Smithsonian Affiliate Calendar

Atoms to Cosmos: The Story of Brookhaven National Laboratory exhibition

This ambitious exhibition organized in partnership with Brookhaven National Laboratory, will invite the Long Island community to explore the social, scientific and technological history of one of Long Island’s most important and internationally-influential modern institutions since 1947.  From its 5,300-acre site in the Long Island Pine Barrens in Upton (just 18 miles away from this museum), Brookhaven National Laboratory has operated as a United States Department of Energy national laboratory at the forefront of crucial scientific research and development.

A total of seven Nobel prizes have been awarded for work conducted at BNL. As one of Suffolk County’s leading employers and a vital economic and cultural center with a long, complex, often misunderstood, and sometimes controversial past, BNL’s story will have enormous audience appeal.  A closing substantial section/chapter of the exhibition will explore how science currently being explored at BNL will have significant implications for the world in the future. In partnership with the lab, LIM will tell the important BNL story to our museum visitors through a combination of artifacts, historic photographs, film, and interactive components.

The exhibition includes four artifacts on loan from the National Museum of American History.