Museum of Alternate Worlds

The **Museum of Alternate Worlds** (or **The Maw**) is the world's largest natural and historical museum, located in San Francisco, California.

The **Museum of Jurassic Technology** at 9341 Venice Boulevard in the Palms district of Los Angeles, California, was founded by David Hildebrand Wilson and Diana Drake Wilson in 1988. It calls itself "an educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic", the relevance of the term "Lower Jurassic" to the museum's collections being left uncertain and unexplained.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Museum\_of\_Jurassic\_Technology\_Facade\_-\_9341\_Venice\_Blvd.\_in\_Culver\_City,\_CA.jpg|thumb|Museum of Jurassic Technology, 9341 Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles, served by the Culver City, California, post office
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MJT\_Ricky\_Jay\_dice.JPG|thumb|Rotten Luck: Decaying Dice of Ricky Jay
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MJT\_cats\_cradle.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Fairly Safely Venture: String Figures and their Venerable Collectors
The museum's collection includes a mixture of artistic, scientific, ethnographic, and historic items, as well as some unclassifiable exhibits; the diversity evokes the cabinets of curiosities that were the 16th-century predecessors of modern natural-history museums. The factual claims of many of the museum's exhibits strain credibility, provoking an array of interpretations.

David Hildebrand Wilson received a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 2001.

**The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County** is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large collection comprises not only of specimens for exhibition, but also vast research collections housed on and offsite.

The museum is associated with two other museums in Greater Los Angeles: the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park and the William S. Hart Ranch and Museum in Newhall. The three museums work together to achieve their common mission: "to inspire wonder, discovery, and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds."

The **California Science Center** (sometimes spelled **California ScienCenter**) is a state agency and museum located in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, next to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the University of Southern California. Billed as the West Coast's largest hands-on science center, the California Science Center is a public-private partnership between the State of California and the California Science Center Foundation. The California Natural Resources Agency oversees the California Science Center and the California African American Museum. Founded in 1951 as the "California Museum of Science and Industry", the Museum was remodeled and renamed in 1998 as the "California Science Center". The California Science Center hosts the California State Science Fair annually.

Admission includes access to the permanent exhibits, such as the Space Shuttle *Endeavour* and other prominent aircraft and spacecraft, and to various demonstrations. A separate ticket is required for the IMAX movies, most special traveling exhibitions, and special activities that include a climbing wall, motion simulator, and a high-wire bicycle.

**Griffith Observatory** is an observatory in Los Angeles, California, on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park. It commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin including Downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. The observatory is a popular tourist attraction with a close view of the Hollywood Sign and an extensive array of space and science-related displays. It is named after its benefactor, Griffith J. Griffith. Admission has been free since the observatory's opening in 1935, in accordance with the benefactor's will.

Over 7 million people have been able to view through the 12-inch (30.5 cm) Zeiss refractor since the observatory's 1935 opening; this is the most people to have viewed through any telescope. The space theme prevails in the interior.