Harvard Museums of Science & Culture’s ‘Scale’ tells the story of how, and what, we measure
Summing up one of life’s greatest mysteries in one word seems impossible. But with “Scale: A Matter of Perspective,” the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture does just that. From the smallest visible speck to a Cepheid star in a faraway galaxy, the universe and everything in it is based on scales of all magnitudes, shapes and sizes, whether seen or unseen, known or unexplored, according to Sara Schechner, David P. Wheatland Curator at the Harvard University Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. “Scale,” on view at the collection’s Special Exhibition Gallery, uses an assortment of rare artifacts to make this intangible concept corporeal. “The kernel of this exhibit originally was to show how apparatus like the microscope and telescope changed the perception of the universe as teeming with things and life at all levels,” said Schechner, who helped curate the show. “But as the planning unfolded, it expanded into looking scale in...