of one of his flying machines - that he imagined would 'screw' into the air. Below on the left is an organ slash harpsichord instrument that would be belted onto the musician and locked onto their left foot to power it while walking. On the right is a giant lion replica that would walk and play a little drum set near the lion's vocal chords while flower petals would come out of the lion's opening mouth.

In all, the exhibit was really well done, definitely worth a visit before it closes in March. As my dad and I discussed, no matter how much you know about this guy, there is always much more to learn. For example, did you know that Da Vinci wrote backwards and from right to left (so his words are only really legible in a mirror) not because he was secretive but because he was left handed and didn't want the ink to smudge? Ha! Genius.