9320248 Lewenstein In order for citizens in a democracy to make informed decisions about science and technology policy, they must have a certain basic understanding of how science and technology work. Providing such an understanding is one of the tasks given to the National Science Foundation. This dissertation aims to study one way that scientists attempt to communicate to the general public the results of their research: i.e. exhibits in science and natural history museums. Steven Allison, under the direction of Dr. Lewenstein, is exploring the relationships between scientific research and the public representation of natural knowledge. He is investigating how scientists in four different museums have attempted to communicate to the public their understanding of the ecology of tropical rain forests. The major case for Mr. Allison's study is at the Smithsonian. He is following how a tropical rain forest exhibit which began in 1960 with plans for a Hall of Botany was transformed in the late 1960's into an exhibit hall on ecosystems and was finally built in 1974 as a temporary exhibit motivated by the environmental movement. His preliminary research has shown that changes in the definition of "ecology," professionalization of the exhibit development process, and the rise of the environmentalist movement all shaped the changing form and content of the exhibit. Two exhibitions at the British Museum (Natural History) offer the opportunity for comparison to the Smithsonian case. The 1961 botany hall provides an example of more didactic exhibits than the Smithsonian botanists planned for their hall, while the 1989 exhibition "Ecology" deploys visual and verbal presentations that are very similar to the final Smithsonian exhibit in the 1970's. He is also making less detailed comparisons of exhibition practice at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Denver Museum of Natural History, and the 1992 "Amazonia" exhibit at the National Zoologica l Park. These individual cases promise to make significant contributions not only to the history of natural history research but to broader issues of concern for public understanding of science. Parallels between the historical and contemporary exhibitions raise questions about the role of museums in the public communication of science, especially environmental issues. ***
