San Diego—The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center is set to open four new exhibitions in January 2016. Each exhibition is fun, engaging and informative, and each showcases science that San Diego's innovators are using to create a better future.

The first exhibition is Super Cells: The Power of Stem Cells, opening on January 23 in the Fleet Main Gallery. The exhibition immerses us in the world of stem cells through four high-tech, interactive zones. Stem cells are important because each of us is the result of only a handful of tiny stem cells that multiply to produce the 200 different types of specialized cells that exist in our body. Our stem cells continue to be active our whole lives to keep us healthy. Without them we couldn't survive more than three hours!

Super Cells focuses on an area of life science research that is happening right here in San Diego. Many local biotech and life science intuitions have been involved in the research featured in the exhibition, including the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, UC San Diego, the Scripps Research Institute and the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. Super Cells comes to the Fleet through a partnership with the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The exhibition is open in the Fleet Main Gallery from January 23 to May 1, 2016.

Also opening on January 23 is the Art of Science Learning. The Art of Science Learning exhibition invites visitors to experience how art and science can help us learn and address challenges in the world today. The exhibition showcases the work of more than 100 scientists, artists, educators and citizens drawn from all over the San Diego region to address the challenge of water. Art of Science Learning Fellows, as they came to be known, spent an entire year using the arts to learn the innovation process and collaborating with local artists, scientists and educators to explore the water challenge and develop new solutions. The exhibition is culmination of their work and also features the discoveries of the Art of Science Learning Incubators in Chicago and Worchester, MA, and their respective community challenges of food and transportation. The exhibition will be open in the Fleet theater lobby from January 23 to May 1, 2016.

Two more exhibitions open on Saturday, January 30, 2016.

Taping Shape invites visitors to enter and explore another world. This indoor landscape will be made of hundreds of rolls of packing tape, bound together to create a translucent maze of rooms and tunnels. Visitors of all ages can climb, slide, learn, explore and delight in Taping Shape. The exhibition explores STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) concepts of tensile strength, materials science, geometry, spatial relations, architecture, engineering, sound and more. The exhibition was developed in-house at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in partnership with local artist and engineer David Ghilarducci. It will also feature accompanying hands-on exhibits and interactives for further discovery. Taping Shape will spark wonder and excitement surrounding the unusual and unexpected use of packing tape to create another world. The exhibition is open in the upstairs Rotunda and Discovery galleries January 30 to June 12, 2016.

The final exhibition opening in January is Zoo in You: The Human Microbiome. In this exhibition, visitors can explore the fascinating and complex world that is our microbiome-a dynamic, adaptable and delicately balanced ecosystem like any other found in nature. At any given time, trillions of microbes make their homes inside our bodies. In fact, these microorganisms outnumber our human cells 10 to 1, "colonize" us right from birth and are so interwoven into our existence that without each other, none of us would survive! Thanks to new sophisticated technology and the cutting-edge research of the Human Microbiome Project, we are just starting to discover what these microbes are up to and how they affect us. Zoo in You was created in partnership by the J. Craig Venter Institute, a local biotech research company, and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). Like Super Cells, Zoo in You features many scientific practices and discoveries that happened right here in San Diego. The exhibition is open January 30 to May 8, 2016, in the Fleet Main Gallery.

"We want to connect San Diegans with science that is happening right here in our region," said Steve Snyder, CEO of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. "With four new exhibitions coming to our galleries this month, all of which tie to science in San Diego, it will give our visitors an awesome look into what is possible in the world of science."

For more information on Super Cells see: http://www.rhfleet.org/exhibitions/super-cells

For more information on The Art of Science Learning see: http://www.rhfleet.org/exhibitions/art-science-learning

For more information on Taping Shape see: http://www.rhfleet.org/exhibitions/taping-shape

For more information on Zoo in You see: http://www.rhfleet.org/exhibitions/zoo-you

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To schedule a media preview of any of our upcoming exhibitions, please contact Reuben H. Fleet Science Center Public Relations Manager Nathan Young at 619-685-5743 or nyoung@rhfleet.org.

Interviews can be scheduled with the Fleet's CEO, Dr. Steve Snyder, as well as local science representatives and spokespeople as they pertain to each exhibition.

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