Brooklyn Public Library is now home to a museum the size of a vending machine, featuring videos, holograms, and 3D prints of mollusks.

It’s called Microverse, and it’s a museum the size of a vending machine located inside the Brooklyn Public Library.

The team behind the miniature museum is Micro, a non-profit group.

Packed into the tiny vessel is a plethora of information, presented in the form of text, videos, and holograms. The theme is mollusks, a phylum of invertebrates which includes squid, octopus, and snails.

“This museum here was created by more than 50 people,” said Micro co-founder Charles Philipp. “It’s a lot of scientists, designers, engineers, storytellers.”

Microverse fits in well in Brooklyn Public Library, which already focuses on the four STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering, and math.

One of the exhibit’s items is a 3D printed octopus brain. Naturally, it’s blown up to be many times larger than the pea-sized original.

Also on display is a vat full of slime, representing the volume a snail would need to cross the Brooklyn Bridge.

Good Things Come in Small Packages

Micro’s mission is to create a “fleet” of six foot tall museums. The existing four all have to do with mollusks, but future versions aim to be about math, history, and art.

Thanks to their compact nature, the list of potential locations is almost endless. Micro envisions placing them in malls, airports, community centers, and even DMV offices.

“I think there is no reason to be bored nowadays,” said Philipp. “You’ve got all of this information at your finger tips, so if we can really get people excited by this during their downtime, I think that we’ve done a really good service.”

Next time you’re hanging out in the food court or waiting for a flight, take a look around for a box made of glass. You’ll be surprised at how much you can learn!

Source: Spectrum News NY1