Immaginario Scientifico Science Centre
Trieste, Italy

The Immaginario Scientifico Science Centre is an interactive museum equipped with the most recent multimedia technology available. The first temporary exhibitions was held in Paris in 1986; the first permanent exhibition opened in 1987, the latest major enlargement dates of 1999.

The Centre is organized around two main sections: Kaleido is an immersive multimedia environment, featuring maxi-screens for audiovisual projection and hypertexts distributed on kiosks. Different exhibitions are mounted and held during the year, providing an overview of different themes in science and technology.

The second section, Phenomena, is devoted to “hands-on” exhibits that provide an opportunity to test and improve one’s own understanding of science. Guided tours in the planetarium, workshops, and laboratories for School children complete the range of experiences available during a visit.

The Science Centre also offers didactic programmes for children (aged from 3 to 18). The general aim of these informal activities is to demonstrate, through simple and fun experiments, everyday's life science phenomena.

From the very beginning Immaginario Scientifico has worked in a strict collaboration with scientific institutions based in Trieste, such as SISSA, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP-Unesco) and the International Centre for Genetic Engeneering Biotechnology (ICGEB). Conferences, festivals, temporary exhibitions on scientific topical subjects conceived with the participation of scientific research institutions are organized in a regular basis in order to keep the public updated and involved.